Latinos are one of the fastest growing racial/ethnic groups in postsecondary education. This factsheet provides a summary of how Latinos pay for college to better inform financial aid policy to ensure Latino college access, retention, and success. This summary includes Latino students' participation in federal student aid overall, Pell Grants,…

To provide greater understanding, Trellis Research recently conducted a mixed-methods, outcomes-based study of parent PLUS borrowers in Texas. The study, "PLUS Borrowing in Texas: Repayment Expectations, Experience, and Hindsight by Minority-Serving Institution Status," provides a rare look into the repayment behavior of Parent PLUS…

The Federal Pell Grant program, authorized by Title IV-A-1 of the Higher Education Act of 1965, (HEA; P.L. 89-329), as amended, is the single largest source of federal grant aid supporting undergraduate students. The program provided approximately $29 billion in aid to approximately 7.2 million undergraduate students in FY2017. Pell Grants are…

Low-cost private schools (LCPS) are widespread in Kenya, particularly in urban areas. This study examines the reasons that parents send children to fee-charging schools in a context of free public primary education. Drawing on parent survey and interview data, as well as interviews with national policy makers, we found that parents who chose LCPS…

Within California, there is widespread understanding and consensus that college affordability is a challenge that needs to be addressed. Along with this consensus on the nature and implications of California's college affordability problems, there is also emerging agreement about how to tackle it. While this convergence can form the backbone of a…

Introduced in 2009, "How America Saves for College" is Sallie Mae's national study conducted by Ipsos that surveys American parents with children under the age of 18 about how they are preparing financially for college. The 2018 study is the seventh in the series. This primary research captures data on parents' saving-for-college…

The state of Kansas created the Child Support Savings Initiative (CSSI) in 2013 to help parents who owe child support pay off debt that is owed to the state while also saving for their children's future higher education. The program aims to encourage parents to make qualifying deposits into tax-advantaged college savings plans--529…

Using 1972-2000 data from the Consumer Expenditure Survey (CES), a nationally representative survey of spending conducted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, this paper investigates changes in the income-based gap in monetary investments in children under the age of six, when most children typically have entered school in the United States. The…

Since 2008, Sallie Mae has surveyed American families with an undergraduate student about their attitudes toward college and how they paid for it. This report is an adjunct to Sallie Mae's "How America Pays for College" study. It explores how families of undergraduates perceive the value of a higher education, the factors that influence…

Relying on interviews with 62 college seniors, this study explores students' experiences with uncertainty and responsibility as they approach graduation. Notable differences between first-generation and continuing-generation students emerged in relation to: (a) how seniors experienced responsibility and commitment as they approached graduation,…

A common misperception suggests that a high-achieving student can easily complete a degree with very limited debt, and that students with high levels of debt are thus underachievers. This assumption is supported by memories of previous decades when it was realistically possible for most students to work their way through college. This view,…

In examining national data on Federal Pell Grant eligibility in the National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS), we were puzzled to discover that many students who appear to have eligible Expected Family Contributions (EFCs) do not receive the award. We use institutional data from a large public university to understand and enumerate changes…

Every society invests enormous resources to ensure that children grow up with the skills, knowledge, and values that will enable them to be successful. Yet cultures vary in their beliefs about what effective parenting and teaching require. Nurturing children involves a collaboration among parents, teachers, and students and reflects cultural…

Since the end of apartheid, South Africa has embarked on extensive reforms aimed at promoting social cohesion, including progressive educational finance policy (e.g., the no-fee school policy) intended to redress historical inequalities. Because improving equality in and through education is vital to social cohesion, this case study examines…

Grant aid reduces the financial burden of human capital investment in postsecondary education. Theory suggests grant aid should substitute for other financial resources such as borrowing and labor market participation. Although studies have individually examined the impact of grant aid on hours of paid work and on borrowing for education, students…