In February 2020, the Congressional Budget Office released a report on the budgetary effects of student loans repaid through income-driven plans. This paper provides additional information on the analysis the agency conducted on the characteristics of borrowers in those plans and the methods the agency used to project borrowers' earnings,…

This study presents a mixed methods explanatory analysis of the influence of Stafford loan debtload on persistence among undergraduate students attending a Hispanic Serving Institution in the Southwest of the United States. Using data from cohort 2010, fall to fall persistence was examined to assess if debtload was related to persistence for all…

Deregulation of for-profit colleges led to a precipitous rise in enrollments from 1990 to 2010. Since 2010, regulation, investigations, and sanctions have led to enrollment declines in for-profit postsecondary institutions. Initially barred from receiving Title IV federal funds, in the form of Pell Grants and Stafford Loans, for-profit colleges…

As college costs continue to rise, students and their families increasingly rely on federal loans to help pay for college expenses. In 2011-12, over half of all undergraduates (52 percent) had borrowed money from the federal government to fund their education, compared with just over one-quarter (27 percent) in 1989-90, some 2 decades. Although…

Financial aid is an ever-growing topic of interest to researchers as well as policymakers in understanding the impact and relationship to student success. Aid comes in many forms, from merit-based or need-based scholarships and grants, loans, tuition waivers, and other. Federal and state aid programs alike are typically designed to assist students…

The degree to which students are able to make adequate repayments on their student loans and avoid default is of special concern for colleges. If too many former students go into default, the college will face sanctions by the federal government and lose eligibility to provide currently enrolled students federal financial aid, such as the Pell…

This paper examines the rise in student loan default and delinquency. It draws on a unique set of administrative data on federal student borrowing matched to earnings records from de-identified tax records. Most of the increase in default is associated with borrowers at for-profit schools, 2-year institutions, and certain other nonselective…

The designation "low income" is often assigned to students who are Federal Pell Grant eligible; however, family incomes for these recipients range from $0 to as high as $60,000 (Baum & Payea, 2011). Over 93% of all zero expected family contribution (EFC) students have a family income of $30,000 or less and constituted 67.4% of all…

This publication is intended for financial aid administrators and counselors who help students begin the aid process--filing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA®), verifying information, and making corrections and other changes to the information reported on the FAFSA. The Federal Student Aid Handbook consists of the Application…

This brief report presents selected findings about student financial aid during the 2011-12 academic year. These findings are based on data from the 2011-12 National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS:12), a nationally representative sample survey of undergraduate and graduate students enrolled any time between July 1, 2011, and June 30, 2012,…

Using data from the 2007-08 National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS:08), this Statistics in Brief examines the extent to which undergraduate students borrow the maximum possible within the limits of the Stafford loan program (the program maximum) and their own financial need and student budgets (the individual maximum). Students who…

Although a postsecondary education is vitally important to many individuals and the nation's ability to compete globally, high college tuition rates are prompting concerns that it may remain an elusive goal for some. To help students finance their education, Congress recently raised the ceiling on the amount individual students can borrow under…

This Statistics in Brief examines private loans by institution sector, tuition amount, student characteristics, and level. This study attempts to answer the following questions: (1) How did undergraduate borrowing from private sources change from 2003-04 to 2007-08 and who obtained private loans?; (2) To what extent did undergraduates combine…

American consumers owe more than $150 billion in outstanding private student loan debt. While this amount is significantly less than the amount outstanding on student loans guaranteed by the federal government, the private student loan ("PSL") product is an important component of higher education finance and does not appear to be well…

This publication is intended for financial aid administrators and counselors who help students begin the aid process--filing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), verifying information, and making corrections and other changes to the information reported on the FAFSA. The Federal Student Aid Handbook consists of the Application and…