Community College Students and Federal Student Financial Aid: A Primer

The federal government plays an indispensable role in helping community college students pay for their education. It is hard to imagine today's community college campuses without needs-based federal student aid, such as the Pell Grant program and subsidized loans. There are, however, significant differences between community college students and college undergraduates overall in the sources and extent of the financial aid they use. This brief explicates some of these issues by discussing the following: (1) Community college student characteristics; (2) Costs of community college attendance; (3) Community college students and financial aid applications; (4) Importance of federal aid to community college students; (5) Title IV federal aid; (6) Allocation of federal aid; and (7) Community college students and loan repayment. [Contains notes.]