Making
the Case
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> Making the Case
> Affordable for Students
and Families > Financial Assistance
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An independent college education is affordable to students of all family incomes, with a wide variety of federal and state grants, institutional grants, work-study, and loans available. Students from all family-income levels are just as likely to attend private colleges as public universities.
Fact 1 - Enrollment by Family Income Levels
Independent colleges and universities enroll students from all income
levels in similar proportions to public institutions, with two notable
exceptions at either end of the income scale. At the lower end, smaller
(non-doctoral) independent colleges enroll a greater proportion of low-income
students—those with parental incomes less than $20,000—than
do the large public research (doctoral) universities (12 percent versus
10 percent). At the upper end, the larger publics enroll a greater proportion
of higher income students—whose parents earn $100,000 or more (25
percent versus 22 percent).
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Fact 2 - Financial Aid
Eighty-four percent of full-time students at private colleges and universities
receive financial aid from all sources. The aid private colleges give
to students reduces their out-of-pocket costs. According to the National
Center for Education Statistics, the average tuition that students pay
at private colleges has actually declined over the past decade, after
adjusting for grant aid and inflation.
Source: National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, press release, October 21, 2003.
Fact 3 - Sources to Pay for College
On a national level, data from the National Postsecondary Student Aid
Survey (NPSAS) show many sources help students pay for a private college
education. The largest source of assistance from private colleges is institutional
aid (29 percent).
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Fact 4 - Institutional vs. Federal
Aid
Independent colleges today provide over four times as much grant assistance
as the federal government—and that ratio has grown steadily since
1984, when it was nearly one to one.
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Fact 5 - Grants and Scholarships
Private colleges provide a large amount of financial aid to their students:
63 percent of independent college alumni surveyed reported receiving grants
or scholarships.
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Fact 6 - Comparison of Institutional
Aid
Nearly 60 percent of independent college students receive institutional
aid, compared with only 25 percent of students at public four-year institutions
(College Board, Trends in Student Aid, 2003).
Fact 7 - State Level Data
A study of Wisconsin’s private and public institutions found that
financial aid for students attending the University of Wisconsin was composed
of 67 percent loans and 30 percent grants, whereas at private colleges,
financial aid was composed of 26 percent loans and 74 percent grants.
Source: University of Wisconsin/Office of Policy Analysis and Research, “Informational Memorandum, Student Financial Aid: 2001-02 Update,” April 2003, and Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System-IPEDS.
Fact 8 - Institutional Grants
and Need
In very selective private four-year institutions, as students’ financial
need rose, so did their likelihood of receiving institutional grant aid,
from 21 percent of those with low financial need, to 59 percent with moderate
need, to 66 percent with high need.
Source: NCES, What Colleges Contribute: Institutional Aid to Full-Time Undergraduates Attending 4-year Colleges and Universities, April 2003.
Fact 9 - Institutional Aid for
First-Year Students
Seventy to 89 percent of the aid received by first-year students at private
colleges and universities is institutional aid. The average percentage
of first-year students receiving institutional aid at small colleges with
low tuitions is 89 percent; at small colleges with high tuition, 72 percent;
and at large colleges and universities, 70 percent.
Source: Executive Summary, 2002 Tuition Discounting Survey, NACUBO.
Fact 10 - Education Cost for
the Colleges
Public four-year institutions spent amounts varying between $7,000 and
$15,000 per undergraduate in 2000. Actual educational costs exceeded tuition
by $4,000 to $10,000 per undergraduate student. Private four-year institutions
spent $10,000 to $40,000. The cost exceeded tuition by as much as $20,000
per student.
Source: 2001 NACUBO Study, reported in Chronicle of Higher Education, August 2001, “Colleges Spend More than They Charge in Tuition.”
These materials reference the themes and topics addressed in the above facts and data, serving as a helpful resource on how presidents and others are making the case for independent higher education.
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Copyright ©1997-2008 Council of Independent Colleges. All rights reserved. |
