How Low Income Undergraduates Financed Postsecondary Education: 1992-93

摘要

For students considering pursuing a postsecondary degree or certificate, one of the most critical deciding factors is their ability to marshal the necessary financial resources. Paying for undergraduate education has always been seen as primarily the familys responsibility to the extent they can afford to do so. Tapping their own resources, students and their families use current income, savings, and borrowing against assets. Students sometimes work while still in high school to earn money for college, and the majority work while enrolled in postsecondary education.1 Parents may start saving for their childrens education many years before the child enrolls. Sometimes they take an additional job or borrow against assets such as a house. Low income families rarely have substantial savings to draw upon or assets to borrow against, and are unlikely to have very much discretionary income after paying for housing, food, clothing, and other basic necessities. In short, without financial assistance, postsecondary education would be out of reach for most low income students.