The Chinese government's stated objective of student financial aid (SFA) policy is to help students from low-income families to access higher levels of education. This article first explores the possible associations between the distribution of SFA and students' various demographic and academic backgrounds. Then it presents the findings regarding students' experiences of the current SFA policy, according to the questionnaire data. Based on these findings, a path analysis is used to construct a quantitative model to explain what factors shape the distribution of SFA. This model to some extent, if not fully, explains the patterns of SFA distribution evident from the data; it also provides important implications for further investigation.