Download or read book The Impact of Student Financial Aid on Undergraduate Degree Completion written by Laura Melissa Reynolds and published by . This book was released on 2004 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The affordability of higher education is an increasing challenge for individuals and families in America. A student's chance of going to college and actually receiving their degree continues to be closely associated with their economic situation, as well as that of their family. The purpose of this research is to study the relationship between student financial aid and undergraduate degree completion to evaluate the impact of different sources of student financial aid on persistence and degree completion. Data used in this research is from the Linked Longitudinal Administrative Data Set (LLADS), which includes data from three different sources: the Enhanced Missouri Student Achievement Study (EMSAS), the ACT Student Assessment data file, and student financial aid data provided by the Missouri Student Assistance Resource Services (MOSTARS). The sample is made up of first-time, first-semester freshmen students from six Missouri institutions of higher education. A longitudinal study was conducted using the sample of three freshman cohorts. The cohorts were followed for five academic years. Persistence for the respective year of analysis was used as a dependent variable and separate logistic analysis were run for each year. To analyze student degree completion, two dependent variables were created and two different logistic regression analyses were run. Independent variables for the study have been grouped into five constructs: (1) Demographic Characteristics; (2) Major/Academic Performance; (3) Family Income; (4) Institution Type; and last (5) Financial Aid. Results suggest that federal government intervention in the financing of higher education through policy is important. Without the federal government's intervention, it is possible that only high-income groups will be able to afford a college education. The affordability gap is evident from the findings of this study with the lower family income categories analyzed demonstrating an increasingly negative relationship with persistence when compared with the highest family income category of greater than $100,000, as income categories decrease. From the results of this study, frontloading grants may be a good idea. The low-income students who are receiving need-based aid in the beginning years of enrollment are not as likely to persist as those receiving the aid in the later years of college. Perhaps increasing the funding in early years, or frontloading would increase the likelihood of these students persisting to their third and fourth years of college, because most students who drop out of college tend to do so within the first two years, often due to fear of high debt accumulation. In this study subsidized loans were found to have a significant positive effect on year-to-year persistence and unsubsidized loans were found to have a positive effect on persisting to the fifth year of school. For many qualified high school graduates, the thought of relying on loans may discourage enrollment in a postsecondary institution, especially among the students from low-income families. If students view the debt involved with funding a college education as a better investment choice their decisions to enroll and persist are likely to increase.