Objective: To examine the components of successful food assistance programs for college students. Participants: Focus groups conducted during the fall 2019 semester included undergraduate students who accessed a food assistance program on campus (n = 26). Key informant interviews were conducted with professionals working with campus-based food…

CalFresh benefits can help college students make ends meet while attending college, but not all eligible students apply. One contributing factor may be that students are not aware they are eligible. Therefore, outreach efforts informing them of their eligibility could help increase take-up rates. To test this, we designed and conducted two…

This article estimates earnings impacts for those who completed long-term college credentials (degrees or college certificates requiring a year or more of study) and those who did not in an experimental evaluation of a federally-funded sectoral job training program. The experimental evaluation found no overall impact of the program on earnings,…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of TRIO Student Support Services (SSS) on academic performance of non-traditional students and perceived experiences of its recent graduates at a public state college in Georgia. A mixed-methods design was employed for data collection including (1) year-to-year retention rates of 480 SSS and…

The federal work-study program is one of the earliest forms of federal financial aid for higher education in the United States and has come under close scrutiny for its debatable impact on low-income students' college success and persistence. However, federal work-study surprisingly remains one of the least-studied financial aid programs. This has…

Low-income and first-generation students face several academic and social obstacles that prohibit them from entering college. These barriers include poor academic performance, limited knowledge of the college admissions process, lack of family and peer support, and financial illiteracy. The purpose of this study was to uncover former Upward Bound…

This dissertation includes three chapters focusing on policies directly related to improving college access and success. The first chapter focuses on lifetime eligibility of federal and state financial aid policies. The Pell Grant plays a critical role in helping students across the US to afford undergraduate education. In spite of its importance…

Traditionally seen as a way for institutions to help students alleviate some of the financial demands placed on them, on-campus student employment has several additional benefits institutions can leverage to assist students along their collegiate journey. If designed and operationalized effectively, institutions can use their on-campus student…

Due to rising costs and declining affordability, many students have to work while attending college. The federal government takes a major role in subsidizing the wages of college students and spent over $1 billion on the Work-Study program in 2010-11 (College Board, 2011), yet little is known about how working during the school year impacts…

Often, individuals are set up to fail. However, effective mentoring can set individuals up to succeed. This nonexperimental cross-sectional, predictive study examines the Ronald E. McNair Postbaccalaureate Achievement Program's mentoring component. Specific focus is placed on faculty mentor competency and its impact on McNair student intent to…

The purpose of this study was to explore the role of Student Support Services (SSS) in encouraging student involvement and its impact on student perceptions and academic experiences in three technical colleges in upstate South Carolina. By examining Alexander Astin's theory of student involvement in the services provided by the program, a better…

The Federal Pell Grant Program is the nation's largest need-based grant program. While students' initial eligibility for the Pell is based on financial need, renewal of the award is contingent on their making satisfactory academic progress (SAP)--meeting minimum academic standards similar to those proposed in models of performance-based…

Since 1964, the Federal Work-Study (FWS) program has provided funds to subsidize the wages of student employees, but it has never been studied directly. I use an instrumental variables difference-in-difference framework with administrative data from West Virginia to identify causal effects, comparing eligible and ineligible students across…

Student employment subsidies are one of the largest types of federal employment subsidies, and one of the oldest forms of student aid. Yet it is unclear whether they help or harm students' long term outcomes. This document contains the appendices to the report "Should Student Employment Be Subsidized? Conditional Counterfactuals and the…

The Tax Relief Act of 1997 created an important tax provision which helped taxpayers offset the cost of higher education. This provision was in the form of education tax credits. Because a tax credit is a dollar for dollar reduction in tax liability, these education credits were designed to reduce the amount of tax due for college students or…