"How America Pays for College", introduced in 2008, is a Sallie Mae national study conducted by Ipsos that annually surveys undergraduate students and parents of undergraduates about how much they pay for college and the resources they use to fund the expense. Now in its tenth year, this study also asks families about their attitudes…

The distribution of student financial aid funds at the state level is described and some of the variables that are associated with the allocation of funds from the different programs are identified. This paper is divided into several sections. The first reviews the work done on measures of educational opportunity and analyzes the shortcomings of…