To manage their loans effectively, U.S. postsecondary student loan borrowers must make a variety of important decisions that require significant knowledge and financial skills and entail considerable risk. Federal law requires colleges to provide student loan counseling to their federal student loan borrowers, but there is significant room for…

As college costs continue to rise, student loan default and repayment are issues of increasing concern to students and families, colleges and universities, and state and federal governments. Helping students borrow responsibly and manage their debt are vitally important to maintaining college access and affordability and increasing the education…

Growing concern over the complexity of the federal financial aid system and a push toward simplification has led to increased attention toward streamlining the federal student aid programs. Specifically, several proposals and policy papers have recommended consolidating the federal aid programs into one grant program and one loan program, commonly…

College opportunity is key to ensuring that California can meet its economic goals, maintain its global standing, and keep up with technological advances. As California's economy becomes increasingly reliant on a better-educated workforce and further connected to a global marketplace for its services and products, immigrant students are poised to…

In 2017, the U.S. Department of Education released groundbreaking data showing that half of Black or African American borrowers who first entered college in the 2003-04 academic year defaulted on their student loans within 12 years. New federal data released this fall show that these numbers have not improved: Black or African American borrowers…

This "National Profile" serves as a helpful resource document on the basics of the federal student financial aid programs that provide funding to millions of students each year. This information is more important than ever, as data from the U.S. Department of Education (ED) show that the number of students applying for federal financial…

This report analyzes new data on student debt and repayment, released by the U.S. Department of Education in October 2017. Previously available data have been limited to borrowers only, follow students for a relatively short period (3-5 years) after entering repayment, and had only limited information on student characteristics and experiences.…

More community college students are taking out loans than ever before and their median debt levels are increasing. This trend is disconcerting because community college borrowers are overrepresented among loan defaulters and those who dropout without having earned a degree. While not without criticism, a growing number of community colleges are…

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…

Next fall, students at Purdue University may have a new way to pay their tuition: income share agreements (ISAs). ISAs are an alternative form of higher education financing in which students pledge a fixed percentage of future earnings in exchange for money to pay for college. ISAs present a new challenge to the nation's colleges and universities,…

U.S. citizens or permanent residents, enrolled at least half time in a qualified program at a participating school, not in default on a prior federal student loan, and not previously convicted of a drug offense while receiving federal financial aid are eligible to apply for a student loan. This chart summarizes the interest rates, loan limits, and…

Information from the BC Diploma, Associate Degree, and Certificate Student Outcomes (DACSO) Survey can be used to look at the impact of increasing post-secondary education costs on student borrowing and the use of other funding sources. For many years, the DACSO Survey has been asking former students about how they paid for their studies: what…

The purpose for this research is to investigate the spending patterns of undergraduate and graduate students in a Tennessee, four-year, public institution. The cost of attending a college or university is often cited as the source for student loan debt spiraling out of control. Not to marginalize the impact that increasing tuition, fees, and books…

Working for pay is the reality for many undergraduate students. Higher rates and intensity of employment among students from underserved backgrounds and those attending under-resourced institutions suggest employment during college reinforces inequity in higher education opportunity and outcomes. Compared with higher-income students, students from…

While there are many educational and experiential benefits to attending professional higher arts education programs, students who incur excessive student loan debt during their studies may experience unanticipated or poor professional outcomes either over the course of their artistic careers, shortly after the expiration of a loan grace period, or…