This study examined the changes in the distribution and amounts of financial assistance for students attending public colleges and universities between academic years 1981-82 and 1983-84 and the way different types of students financed their education. The study included cross-comparisons of important variables such as types of aid recipients, forms of aid, sources of support, and geographical and institutional distributions of aid. The analysis used student aid recipient data bases for each year. The initial data base (1981-82) which was the subject of an earlier study published in 1983, employed a stratified random sample of 226 institutions and 11,970 randomly selected student aid recipient records. The second data base (1983-84), which provides a continuation and updating of the original study, used a stratified random sample of 216 institutions and 10,200 randomly selected student aid recipient records. Findings include the following: (1) student aid continues to be mainly targeted on low income students; (2) the proportion of minority group aid recipients declined by 12.4 percent with recipients tending to be increasingly white, older, independent, married, and attending part time; (3) total student aid dollars for students attending public institutions declined from roughly $7.2 to $6.7 billion. Eight appendixes contain a technical supplement, a table showing distribution by type of institution and geographic region, a partial list of variables, a summary of major student assistance programs, a table showing study participants by type of institution, the study instruments, a bibliography of 51 items, and miscellaneous tables. (JB)