Administrative burden, or the frictions individuals experience in accessing public programs, has implications for whether and which eligible individuals receive aid. While prior research documents barriers to accessing federal financial aid, less is known about the extent to which state aid programs impose administrative burden, how administrative…

The Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) is the primary gatekeeper to secure financial aid for college. The federal government instituted two changes to the process in 2017, commonly known as "prior-prior year" FAFSA: (1) an earlier start date that lengthens the filing period and (2) the ability to use completed taxes from…

This study found that the MATC Promise increased college attainment by encouraging Milwaukee high school students to access state and federal aid, and to consider matriculating to their local two-year college. The MATC Promise exemplifies the last-dollar model of college aid. If seniors at Milwaukee area public high schools complete academic…

College affordability continues to be a top concern among prospective students, their families, and policy makers. Prior work has demonstrated that a significant share of prospective students forgo financial aid because they did not complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA); recent federal policy efforts have focused on…

Students who do not file the free application for federal student aid (FAFSA), or who file after the priority application deadline, are at risk of not receiving grant aid that could help them persist and graduate from college. This study used data from the beginning postsecondary student study (BPS:04/06) to examine FAFSA filing behavior (i.e.…

Changes in the distribution of student financial aid have taken place at the state and federal level. In addition, several authors have reported on shifts in the awarding of financial aid to students at the institutional level. The analysis described in this study examines shifts in institutional responsiveness to both student need and student…

This study investigates how the expectations of different types of financial aid affect the student college choice process from application through enrollment. We find that students from different race and income groups respond differentially to aid packages in their application and enrollment decisions depending on their levels of aid…

The extent to which postsecondary access and choice are promoted by the scholarship and grant programs in California, New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania is examined. Findings: these programs induce a substantial number of students from low-income families to attend, are particularly helpful to women, and are responsible for the attendance of…

The relationship of student aid with degree attainment are examined using a sample of aid recipients, nonrecipients who applied for aid but were not eligible, and a representative group of controls selected from the 1970-71 entering freshman class at Washington State University. (Author/MLW)

This empirical study examined postsecondary-student attitudes and preferences regarding five discrete student loan plans and loan plan features. Questions addressed dealth with debt ceilings, loan repayment time span and percentage of annual income, and alteration of repayment plan choices. A random sample of 218 federal aid recipients was used.…