This paper provides an overview of graduate education financial aid statistics and the results of a study designed to compare minority and white graduate students' chances of receiving various forms of financial aid by virtue of a range of background characteristics. The study, which sought to replicate earlier research by Malaney (1987), is based on a subset of data from the 1989-90 National Postsecondary Student Aid Survey, namely 7,318 masters and doctoral students. It sought to test the hypothesis that on the basis of citizenship, degree level, sex, ethnicity, age, cumulative grade point average, and area of study (pure, applied, hard, soft, life, or nonlife), minorities involved in doctoral study would have an equal probability with nonminorities in receiving fellowships, grants, assistantships, or taking out loans. The study found that while minorities were more likely to receive fellowships than nonminorities, minorities were less likely than nonminorities to receive administrative assistantships. Students in pure fields were found to be more likely to receive financial aid than students in applied fields. An appendix contains the classification scheme for pure, applied, hard, soft, life, and nonlife fields. (Contains 18 references.) (MDM)