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…

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…

This Statistics in Brief illustrates the kinds of questions that national data can answer about the amounts U.S. undergraduates pay annually, on average, for postsecondary education, with and without financial aid. This brief draws upon the National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS), a nationally representative survey of all postsecondary…

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…

This E.D. TAB presents selected findings about the price of attendance and the types and amounts of financial aid received by in-state undergraduates enrolled in public 2-year, public 4-year, and private not-for-profit 4-year institutions during the 2003-04 academic year in 12 selected states. It is based on the undergraduate data in the 2003-04…

In 2006-07, the federal government awarded over $13 billion in Pell Grants to more than 5 million undergraduate students (U.S. Department of Education 2007). The goal of the Pell Grant program is to help students with financial need enroll in and graduate from college by providing them with a basic foundation of financial aid, to which they may…

This report, based on data from the 2003-04 National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NASAS:04), provides detailed information about undergraduate tuition and total price of attendance at various types of institutions, the percentage of students receiving various types of financial aid, and the average amounts that they received. In 2003-04,…

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…