EMBARGOED UNTIL: 12:01 A.M. EST, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 22, 1999
Public Information Office CB99-243
301-457-3030/301-457-3670 (fax)
301-457-1037 (TDD)
e-mail: pio@census.gov
Jennifer Day
301-457-2464
Majority of 1993-94 College Students Received
Financial Aid, Census Bureau Reports
About 6 in 10 (5.6 million) full-time college students received some
form of financial aid during the 1993-1994 school year, according to a
report released today by the Commerce Department's Census Bureau.
"The most common source of aid for full-time students was student loans;
veterans' programs were the least common," said Jennifer Day, author of
the report, Financing the Future: Postsecondary Students, Costs
and Financial Aid 1993-1994. "On average, a full-time student received
$4,486 per year in financial aid."
Full-time graduate students, and vocational, technical or business
school students (about 66 percent each) were more likely than
undergraduates (about 60 percent) to receive financial aid. Among all
full-time college students, non-Hispanic African Americans were more
likely to receive financial aid (77 percent) than non-Hispanic Whites or
Hispanics (about 58 percent each).
Other highlights from the report include:
-- Among full-time students, a slightly greater proportion of women
(62 percent) than men (59 percent) received aid.
-- Of the 20.5 million postsecondary students enrolled at some point
during the 1993-1994 school year, just under half (45 percent) were
enrolled full-time during the entire year.
-- About two-thirds of full-time students were concentrated in the
17-to-24 age group, and about 86 percent of these students were
enrolled in their first four years of college.
Data are from the Survey of Income and Program Participation. As in all
surveys, the data are subject to sampling variability and other sources of
errors.
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