Examining the Impacts of Need-Based Aid

February 4, 2013

In a new Working Paper Sara Goldrick-Rab and colleagues examine the impacts of a private need-based college financial aid program among first-year Pell Grant recipients at 13 public Wisconsin universities. They found that offering the Wisconsin Scholars Grant of $3,500 per year increased students’ completion of a full-time credit load and rates of re-enrollment for a second year of college. An increase of $1,000 in total financial aid received during a student’s first year of college was associated with a 2.8 to 4.1 percentage point increase in rates of enrollment for the second year. More about Goldrick-Rab's work is available here.