Colleges, universities, and the communities they serve have always been concerned about students' abilities to pay and the systems of aid to support students' learning. This article reviews the history of aiding student in higher education. Early student- and institutionally-led programs are discussed along with initial philanthropic and…

The question of how the government can best support access to postsecondary education has become a critical issue for education policymakers around the globe, as the practice of cost sharing for funding postsecondary education has been more widely adopted. In this context, this study explores the approaches to implementing current need-based…

Using the 2007-2008 National Postsecondary Student Aid Study, this study tested positively the hypothesis that college students are either likely to acquire debt above the national median or work more than 30 hours a week in order to graduate from a four year degree within six years. These results resonate with the theory of academic capitalism,…

This study analyzes the potential of major financial aid initiatives to serve as key elements of an institutional branding strategy. Concepts of branding and marketing serve as guiding frameworks for the analysis and interpretation of the findings. Using a case study approach, data were collected through interviews and document analysis at the…

Every year, millions of students who would have qualified for financial aid do not complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). Discouragingly, many of these students come from lower-income families and would have qualified for Pell Grants that do not have to be repaid. Using data from the Beginning Postsecondary Students…

Evidence of greater economic stratification brings challenges to higher education's enrollment of low-income students. With a growing proportion of potential college students coming from low-income households, increasing their post-secondary participation rate is vital in developing and growing the pool of educated individuals for the labor force…

In the context of a theoretical model of expected profit maximization, this paper shows how historic institutional data can be used to assist enrollment managers in determining the level of financial aid for students with varying demographic and quality characteristics. Optimal tuition pricing in conjunction with empirical estimation of…

The allocation of merit-based financial aid during the college admissions process presents postsecondary institutions with complex and financially expensive decisions. This article describes the application of linear programming as a decision tool in merit based financial aid decisions at a medium size private university. The objective defined for…

This study examines the effectiveness of a scholarship workshop program to better prepare low socio-economic and minority students to compete for collegiate scholarships. The study involves 1,367 high risk 9th to 12th grade students in Texas. Analysis of the pre- and post tests, using a t-test for dependent variables, indicates a statistically…

Recent research on loan effects on student borrowers has focused on pre-college and post college behavior, neglecting the loan effects during the within-college period. This study integrated the student retention models and financial nexus model to investigate the effects of different kinds of financial aid on degree attainment of undergraduates…

This article describes higher education financial assistance tools designed mainly for students of middle- and upper-income families who may not be eligible for financial aid from other sources. It includes the 2007 legislative updates for these tools, all of which have been devised and offered by either state or federal governments. The authors…

Five years have passed since the U.S. Census Bureau published synthetic estimates of work-life earnings by educational attainment. This paper updates those figures with the most recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau's annual Current Population Surveys, and adds net present value analysis of the financial benefit of a college degree to the…

This exploratory study examines the factors that college students perceive are important in helping them make good financial decisions about paying for a college education. The study categorizes and summarizes students' self-reported responses to an open-ended survey question about recommendations for changes in financial aid counseling practices.…

The use of Cohort Default Rate (CDR) as the primary measure of student loan defaults among undergraduates was investigated. The study used data extracted from the National Student Loan Data System (NSLDS), quantitative analysis of Likert-scale survey responses from 153 student financial aid professionals on proposed changes to present metrics and…

As student loan indebtedness has more than doubled in the past decade, it has become important to examine the effects of undergraduate debt on graduate school attendance. The significant increase in student borrowing can be attributed primarily to the passage of the Higher Education Amendments of 1992, which increased federal student loan limits…