Document Author: Sarah Magnelia

When Care Isn’t Enough: Administrative Burden in Federal Higher Education Pandemic Emergency Aid Implementation (2022)

Departing from traditional financial aid policies, during the pandemic the federal government
introduced emergency aid to higher education for the first time. This study examines the implementation
of that program, including students’ need for and access to the resources and the processes they navigated
to obtain help. We identify multiple forms of administrative burden present, and using both survey data
and focus groups, explain how they affected students and institutions. The psychological costs of
administrative burden were particularly substantial and should be addressed in future programming.

National #RealCollege Survey Report #6: During the Pandemic (2020)

In March 2020, the coronavirus pandemic struck American higher education.
Colleges closed campuses, students lost jobs, and emergency resources failed
to meet the demands caused by the crisis. This report examines the pandemic’s
impact on students, from their basic needs security to their well-being, as
indicated by employment status, academic engagement, and mental health.
The data come from an electronic survey completed by 38,602 students
attending 54 colleges and universities in 26 states, including 39 two-year
colleges and 15 four-year colleges and universities.

The Real Price of College: Estimating and Supporting Students’ Financial Needs (2021)

For decades, complicated financial aid formulas and variable sticker prices have made it difficult for students to understand the real price of college. For colleges, understanding students’ financial need is also challenging; current financial aid formulas cause many students’ actual need to be understated.
This report examines what happens when:
financial aid leaders and staff better understand students’ financial need, as operationalized by negative EFC; and
students better understand college costs and how to advocate for more financial support.
Using data gathered at Temple University and six colleges and universities in Texas, we explore how more nuanced information about college costs and financial need can change beliefs and behavior among financial aid staff, leaders, and students.