The Influence of Prices on the Persistence of Adult Undergraduates

We would like to thank the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators and the University of New Orleans College of Education for research grants supporting this research. The views expressed in this paper are the authors and do not represent official policies or positions of NASFAA or the University of New Orleans. This article examines the influence of tuition charges and the amounts of grants, loans, and work awarded on within-year persistence by adult undergraduate students (over 22 years of age) enrolled in public and private four-year colleges. The findings include: 1) adult undergraduates are more likely to be from disadvantaged backgrounds than traditional college-age students; 2) adult undergraduates seem to be more responsive to tuition charges than traditional college-age students; and 3) adults enrolled in public colleges are more sensitive to tuition charges than those enrolled in private colleges

What Difference Does Tuition Make? An Analysis of Ethnic Differences in Persistence

During the past two decades tuition charges have climbed faster than inflation while the federal investment in student grants has declined. There is reason to question whether this new financial environment is more problematic for African Americans as compared to European Americans. This study examines the effects of tuition and student aid on persistence by European American and African American college students. We found that differences in student price response to tuition helps explain differences in persistence rates for African Americans compared to European Americans