Document Tag: financial aid

U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions – Testimony (2013)

Testimony of Dr. Sara Goldrick-Rab Associate Professor, University of Wisconsin Educational Policy Studies & Sociology Senior Scholar, Wisconsin Center for the Advancement of Education Director, Wisconsin Scholars Longitudinal Study Prepared for the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions United States Senate Hearing on “The Challenge of College Affordability: The Student Lens” April 16, 2013

Financial Need and Aid Volatility among Students with Zero Financial Need and Aid Volatility among Students with Zero Expected Family Contribution Expected Family Contribution (2015)

Students with a zero expected family contribution (EFC), as calculated using the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), are those with the greatest financial need and least ability to pay for college, and they now make up more than one in three U.S. undergraduate students. Yet little is known about the year-to-year financial aid volatility of these students, or whether it varies by how the zero EFC was determined. This paper uses nationally representative data to examine trends in zero-EFC receipt over time and then use studentlevel data from nine colleges and universities to examine zero-EFC stability over multiple years by zero-EFC status. The results indicate overall stability in zero-EFC receipt across multiple years; about eight in ten students with a zero EFC keeps that status one year later. However, this masks a great deal of heterogeneity among zero-EFC recipients by dependency and FAFSA filing statuses. These differences have significant policy implications for allocating scarce financial aid dollars.

Seeking STEM: The Causal Impact of Need-Based Grant Aid on Undergraduates’ Field of Study (2023)

ABSTRACT
Increasing the number of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) degrees is a national priority and one way to promote the socioeconomic mobility of students from low-income families. Prior research examining why students do not complete STEM majors often points to students’ lack of academic preparation, preferences for non-STEM majors, or lack of information about the value of STEM. This paper uses a randomized experiment to investigate an alternative explanation, that some students lack the financial resources to succeed in demanding majors. In a control group of university students from low-income families, 18.6% of students had declared a STEM major by their third year of college. In a treatment group who were offered additional need-based grant aid upon entering college, 26.5% of students declared a STEM major. Among students who had graduated within six years after entering college, 12.2% of control group graduates had earned a STEM degree compared to 20.2% of treatment group students. Need-based grants thus appear to have the potential to increase the share of low-income students studying and earning degrees in STEM.

The Price of STEM Success: The Impact of Need-Based Financial Aid on STEM Production (2021)

This study investigates whether financial grants, allocated based on need rather than major, improves odds that economically vulnerable students will pursue science, technology, engineering, and/or mathematics (STEM) degrees. We implemented a privately-funded financial aid program in Wisconsin and conducted a randomized experiment of its effects for low and moderate-income students at 10 two-year and four-year colleges and universities. The additional financial support greatly increased the probability that students would persist in pursuing a STEM major and/or switch to a STEM major by the third year of school. However, it did not change the odds that students would remain enrolled. Implications for educational opportunity, practice, and policy are discussed.

The True Costs of College (2020)

A book based on a project co-lead by Nancy Kendall and Sara Goldrick-Rab with support from the William T. Grant Foundation.
Systematically examines all key areas of the costs of college; Creates a framework for analyzing college cost impact on student well-being, thus supporting direct policy intervention; Includes data drawn from 18 months of ethnographic research in Wisconsin

Faculty-Run Emergency Aid for Students (ND)

Note: This documented is now outdated and provided for historical purposes only. Please see Believe in Students (believeinstudents.org) for more information on running a FAST Fund.