This paper examines the problem of determining how effective student aid programs have been in promoting the college enrollment of lower income and disadvantaged students and analyzes the institutional means through which federal aid policies have been implemented. The importance of considering the key role of state and institutional responses to federal policies is stressed. The document discusses: enrollment effects of student aid, strategic Congressional choices, student aid versus institutional aid, tax credits versus aid expenditures, and guaranteed loans versus a loan bank. It is concluded that the decentralized, market-based approach of portable need-based grants has worked rather well, but the decentralized, market-based approach of running the loan program through banks has not worked well. Other successful features in student aid were Congressional decisions relying on student rather than institutional aid and on expenditures over tax credits; unsuccessful features included the Congressional decision to adopt a guarantee mechanism in the Guaranteed Student Loan (GSL) program. Finally, policy implications are identified, including the basic reconstruction of the GSL program, examination of various schemes to subsidize student costs through the tax side rather than the expenditure side of the budget, and rejection of a proposed legally mandated needs analysis system. Discussant comments by Ronald B. Hoskins and C. Mark Lawton are included. (DB)