Does Financial Aid Policy Influence Who Attends College?

This study explores the influence of state-level financial aid policy on the college attendance of racially minoritized, specifically Black and Hispanic, students. Informed by student price response theory, this study compares the racial/ethnic composition of enrolled students in a state in the years preceding and following major financial aid policy reform—the primarily need-based Cal Grant in California, and the merit-based Bright Futures in Florida. Using quantitative analysis, multivariate linear regression, the researcher estimated the influence that reform of state-level financial aid policy had on the racial/ethnic composition of student enrollment at public two- and four-year institutions of both California and Florida. The unit of analysis was all public two- and four-year institutions of both states. A series of three models was used to control for other influences on enrollment beyond a change in policy and differences in the influence of each policy reform on sector of attendance was also explored. The results did not produce evidence of policy reform having a statistically significant influence on the racial/ethnic composition of college enrollment in either state. This suggests that factors beyond price may be more influential in the college-going decisions of Black and Hispanic students.