In the context of the privatization of higher education, this study examines the possible role of state finances in promoting equal educational opportunities. Through the combined use of a national representative database and a state finance database and the application of hierarchical generalized linear modeling methods, this study found that…

Colleges can and should do much to improve the management of financial aid offices in a time of reduced funds. Exemplary programs provide a framework for improvement, consisting of two key elements: assessment of office management needs based on the overall campus structural development and good basic management procedures. (Author/MSE)

To utilize automated technology for student aid processing, it is necessary to work with multi-institutional offices (student aid, admissions, registration, and business) and to develop automated interfaces with external processing systems at state and federal agencies and perhaps at need-analysis organizations and lenders. (MLW)

It will be easier for financial aid offices to have automated interfaces with federal systems than to maintain manual, paper-based exchanges. Guidance on how to structure a planning process that will take advantage of this new environment are provided. Institutional decisions will depend on past and current practice. (MLW)

This study used the "workable persistence model" to assess the effects of financial aid on persistence of full-time resident undergraduates within the Indiana State postsecondary system. The analysis provides support for state-provided, need-based financial aid programs, and finds that student financial aid is adequate to equalize…

It is suggested that well-designed and executed institutional research on the effects of student financial aid can help resolve ambiguities about policy and provide useful information for institutional financial planning. Models and methodologies for conducting such research using existing data sources are outlined. (Author/MSE)

The evolving influence of student financial aid on year-to-year persistence for three student cohorts, the high school classes of 1972, 1980, and 1982 are examined. A comparative analysis of the National Longitudinal Study and High School and Beyond Survey is presented. (Author/MLW)

The US Department of Education's plan to redesign the systems used to deliver student financial aid--the Integrated Student Aid Delivery System (ISADS) Project--is discussed. Background on the origins of the ISADS project is provided and its broad implications for postsecondary institutions are considered. (MLW)

This study assesses the impact of Indiana's Twenty-first Century Scholars Program, a supplemental grant program that provides aid to low-income students who kept an eighth grade "promise" to prepare for college and to remain drug free. Analyses reveal that the grants helped equalize opportunity to persist in Indiana's public colleges.…

The Department of Education has begun a project to redesign the information systems used to deliver student financial aid funds to students, postsecondary institutions, lenders, and state guarantee agencies. The implications of this strategy are considered. (MLW)

A study found (1) all forms of financial aid promoted enrollment; (2) $100 of any aid influenced enrollment more than similar tuition reduction; (3) low-income students were more responsive to grant than loan or work-study increases; and (4) high-income students were not responsive to aid changes. (Author/MSE)

Analysis of data from the 1987 National Postsecondary Student Aid Study indicated: (1) within-year student persistence was influenced by tuition amount; (2) tuition charges were negatively associated with within-year persistence in both public and private colleges; and (3) grant aid was positively associated with persistence in private colleges…

Using data from the National Postsecondary Student Aid Study, this study examined the influence of finance-related reasons for college choice on persistence decisions. Finance-related choices were found to have direct and indirect influences on college persistence, and market-based, monetary measures of financial aid, tuition, housing costs, and…

Data from the 1987 National Postsecondary Student Aid Study were used to assess the influence of prices and price subsidies on within-year persistence by proprietary school students. African Americans, Hispanics, and students without high school degrees were more likely to persist although tuition charges had a substantial negative influence. (SLD)

An action-inquiry strategy that colleges, universities, and state agencies can use to design and test new approaches to tuition and student aid is proposed. Several institutional aid policy case studies are examined from two perspectives: as a process of rethinking the theories underlying current policy, and from the viewpoint of communication…