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Financial aid plays a key role in access to higher education. It makes the biggest difference for low-income students. Dollars spent on a needy student will in many cases determine whether or not that student can go to college. Knowing this, the federal government has just funded the largest increase in the Pell grant in recent history. Meanwhile, most states continue to award large amounts of need-based aid, despite rapid increases in the amount of state aid awarded on a non-need basis.
Private colleges and universities have not followed suit. The most current National Postsecondary Student Aid Survey shows that in non-doctoral private four-year institutions, those in the highest income brackets (students whose families make an income of $98,000 or more) receive more institutional aid than those in the lowest income bracket (students whose families make less than $24,000).
William R. Doyle is an assistant professor of higher education at Vanderbilt University. He previously served as a senior policy analyst at the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, where he was project manager for the center's first publication of Measuring Up, a state-by-state report card on higher education.
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