Americans believe in the value of a college education, but worry about its price. Recent surveys show large majorities affirming the importance of postsecondary education, but characterizing it as too expensive and sometimes financially out of reach. This Statistics in Brief describes three measures of the price of undergraduate education in the…

This Statistics in Brief focuses on students who do not complete a postsecondary credential and the substantial federal education debt they accrue. Specifically, the analysis compares the cumulative debt from Stafford and Perkins loan programs of students who did not complete a degree within 6 years of first enrolling ("noncompleters")…

Using data from the 2007-08 National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS:08), this Statistics in Brief examines the extent to which undergraduate students borrow the maximum possible within the limits of the Stafford loan program (the program maximum) and their own financial need and student budgets (the individual maximum). Students who…

From 1995-96 to 2007-08, the number of undergraduates in the United States grew from about 16.7 million to 21 million (Horn and Berktold 1998; Wei et al. 2009). In 2007-08, two-thirds of all undergraduates received some type of financial aid, including grants, loans, work-study, or some combination of these types of aid. These Web Tables provide…

These tables show undergraduate Stafford loan borrowing rates and average Stafford loan amounts from 1989-90 to 2007-08, using data from six separate administrations of the National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS): NPSAS:90, NPSAS:93, NPSAS:96, NPSAS:2000, NPSAS:04, and NPSAS:08. The estimates that appear in these tables reflect the newly…

In 2007-08, approximately 21 million students were enrolled in undergraduate postsecondary education in the United States. These Web Tables provide a comprehensive source of information on financial aid that was awarded to undergraduate students during the 2007-08 academic year. Included are estimates of tuition, price of attendance, and financial…

This Postsecondary Education Descriptive Analysis Report uses data from the National Postsecondary Student Aid Studies (NPSAS:96, NPSAS:2000 and NPSAS:04) to examine trends in Stafford loan borrowing among undergraduates. NPSAS consists of nationally representative survey data that focus on student financial aid and the enrollment and background…

Using data from the 1993-1993 and 1999-2000 National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS:93 and NPSAS:2000), this study examined the most recent trends in net price of college. Changes in net price were analyzed for higher education as a whole and within each type of institution for students with various levels of income and financial need.…

This E.D. TAB is the second publication based on the 2003-04 National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS:04) conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) within the U.S. Department of Education. NPSAS is a comprehensive survey that examines how students and their families pay for postsecondary education. The first E.D. TAB…

The major driving forces of change in undergraduate student financing during the 1990s were tuition increases and the broader availability of federal student loans. This report uses data from four National Postsecondary Student Aid Studies (NPSAS) to look at changes in financial aid to students in four types of institutions: public 2-year; public…