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In response to goals of expanding access as well as public pressure to leverage substantial endowment resources toward increasing affordability, numerous elite colleges have enacted policies aimed at improving access and affordability by replacing student loans with grants in financial aid packages. No-loan policies, however, differ in the extent to which they expand affordability: Some policies offer a universal discount by replacing loans with grants for all aid-eligible students, while others offer narrowly targeted discounts to students based on income, Pell Grant eligibility status, or another means-tested threshold. We leveraged newly available Equality of Opportunity Project Mobility Report Card data and a difference-in-differences design using unweighted and weighted comparison groups to examine the relationship between adoption of universal and targeted no-loan policies and economic diversity at elite colleges. We found that colleges offering universal discounts experienced increased enrollment among middle-class students. Our study indicates universal no-loan policies represent one strategy to increase access and affordability for the middle-class in the elite reaches of higher education. The study also, however, raises questions about the policies' effectiveness in addressing access for low-income students and efficiency in targeting aid.

The test-optional movement in the United States emerged largely in response to criticism of standardized admissions tests as inadequate and potentially biased measures of postsecondary promise. Although anecdotal reports suggest that test-optional policies have improved campus diversity, empirical research has not yet confirmed this claim. Consequently, this study employs quasi-experimental techniques to assess the relationship between test-optional policy implementation and subsequent growth in the proportion of low-income and minority students enrolling at adopting liberal arts colleges. It also examines whether test-optional policies increase institutional standing through greater application numbers and higher reported Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) scores. Results show that, on average, test-optional policies enhance the perceived selectivity, rather than the diversity, of participating institutions.

Relatively few students in selective colleges come from disadvantaged backgrounds, so the rewards of attending such schools go mainly to those already advantaged from birth. There is substantial variation in those colleges' socioeconomic composition, however. Some selective private institutions proportionately enroll five times as many lower-SES students as others. What drives this variation? Longitudinal analyses presented here suggest that, all other factors being equal, private institutions that are historically embedded in elite status maintain less socioeconomic diversity. Conversely, generous financial-aid efforts and test-optional admissions policies appear to contribute to institutions achieving greater SES diversity. The findings suggest several research and policy implications.

A study compared states' approaches to pricing and discounting, via student aid, of undergraduate education. Results suggest that region, social and economic resources, and postsecondary governance arrangements each have distinctive connections to the nature of state tuition and aid policies. Of particular interest were results relating to high-tuition/high-aid policies ("rationalization"), concentrated in the Northeast and Midwest. (Author/MSE)

The effect on enrollment of two methods of financing public postsecondary education--blanket and targeted subsidies--is reviewed. Although targeted subsidies generally promote efficiency and equity, three reservations about their assumed effects on enrollment are discussed. (Author/MLW)

When Minnesota conducted its experiment on countering rising tuition by increasing aid to needy students, the necessary research involved institutional researchers and student aid officers at both the campus and state levels. The approach appears to have had largely favorable consequences. (Author/MSE)

The varying impacts of alternative financial-aid policies and delivery procedures on colleges and potential students are considered. It is concluded that there is little that financial-aid policy itself can do to counter enrollment declines, but that individual policy innovations do have some potential to redistribute enrollment. (Author/JMD)

Reports on an investigation of differences and similarities across the 50 states in the United States in terms of approaches to the pricing and discounting, via student aid, of undergraduate education. Philosophical origins of public tuition and aid policies; Theoretical framework; Per-capita state student aid; State tuition pricing policies.

Focuses on Minnesota's experiment with high tuition/high aid approach to student support. Background on the state's policy on tuition and student aid; Features of Minnesota's approach to postsecondary finance; Policy lessons from the Minnesota experience.

In response to goals of expanding access as well as public pressure to leverage substantial endowment resources toward increasing affordability, numerous elite colleges have enacted policies aimed at improving access and affordability by replacing student loans with grants in financial aid packages. No-loan policies, however, differ in the extent to which they expand affordability: Some policies offer a universal discount by replacing loans with grants for all aid-eligible students, while others offer narrowly targeted discounts to students based on income, Pell Grant eligibility status, or another means-tested threshold. We leveraged newly available Equality of Opportunity Project Mobility Report Card data and a difference-in-differences design using unweighted and weighted comparison groups to examine the relationship between adoption of universal and targeted no-loan policies and economic diversity at elite colleges. We found that colleges offering universal discounts experienced increased enrollment among middle-class students. Our study indicates universal no-loan policies represent one strategy to increase access and affordability for the middle-class in the elite reaches of higher education. The study also, however, raises questions about the policies' effectiveness in addressing access for low-income students and efficiency in targeting aid. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]