financial aid Archives - Higher Education Today https://www.higheredtoday.org/topic/financial-aid/ A Blog by ACE Mon, 10 Feb 2025 15:28:54 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.7.1 https://www.higheredtoday.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/apple-touch-icon-150x150.png financial aid Archives - Higher Education Today https://www.higheredtoday.org/topic/financial-aid/ 32 32 Case Study: Florida Policy Opening Enrollment for At-Risk Students https://www.higheredtoday.org/2025/02/10/fl-policy-opening-enrollment-for-at-risk-students/ Mon, 10 Feb 2025 15:28:54 +0000 https://www.higheredtoday.org/?p=28988 Title: The Role of State Policy in Supporting Students Experiencing Homelessness and Former Foster Youth in Higher Education Authors: Carrie E. Henderson and Katie Grissom Source: The Urban Institute Paying for a college degree is already a difficult, complex process for many students involving a variety of sources of financial aid and payment. For students with a history of foster care ...

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]]> New Might Not Always Mean Improved: The Benefits and Drawbacks of the New FAFSA https://www.higheredtoday.org/2025/01/21/new-might-not-always-mean-improved/ Tue, 21 Jan 2025 13:51:48 +0000 https://www.higheredtoday.org/?p=28971 Title: Chutes and Ladders: Falling Behind and Getting Ahead with the Simplified FAFSA Authors: Jonathan S. Lewis and Alyssa Stefanese Yates Source: uAspire Prior to the 2024-25 academic year, the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) underwent significant changes, mandated by Congress through the FAFSA Simplification Act. A recent uAspire survey of 274 students, parents, counselors, and financial aid administrators ...

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]]> Recommendations for States to Address Postsecondary Affordability https://www.higheredtoday.org/2024/12/12/recommendations-for-states-to-address-postsecondary-affordability/ Thu, 12 Dec 2024 18:38:19 +0000 https://www.higheredtoday.org/?p=28959 Authors: Lauren Asher, Nate Johnson, Marissa Molina, and Kristin D. Hultquist Source: HCM Strategists An October 2024 report, Beyond Sticker Prices: How States Can Make Postsecondary Education More Affordable, reviews data to evaluate affordability of postsecondary education across nine states, including Alabama, California, Indiana, Louisiana, Ohio, Oklahoma, Texas, Virginia, and Washington. The authors emphasize the importance of considering net price, or ...

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]]> Good News About the FAFSA https://www.higheredtoday.org/2024/11/25/good-news-about-the-fafsa/ Mon, 25 Nov 2024 14:26:26 +0000 https://www.higheredtoday.org/?p=28938 Millions of current and prospective college students were let down last year when the federal rollout of the new FAFSA form was badly bungled and delayed for months. The fallout from the resulting chaos and uncertainty was well-documented and widespread, including a drop in over 5 percent in first-year enrollment for fall 2024 linked at least in part to the FAFSA ...

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]]> Troubled FAFSA Rollout Linked to Sharp Decline in First-Year College Enrollment https://www.higheredtoday.org/2024/11/18/troubled-fafsa-rollout-college-enrollment-decline/ Mon, 18 Nov 2024 17:12:27 +0000 https://www.higheredtoday.org/?p=28926 Title: Fewer Freshmen Enrolled in College This Year Following Troubling FAFSA Cycle Author: Katharine Meyer Source: Brookings Institution, National Student Clearinghouse Research Center The rollout of the new FAFSA form last year triggered cascading consequences across the higher education community. The launch was delayed, customer calls remained unanswered, and the number of filings decreased by about three percent. As the form’s ...

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]]> Families Use a Variety of Options to Keep Pace with Increasing College Tuition https://www.higheredtoday.org/2024/11/04/families-use-a-variety-of-options-to-keep-pace-with-increasing-college-tuition/ Mon, 04 Nov 2024 19:42:05 +0000 https://www.higheredtoday.org/?p=28913 Title: Covering the Tuition Bill: How Do Families Pay the Rising Price of College? Author: Phillip Levine Source: The Brookings Institution The increasing costs of attendance at colleges and universities, especially higher “sticker prices,” have attracted attention from both families and policymakers. Although many families are not paying the full sticker prices due to financial aid, today’s families are still facing ...

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]]> Targeted Scholarship Programs Open Pathways for Disadvantaged Students https://www.higheredtoday.org/2024/10/07/scholarship-programs-open-pathways/ Mon, 07 Oct 2024 15:15:46 +0000 https://www.higheredtoday.org/?p=28879 Title: Paying for College as a Student with Foster Care History: Findings and Recommendations from Discussions with Students in California Authors: Laura Packard Tucker, Devlin Hanson, and Annabel Stattelman-Scanlan Source: The Urban Institute Paying for a college degree is already a difficult process for many students, involving payment plans and a variety of sources of financial aid. For students with foster ...

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]]> FAFSA for All: A Game-Changer for College Access in Alabama https://www.higheredtoday.org/2024/09/20/fafsa-for-all/ Fri, 20 Sep 2024 15:00:59 +0000 https://www.higheredtoday.org/?p=28853 Early in my career as an education data analyst, I was chatting with the new counselor at a rural Georgia high school. She described a particularly challenging student named “Joey,” a troubled but bright young sophomore. When she sought advice from a veteran teacher, the response was disheartening: “Honey, don’t you worry about that child. We’ve had problems with that family ...

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]]> Beyond the Culture Wars: The Real Story of State Policy and College Campuses https://www.higheredtoday.org/2024/09/06/beyond-the-culture-wars/ Fri, 06 Sep 2024 21:12:45 +0000 https://www.higheredtoday.org/?p=28830 “There is a lot that state legislatures can do to reverse the illiberal takeover of higher education,” according to the Manhattan Institute in its 2023 issue brief, Abolish DEI Bureaucracies and Restore Colorblind Equality in Public Universities. As the field of play in issues from abortion rules to labor policy and workers’ rights shifts from Capitol Hill to individual statehouses, state ...

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]]> The Effectiveness of Emergency Aid Programs https://www.higheredtoday.org/2024/07/29/the-effectiveness-of-emergency-aid-programs/ Mon, 29 Jul 2024 14:00:06 +0000 https://www.higheredtoday.org/?p=28779 Title: How Well Do College Emergency Aid Micro-Grant Programs Work? Authors: Tristan Stein and Natalie Butler Source: The Bipartisan Policy Center Recognizing that financial obstacles can disrupt a student’s academic journey, many institutions have implemented emergency aid programs that provide grants, usually of less than $2,500 and often much smaller, to students to address these immediate expenses. Many institutions of higher ...

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]]> Unlevel Playing Fields: Obstacles to Accessing State Financial Aid https://www.higheredtoday.org/2024/06/10/obstacles-to-accessing-state-financial-aid/ Mon, 10 Jun 2024 14:35:11 +0000 https://www.higheredtoday.org/?p=28726 Title: Who Deserves State Financial Aid? Eligibility Criteria for Students Entering Higher Education Source: The Education Trust Author: Brittani Williams Over the past two decades, reduced state investment in higher education has significantly increased tuition and fees at public colleges, disproportionately impacting low-income and marginalized students. The Education Trust evaluated the accessibility and fairness of 26 financial aid programs in 10 ...

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]]> Unpacking the FAFSA Simplification Act’s Impact on Federal and State Aid Eligibility https://www.higheredtoday.org/2024/04/22/unpacking-fafsa-simplification-act-impact/ Mon, 22 Apr 2024 17:08:55 +0000 https://www.higheredtoday.org/?p=28650 Title: FAFSA Simplification Guidebook Authors: Mark Wiederspan and Rachel Burns Source: State Higher Education Executive Officers Association The last two decades in higher education policy have seen a push for a more streamlined and less time-consuming version of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), which culminated in the FAFSA Simplification Act of 2020. The State Higher Education Executive Officers ...

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