FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2002

Mike Bergman CB02-136
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Financing the Future

Census Bureau Reports Jump in Number of College
Students Who Receive Financial Aid

About 7.1 million full-time college students receive some form of financial aid to help pay for their education, according to the most recent findings from the Commerce Department's Census Bureau.

"About 6-in-10 full-time students got help from outside their families in paying for college," said Camille Ryan, co-author of Financing the Future Postsecondary Students, Costs and Financial Aid: 1996-97, which was released today.

"That's 1.5 million more full-time students receiving aid than we found in our previous survey, which was conducted in 1993-94," she added. "The most common sources of assistance were student loans and fellowships and scholarships. Average aid among those receiving help totaled $6,022 and covered an average of 62 percent of the student's costs per year."

The report examines full-time postsecondary students, the characteristics of the schools they attended and the costs and financing associated with their education.

Other findings from the report for the 1996-97 academic year include:

• Nearly half of all full-time students received aid from more than one source.
• African Americans and Hispanics reported higher rates of financial aid receipt than non-Hispanic Whites and Asians and Pacific Islanders.
• Aid packages for full-time graduate students covered an average of 71 percent of their schooling expenses.
• More than half of full-time students came from families with annual incomes of less than $50,000.
• Average annual tuition, book costs and room and board totaled about $8,700 a year for full-time students; full-time graduate students had the highest average costs: $13,518 a year.
• About 7-in-10 full-time students under age 25 were claimed as dependents on their parents' income tax returns.

The report uses data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation and the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System Institutional Characteristics Survey. Statistics from sample surveys are subject to sampling and nonsampling error.