Post-Secondary Financial Aid Foundational Report: 2013-14 to 2018-19

Abstract

We use data from school year (SY) 2013-14 to SY 2018-19 to study the amounts and types of financial aid that students in the University System of Georgia (USG) receive. Focusing on four populations of students–first-time freshmen pursuing a bachelor’s degree (BA), first-time freshmen pursuing a bachelor’s degree who ever receive a Pell grant (Pell), first-time freshmen pursuing an associate degree (Associate), and students over the age of 25 pursuing a bachelor’s degree (Non-traditional)–we find large differences in the average amount and types of aid the students in these four population groups receive in both their first fall semester and in total over a four-year period. We find large differences across institutions and among students with different demographic and economic characteristics in both the average amount of financial aid received as well as the prevalence of students who ever receive the HOPE Scholarship and Zell Miller Scholarship, two prominent merit-based Georgia scholarships. We also examine trends in aid receipt over time