June 12, 2008

Time to Reexamine Institutional Cooperation on Financial Aid
Matthew Reed with Robert Shireman
The Institute for College Access & Success

Over the past two decades, colleges and universities have increasingly engaged in financial aid "bidding wars" for students with high test scores or grades but little or no financial need. A new white paper suggests that colleges could free up significantly more funding for need-based financial aid if they could legally work together to curb these bidding wars. The white paper includes an opinion from a leading antitrust law firm that reviews the current legal environment around this issue and suggests ways of allowing more cooperation to benefit needy students.

  Read the white paper

Featured Reports

Student Debt and the Class of 2008

Our student debt report for the class of 2008 found college seniors carried an average of $23,200 in student loan debt while unemployment climbed to 10.6 percent.

Green Lights & Red Tape

Our report exposes wide variations in financial aid policies and practices at the state’s community colleges, which can have a major impact on students’ access to available aid.

Going to the Source: A Practical Way to Simplify the FAFSA

Our new report outlines a way to make applying for financial aid easier, safer, and more accurate by using income data the federal government already collects to answer many of the most difficult questions on the FAFSA.