With tuition increasing at a faster rate than inflation, many college students depend on grants to access education. The largest of these, the federally funded Pell Grant, subsidizes over 30 billion a year worth of tuition for eligible students (Cardona, 2023) yet no longer meets its goal of covering 75% percent of tuition costs. While the…

The first goal of this study was to better understand the differences between rural and urban students' selection of academic program upon entering a public university in Pennsylvania. The second goal of this study was to better understand if particular academic programs impacted rural to urban migrations after graduating from the university. The…

The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to describe reasons Federal Pell Grant-eligible community college students in California do not complete the financial aid process after submitting the FAFSA and the resources they need to complete the process. The conceptual framework of this study was Perna's (2006) multi-layered student…

Although education abroad in the US offers participants demonstrable benefits, direct and opportunity costs are cited as primary barriers to broader participation. Yet the degree to which low-income status deters studying abroad and whether additional need-based aid beyond Pell Grants encourages participation remain uncertain. Moreover, not all…

Black, First-Generation, and Pell Grant recipient college students have faced tremendous obstacles and overcame substantial hurdles as a worldwide health pandemic, the novel coronavirus or COVID-19, disproportionately harmed the students, their family members, and communities. With over 1,000,000 deaths in the United States at the time of…

"January Undergraduate Move Ahead Program" (JUMP) uses winter break as an opportunity to prepare small groups of scholarship students with high financial need for the second semester of their first-year biology curriculum and a career in life science. A winter intersession program has challenges, but more importantly, benefits that…

This article synthesizes literatures relating to the fields of andragogy and prison education. It is a key moment to reflect on teaching practices inside carceral settings. As Pell Grant availability for incarcerated students is set to expand dramatically, many college and university faculty are soon likely to be entering prisons as instructors…

The purpose of this survey design research study was to understand student perceptions of online interactions with instructors in online courses in the spring, 2020 and determine if any differences exist in perceptions presented when taking into account Pell-eligibility. This study took place at a medium-sized community college within the North…

Some assert that first-year college programs can foster increased engagement among college students and lead to successful outcomes, but there is a lack of in-depth analysis of students' perceptions of their experiences in such programs. This qualitative study explores a small sample of young, Pell Grant-eligible Latino male students' perceptions…

Objective: The purpose of this research is twofold: first, to investigate financially eligible Pell Grant community college students' perceptions of barriers and enablers to student success, and second, to critique the financial aid satisfactory academic progress (SAP) criteria through a cross-case comparison of students who are meeting and are…

The collateral consequences of a criminal conviction have long-lasting and devastating effects on people involved in the criminal justice system. From losing the ability to find employment, to being banned from public housing, to losing access to most federal benefits, "justice-involved" people face a life of punishment, even after their…

The landscape of higher education in prison programming is in the midst of a sea change. After eight years of the Second Chance Pell experiment, federal Pell grant funding for students who are incarcerated was fully reinstated on July 1, 2023. While Pell reinstatement will likely increase educational access for students who are incarcerated, it…

In Fall of 2022, Ithaka S+R launched a first-of-its-kind national survey on technology access in higher education in prison programs. The survey asked respondents about student access to technology in their Higher Education in Prison (HEP) program, focusing on four thematic areas: technological devices, learning management systems and software,…

As conservatives consider ways to crash through the growing choke hold that college degrees have held in employers' hiring processes, one idea that has gained currency is allowing federal student aid to follow students to unaccredited providers of education. Conservatives have also shown interest in funding competency-based programs--in which…

The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to explore how first-generation Latino and African American Pell grant recipients, who attended a large urban community college located in New York City, described their understanding of and experiences with satisfactory academic progress (SAP) policy and its influence on academic persistence…