Over 95 percent of the jobs created since 2010 have gone to college-educated workers, and by 2020, 65 percent of all jobs will require education beyond high school. For youth experiencing homelessness, post-secondary education is critical for improving life outcomes, including reducing the risk of continued homelessness as adults. Yet without…

We examine the likely implications of switching from a prior year (PY) financial aid system, the current practice in which students file the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) using income data from the previous tax year, to prior-prior year (PPY), in which data from two years before enrollment is used. While PPY allows students to…

The 2015 Federal Student Aid Supplement (FSA Supplement), directed by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) at the U.S. Department of Education (ED), is a collection of federal student loan data intended to augment the 1996/01 Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study (BPS:96/01) and the 2004/09 Beginning Postsecondary…

The District of Columbia (DC) Opportunity Scholarship Program (OSP) is the only federally funded program that provides vouchers to low-income families to send their children to private schools. Congress created the OSP in 2004 and reauthorized it in 2011 under the Scholarships for Opportunity and Results (SOAR) Act. As part of the 2011 SOAR Act,…

Students who do not file the free application for federal student aid (FAFSA), or who file after the priority application deadline, are at risk of not receiving grant aid that could help them persist and graduate from college. This study used data from the beginning postsecondary student study (BPS:04/06) to examine FAFSA filing behavior (i.e.…

College students who are parents or caregivers of dependent children make up more than one in five U.S. undergraduates. Colleges need basic information about the experiences and outcomes of the student parents they serve, since these students face distinct challenges, including high rates of economic insecurity and significant time and caregiving…

Even though rural students make up a fifth of the population of all American students, they do not attend college in numbers equivalent to urban and suburban students. The rural student faces influences related to college choice that differ from those of suburban and urban students. These influences, which could be considered problems or barriers,…

This chapter argues that, despite intentions, the way federal financial aid policy is constructed and currently administered can have negative consequences for poor community college students.

This hearing represents the eighth in the series of Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions' hearings preparing to reauthorize the Higher Education Act. The primary focus of this hearing is strengthening Federal loan programs to ensure they are working well for students and families. Statements from the following committee members are…

This monograph explores how homelessness intersects most social issues that marginalize individuals and negatively influence postsecondary completion, including poverty, foster care, and LGBTQ+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans*, queer/questioning, and others) discrimination. As becomes evident, students experiencing homelessness should be considered…

Many high school students are eligible for college but they do not go, or they attend a less demanding postsecondary institution. Their problems are twofold--either (1) they lack the counseling and support structures necessary to apply to college, or (2) they lack the counseling and support structures that enable them to apply to the kind of…

Research has shown that community college and other low income students have the most need regarding the financial aid process. Community college students are less likely to complete the free application for federal student aid (FAFSA) than students at public and private four-year and for-profit institutions. Surveys have shown that the complexity…

While considerable effort has been invested to increase FAFSA completion among high school seniors, there has been much less investment to ensure that college freshmen re-apply for financial aid. Text messaging is a promising approach to inform students of important stages in the financial aid re-application process and to connect them to…

Many studies conducted on the Higher Education Students Loans Board (HESLB) have mostly concentrated on its success, sustainability and effectiveness on loans issuance and repayment. None had focused on its performance towards human capital investment. This study sought to explain and analyze HESLB's performance in human capital investment, which…

The "2018-19 Counselors and Mentors Handbook on Federal Student Aid" provides useful information to help high school counselors, TRIO and Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP) staff, and other mentors advise students about financial aid for postsecondary education. This book focuses on the federal…