Trends in Student Aid

Institutional Grants > Private Four-Year Institution Grants > Figure 14

In 2007-08, institutional grant aid at public four-year institutions averaged about $1,340 per full-time dependent student for those with parent incomes below $32,500 and for those with parent incomes between $32,500 and $59,999. Students from families with incomes between $60,000 and $99,999 received an average of $1,150 in institutional grant aid, and those from higher-income families received $900, on average.

In the figure above, the bottom two blue sections of the bars show average dollars per student in institutional grant aid (non-need-based and need-based). The upper section of the bars shows average dollars per student in federal and state grants in 2007-08. The numbers at the tops of the bars show the total average grant dollars per student.

Non-need-based aid is defined here as any aid awarded without regard to financial circumstances.

Note: Data are based on dependent students who attended exclusively full-time in 2007-08. Income groups are based on quartiles of families in the U.S. Census Bureau 2006 income data (corresponding to the 2007-08 academic year). Income ranges in 2007-08 are: less than $32,500; $32,500; to $59,999; $60,000 to $99,999; and $100,000 or more.

Sources: NPSAS, 2008. U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Survey, Annual Social and Economic Supplement, 2007

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Public and Private Four-Year Institutions

Need-Based, Non-Need-Based & Athletic Awards

For the lowest-income public
four-year college students, 57% of institutional aid was distributed on the basis of financial need.
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This proportion decreased as incomes increased, and was 19% for the highest-income students. Overall, about one-third of the institutional grant aid at public four-year institutions was labeled need-based.
Institutional grant aid constituted two-thirds of the grant aid received by public four-year college students...
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in the upper half of the income distribution, but only 20% for the lowest-income quartile and 35% for the lower-middle income group of dependent students.
In 2007-08, institutional grant aid at public two-year institutions averaged about $160 per full-time... More

dependent student. Those from families with incomes of $100,000 or higher received $80 on average.
Institutional grant aid constituted only 6% of the grant aid received by public two-year college students... More

from the lowest income group, but about half of the grants received by those from families with incomes between $60,000 and $99,999.

Also Important

The data reported here are based on the National Postsecondary Student Aid Study, which categorizes need-based and...
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non-need-based aid depending on the criteria used for allocating the funds. As the figures reveal, much of the non-need-based aid goes to students who have financial need. Some other surveys of institutional grant aid categorize all aid that meets financial need as “need-based, regardless of the criteria used to award that aid.
Almost half of 2007-08 undergraduate students were independent.
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These students cannot be classified by parental income and their grant aid is not represented by the information reported here. This information also does not describe the aid patterns of part-time students.