The real price of college keeps rising, and it often surprises students and their families.1 People know tuition is expensive. They also usually account for books and supplies, even if they might cost more than expected. Still, they don't always expect or fully understand how the price of housing, food, and transportation factor in. It's not their…

Basic needs insecurity, including insufficient or inadequate food, housing, and other personal necessities, is a common problem on college campuses, especially at community colleges (Baker-Smith et al., 2020; Broton & GoldrickRab, 2018), and an increasing number of higher education institutions are attempting to ameliorate this issue (Broton…

Public universities are intent on increasing degree completion for many reasons. A stronger policy focus on completion and interest in removing students' financial hurdles has led to a rapid proliferation of completion grant programs. This paper reports on a mixed-method implementation study of completion grant programs at seven broad- and…

Given growing awareness of the high prevalence of food insecurity among college students, higher education leaders are implementing various food interventions on their campuses. However, there is little research on the efficacy and impact of these initiatives. Using data from a field randomized control trial, we find that a relatively modest…

Purpose: Public universities are intent on increasing degree completion for many reasons. A stronger policy focus on completion and interest in removing students' financial hurdles has led to a rapid proliferation of completion grant programs. This paper reports on a mixed method implementation study of completion grant programs at seven broad-…

As the coronavirus pandemic ravaged communities, cities, and countries in 2020, colleges and universities faced a unique emergency. Millions of students were struggling to meet their basic needs, and institutional emergency aid funds were rapidly running out. For the first time in history, Congress responded by authorizing billions of dollars in…

We conduct the first long-term experimental evaluation of a need-based financial aid program, the privately funded Wisconsin Scholars Grant. Over multiple cohorts, the program failed to increase degree completion and graduate school enrollment up to 10 years after matriculation. The program did reduce time-to-degree for some students and modestly…

Community colleges have started to support students' basic needs in multiple ways. Campus-based hubs offering services like public benefits access, emergency aid, food pantries and case management have become increasingly popular. However, limited evidence exists on whether connecting with these hubs improves academic success. The Advocacy and…

The rising price of higher education and its implications for equity and accessibility have been extensively documented, but the material conditions of students' lives are often overlooked. Data from more than 30,000 two- and 4-year college students indicate that approximately half are food insecure, and recent estimates suggest that at least 20%…

This study provides one of the first causal estimates of the impact of housing on academic outcomes. While college students are too often dismissed as a privileged and healthy part of the population, researchers increasingly observe housing insecurity among college students. This problem worsened during the pandemic, underscoring the link between…

One way in which financial aid is thought to promote college success is by minimizing the time students spend working. Yet, little research has examined if this intended first-order effect occurs, and results are mixed. We leverage a randomized experiment and find that students from low-income families in Wisconsin offered additional grant aid…

The rising price of a college education often leaves students strapped for cash and without the financial resources necessary to succeed in school and cover their basic needs, such as housing and food. These students are living on the edge, and a financial emergency can derail their dreams of obtaining college degrees. The contemporary financial…

This report is an in-depth case study of the No Excuses Poverty Initiative at Amarillo College (AC), a midsize community college in the Texas Panhandle. Nearly a decade ago, AC's leadership initiated a reflective and intentional series of steps to help alleviate the conditions of poverty affecting their students and promote the chances those…

Postsecondary leaders and policy-makers have turned to performance-based aid programs as one way reduce time to degree completion and improve completion rates among low income students. By tying aid eligibility to minimum academic performance standards in college, it is thought that greater academic commitment can be promoted. Underlying these…

Students and families all over the country are saving, working, taking out loans, and taking steps to make college affordable. Yet they still find themselves facing an unreasonably high price for college, with unexpected, and sometimes untenable, expenses, and fall short of the resources they need to successfully complete degrees. Financial…