Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the extent to which the relationship between (a) student demographic variables (i.e., ethnicity, gender, first generation status, low income), college admission variables (i.e., admission status, SAT/ACT scores, remediation requirements), and (b) GPA and retention was influenced by first-year…

"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…

This mixed-methods study analyzed data from 906 Ruffalo Noel Levitz Student Satisfaction Surveys (RNLSSS) at a two-year technical college in Wisconsin, to determine influences on participants' choices of programs in information technology (IT). Quantitative results showed that none of eight variables (i.e., cost, financial assistance, academic…

The Success Boston initiative was launched in 2008 to improve Boston public high school graduates' access to and success in college, particularly for members of underrepresented groups. This report summarizes results from the second of three reports examining the classes of 2013 and 2014 and examines whether and how coaching affects students'…

The federal government's role in supporting higher education touches nearly every aspect of the work performed by American colleges and universities. Federal authorities control an immense amount of public resources that are used to strategically exert influence across a complex and differentiated postsecondary system. This report is intended to…

This Annual Plan presents the major initiatives and priorities the U.S. Department of Education (Department) Office of Inspector General (OIG) intends to undertake to assist the Department in fulfilling its responsibilities to America's taxpayers and students. The Department continues to face significant challenges in FY 2018 that impact its…

The advent of merit-based state financial aid programs has had several first order effects, such as changes in enrollment. However, these programs may also have second order effects, such as declining state support for need-based state financial aid programs. I hypothesize that the advent of merit-based state financial aid may be an example of…

Native American Indian (NAI) students continue to graduate from college at much lower rates than their peers. However, it was not known how NAI students perceived the lived experiences that positively influenced their ability to continue in their pursuit of a bachelor's degree. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to identify the lived…

Concordia University Saint Paul will reduce the sticker price of its tuition and fees by $10,000, or about 33 percent, for the 2013-2014 academic year. Tuition and fees for all new and returning students in the traditional undergraduate program will drop to $19,700 next year from $29,700 this year, while the price of room and board will not…

As the Post-9/11 GI Bill nears its fourth year, with more than 550,000 veterans enrolled in thousands of institutions, advocacy groups, lawmakers, and President Obama warn that veterans are vulnerable in a higher-education marketplace eager for their GI Bill dollars--with some purveyors, particularly for-profits, recruiting aggressively. The…

Little is known about private student loan discrimination, in contrast to the relatively developed research on discrimination in other credit markets such as mortgages and credit cards. The private student lending market can play a key role in responding to changes in the policy or economic environment, and many students and their families turn to…

This article presents results from the 2012 National Survey of Access and Finance Issues conducted by the National Council of State Directors of Community Colleges (NCSDCC), an affiliated council of the American Association of Community Colleges, and includes a comparison of survey results from previous years dating back to 2003, with the…

Many education systems face a challenge in recruiting graduates as teachers. This is also the situation in Norway and the newest estimates tell us that we will lack 9000 teachers in 2020. The situation is made even worse by the high number of dropouts and low performance rates in teacher education. There are many factors which have an impact on…

Tuition assistance offered by employers is an understudied area of financial aid research. The purpose of this study is to compare the demographic, socioeconomic, academic and financial aid characteristics of college students who receive employer-sponsored financial aid with students who receive traditional financial aid (institutional, state, or…

Few students with disabilities from high-poverty backgrounds attend college. We discuss the effects of disability and growing up in poverty on expectations for postsecondary education attendance. We describe the limiting effects of attending high-poverty high schools on student achievement followed by challenges faced by low-income students with…