The impact of changes in student aid policies on the way students and their families pay for college is examined. A major focus is how student loans fit into the overall framework of student finance. Information is presented on the National Direct Student Loan program and Guaranteed Student Loan program. Both programs provide the opportunity to borrow at a below-market interest rate and have interest-free in-school and grade periods. Two major databases on student finance are considered for their utility in indicating how much nonreturnable loan aid the government dispenses and who receives it. The first source, the annual freshman survey of the Cooperative Institutional Research Program (CIRP) is found to be lacking because it covers only freshmen and because its data on family income and student aid awards are collected in a manner that makes them difficult to use. The Department of Education's surveys conducted as part of the Study of the Impact of Student Financial Aid Programs (SISFAP) avoid many of the drawbacks of the CIRP, but they do not provide a complete picture of how students pay for college. The data are used to estimate the average net student burden (the amount that a student must contribute from work and loans, minus the nonreturnable portion of loans) faced by students at public two-year colleges, public four-year colleges, and private four-year colleges in 1978-79 and 1979-80. It is found that the burden is generally fairly low: no more than 25 to 30 percent of the student's cost of education. The burden appears to be roughly equal across all income levels: there is little evidence of a middle-income squeeze. Implications of these findings for future data collection for federal student aid policies are considered. (Author/SW)