This report documents differences in the earnings and employment patterns of U.S. adults with different levels of education. It also compares health-related behaviors, reliance on public assistance programs, civic participation, and indicators of the well-being of the next generation. Financial benefits are easier to document than nonpecuniary…

Both the published tuition and fee prices of colleges and universities and the net prices students pay after subtracting grant aid and tax credits and deductions continued to rise between 2016-17 and 2017-18, even after adjusting for inflation. Average net prices in 2017-18 remain lower at public two-year and private nonprofit four-year…

Students who attend institutions of higher education obtain a wide range of personal, financial, and other lifelong benefits; likewise, taxpayers and society as a whole derive a multitude of direct and indirect benefits when citizens have access to postsecondary education. Accordingly, uneven rates of participation in higher education across…

"Trends in Student Aid," an annual College Board publication since 1983, is a compendium of detailed, up-to-date information on the funding that is available to help students pay for college. This report sorts aid into grants, loans, tax benefits, and Federal Work-Study assistance. It documents funding from federal and state governments,…

This report explains some of the ways the payoff of postsecondary education can be measured and provides insights into why there is confusion about that payoff, despite strong evidence. Focusing on the variation in outcomes across individuals helps to clarify that the existence of the high average payoff, and the reality of significant benefits…

This report provides a detailed look at the sources and distribution of grants, loans, and other student aid for the most recent academic year and how this funding has changed over time. The federal government provided two-thirds of all student aid in 2016-17, but only one-third of the grant aid. In the context of uncertainty about the timing of…

Trends in Student Aid, an annual College Board publication since 1983, is a compendium of detailed, up-to-date information on the funding that is available to help students pay for college. This report documents grant aid from federal and state governments, colleges and universities, employers, and other private sources, as well as loans, tax…

The published prices on which the analysis in "Trends in College Pricing" is based come from data reported by institutions on the College Board's Annual Survey of Colleges. This survey, which is distributed to nearly 4,000 postsecondary institutions across the country, collects a wealth of data on enrollment, admission, degrees and…

Many college graduates who earn less than their peers are employed in occupations that bring significant benefits to society, as well as high levels of personal satisfaction. It is not easy--nor is there agreement on how--to precisely define the social value of these occupations or to measure the magnitude and distribution of their benefits--but…

The federal government now offers a multitude of complicated income-driven repayment (IDR) plans that are difficult to understand, enroll in, and stay in. Many students who would benefit from IDR do not enroll, and others will have large amounts of debt forgiven despite earning high wages. The current problems with IDR are not an indictment of the…

Much of the current skepticism about the financial payoff of higher education emerges from recent media focus on young college graduates struggling to enter a weak labor market. This brief highlights some of the complexities underlying discussions of the return to the investment in postsecondary education and describes some of the variation in…

Widespread concern about the high and rising price of college makes timely data on tuition increases in historical context particularly important. The increase in average published tuition and fees at public four-year colleges and universities for the 2012-13 academic year is smaller than it has been in recent years--and below the average growth…

This overview of postsecondary education in the United States reviews the dramatic changes over the past fifty years in the students who go to college, the institutions that produce higher education, and the ways it is financed. The article, by Sandy Baum, Charles Kurose, and Michael McPherson, creates the context for the articles that follow on…

The fourth Nellie Mae survey of student loan borrowers in repayment reveals that education debt burdens remain manageable for most borrowers. A clear majority of those in repayment report that the benefits of the educational opportunities made possible through borrowing are well worth any problems associated with paying off the loans. There are,…