The National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators' (NASFAA) National Student Aid Profile is an annual publication designed to give a high-level overview of the federal student financial aid programs that provide funding to millions of students each year. This report presents an overview of: (1) The Federal Pell Grant Program; (2)…

America's labor market presents a paradox. Although the unemployment rate is just 3.9%, there are more jobs open than people who can fill them. Nationwide, there are roughly 68 workers for every 100 open jobs. Many factors contribute to this workforce shortage, but one of the most significant is a growing skills gap -- millions of workers across…

Many college students struggle to make ends meet while enrolled and sometimes must turn to a wide variety of safety net resources, including official government programs, borrowing from family, and selling belongings. This brief examines data from 63,751 undergraduate students who responded to Trellis' Fall 2021 Student Financial Wellness Survey…

The pandemic created daunting challenges for higher education. The federal government provided California Community Colleges billions of dollars in aid for students and institutions. How did they use these funds? How well did their pandemic recovery activities and investments help reengage students? What will institutions do when the money runs…

This Data Point uses data from the 2016/17 Baccalaureate and Beyond Longitudinal Study (B&B:16/17). The study is a national survey of students who earned a bachelor's degree during the 2015-16 academic year. Students are surveyed at different time points to study change. The second collection was done in 2017, about 1 year after respondents…

The state of Michigan has set a goal to increase the percentage of residents with a postsecondary degree or credential to 60 percent by 2030. Achieving that goal will require a concerted, strategic, and multipronged effort. Today, less than 50 percent of residents have attained a postsecondary degree or credential. While making college more…

The reconciliation bill House Republicans passed outlines several proposed changes to higher education financing, including a new risk-sharing formula that would have colleges pay back a portion of their students' unpaid student loan bills. The amount colleges must pay is based on borrowers' unpaid loan payments each year (missed payments or…

This paper examines the U.S. social insurance system, which we define broadly to include both programs supported by dedicated taxes and other federal programs that provide income support, assistance in meeting basic needs, or services to improve economic opportunity. The paper considers the social insurance system as a whole as well as its…

In August, the Biden administration announced a plan to forgive up to $10,000 in federal student loans for almost all borrowers, with up to an extra $10,000 for borrowers who had received Pell grants. The additional forgiveness for Pell borrowers intends to address the racial wealth gap, as Black and Hispanic students are more likely to receive…

Current formulas for awarding federal student financial aid are based primarily on income and don't fully account for wealth inequality, especially by race. Students from low-income and low-wealth families--who are disproportionately Black and Latine--often have to take out more student loans to attend college. Inevitably, without family wealth to…

Online education has grown rapidly over the past decade. By 2020, one in four undergraduates were enrolled in exclusively online programs, double the number enrolled in 2012. The policy landscape concerning online education changed markedly with the establishment of the State Authorization Reciprocity Agreement (SARA) in 2014. This regulatory…

College affordability is a significant factor in student access, retention, and completion. Tuition and fee rates are a component of affordability, as is the availability of financial aid programs from federal, state, institutional and private sources, among other factors. Strategically designed approaches to college affordability can better…

A collaboration between The Institute for College Access & Success (TICAS) and the Student Senate for California Community Colleges (SSCCC), this policy brief examines the costs of attending California Community Colleges (CCCs) for low-income students and the roles that financial aid resources, work hours, and student loan borrowing currently…

In 2016, the federal government provided students pursuing higher education with about $91 billion in direct financial support through a wide variety of spending programs and income and payroll tax preferences, the Congressional Budget Office estimates. The largest programs and preferences give financial assistance to students to offset the cost…

This article takes up the central question of how college-level prison education programs should be justified and defended. Author Patrick Filipe Conway argues that the focus on recidivism rates as justification for major initiatives like the Second Chance Pell Program and New York governor Andrew Cuomo's Right Priorities initiative is misguided…