Financial Aid Awards for first-time college students include a variety of offerings, including scholarships, grants, and loans. One award of financial assistance, Federal Work-study, is different from other types of financial aid awarded in that students must work to earn the funds. Yet, it is included as estimated financial assistance (EFA) and…

This dissertation investigates several topics in state merit-based financial aid research. The main research content includes three separate studies, primarily using the administrative datasets from the Missouri Department of Higher Education. The first study is an empirical paper that examines the effects of the Missouri Bright Flight Scholarship…

In 2008, state legislatures provided $6 billion in financial aid to 2 million low-income young adults. When low-income young adults receive state financial aid and do not complete college, states lose their investment because fewer people with degrees will contribute to the state's economy. Declining states' budgets have led to (a) the rising cost…

The purpose of this study was to examine the experiences of mainland college students, graduates of a unique Hawai'i high school, to identify factors that influenced higher education persistence. Students not persisting at college, a problem for students and higher education institutions is defined for this study as a student that did not return…

Graduation rates in bachelor's degrees in the United States continue to be lower than stakeholders expect, despite the many advantages of college completion. This phenomenological study investigated the interplay between resilience, coping strategies, and college completion for undergraduate art and design students in an effort to improve…

The qualitative research study explored the organizational characteristics necessary in addressing the low concentration of African American technical consultants employed in the information technology industry. Using research participants' professional experience, participants responded to a developed questionnaire. African American technical…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the psychosocial factors that affect the persistence of the 2002 cohort of first-generation college students at a Historically Black University. Specifically, this investigation was concerned with the relationship between persistence and selected demographic, academic, financial aid, and family…

This qualitative study shares the complex stories of two low-income business students who attend a flagship, public university as out-of-state students with the purpose of understanding, describing, giving voice to, and discovering insight from their experiences. Throughout U.S. Higher Education history, there is a pattern of limited participation…