Since 2008, Sallie Mae has surveyed American families with an undergraduate student about their attitudes toward college and how they paid for it. For the past ten years, the "How America Pays for College" research has provided insight regarding families' belief in the value of a college education, how they are making college more…

This publication is intended for college financial aid administrators and counselors who help students begin the aid process--filing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA®), verifying information, and making corrections and other changes to the information reported on the FAFSA. In addition to the active index, the following topics…

This publication is intended for financial aid administrators and counselors who help students begin the aid process--filing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA®), verifying information, and making corrections and other changes to the information reported on the FAFSA. The Federal Student Aid Handbook consists of the Application…

From 2000-2001 to 2010-2011, the total amount of federal financial aid awarded to students under Title IV of the Higher Education Act (HEA) jumped from $64.0 billion to an estimated $169.1 billion, a 10-year increase of 164%. For 2010-2011, the Title IV programs accounted for 72% of the $235 billion in total financial aid received by college…

As college costs have soared and the U.S. economy struggles to move out of the recession, more and more Americans have relied on federal student financial assistance programs to help them meet their postsecondary expenses. Data from the Federal Student Aid (FSA), an office of the U.S. Department of Education (ED), show that the number of students…

Federal Student Aid's core mission is to ensure that all eligible Americans benefit from federal financial assistance--grants, loans and work-study programs--for education beyond high school. The programs administered comprise the nation's largest source of student aid. Every year, the U.S. Department of Education provides more than $83 billion in…

A guide to the family contribution (FC) for federal student financial aid programs is presented. Information is provided on the steps of the U.S. Department of Education's version of the Uniform Methodology (UM), the system most frequently used by need analysis services and financial aid administrators to determine the family's ability to…

Volume II of a study of program management procedures in the campus-based and Basic Educational Opportunity Grant (BEOG) programs examines the overall pattern of program funding levels, the distribution of these funds to students and institutions, as well as variations in student participation in postsecondary education and loan-work burdens in…

The National Longitudinal Study (NLS) of the High School Class of 1972 collected data on the attributes of students attending postsecondary institutions. The NLS also collected the names of any postsecondary institutions this cohort of students attended and/or applied to during the first two years after high school. In order to provide a link…