It may be of interest to readers which students receive financial aid at US colleges and universities. This EPIGraph illustrates the number of first-time, full-time students who receive student aid by both the type of aid and the sector of college that they attend.
TOTAL FINANCIAL AID. In the United States, there were 2.7 million first-time, full-time students who started college in 2016-17 at Title IV institutions. Over 82 percent of these students received some type of financial aid that year. Most of these students attended public four-year institutions (965,068), followed by public two-year (461,537), and private four-year (455,067). In total, 43 percent of all FTFT students who received financial aid attended a public four-year institution. As illustrated below, 83 percent of public four-year students received some type of financial aid, compared to 74 percent of public two-year students and 89 percent of private, not-for-profit four-year students.
PELL GRANTS. With regard to Pell Grants, 419,000 Pell grant recipients attended a public four-year institution, or 36 percent of all FTFT students attedning that sector. Comparatively, 320,000 Pell grant recipients (51 percent) attended a two-year public and 158,000 recipients (31 percent) attended a private, not-for-profit four-year institution.
INSTITUTIONAL GRANTS. In total, 568,000 public four-year students received an institutional grant, or 49 percent of all FTFT students attending a public four-year institution. Only 14 percent of two-year students received an institutional grant (86,000 students). By far, the highest percentage of students receiving an institutional grant attended a private, not-for-profit four-year institution (82 percent or 418,000 students).
FEDERAL LOANS. Finally, over half a million public four-year FTFT students received a federal loan (537,000), or 46 percent of all FTFT students at that sector. Only 20 percent of public two-year students received a loan (121,000 students), while 58 percent of students attending a private, not-for-profit four-year institution received a federal loan (296,000 students).
SOURCE: Ginder, S.A., Kelly-Reid, J.E., and Mann, F.B. (2018). Graduation Rates for Selected Cohorts, 2009–14; Outcome Measures for Cohort Year 2009–10; Student Financial Aid, Academic Year 2016–17; and Admissions in
Postsecondary Institutions, Fall 2017: First Look (Provisional Data) (NCES 2018-151). U.S. Department of Education. Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics. Retrieved February 27, 2019 from https://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch.