Graphs - Financial Aid

As the new fiscal year starts, Ohio's commitment to the higher education of its neediest citizens continues to shrink.

In the 2008-2009 academic year, Ohio's independent colleges increased the amount of student aid they gave from their own resources by 8.1 percent.

Ohio's commitment to its neediest college students will continue to shrink in the next academic year.

For the first time in this decade, more than half of entering first-year students in 2009 secured "aid that must be repaid" - i.e., loans - to support their college education.

For more information, visit the Freshman Survey section of the Higher Education Research Institution at the University of California at Los Angeles: www.heri.ucla.edu.

The financial commitment of Ohio’s independent colleges to their own students has nearly tripled over a ten-year period.

As the start of the new school year approaches, campuses across the state, both public and private, are scrambling to help students faced with massive — and in one sector, total — cuts in state need-based financial aid.

Colleges around the state are now scrambling to help this fall's students, many of whom face thousands of dollars in state financial aid cuts.

Ohio independent colleges and universities have been able to educate increasing numbers of students from their home state, thanks to state programs such as the Student Choice Grant. The future with much more limited funding is cloudy.

Cuts in state aid - 10 percent less than the prior year - have placed more pressure on Ohio's independent colleges to assist students from their own funds. And they have responded by increasing student grants by almost 10 percent.

Changes in the state's financial aid programs proposed in the Executive Budget would drastically reduce the share that students at Ohio's independent colleges receive.

The outcome of the just-signed American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 - the "stimulus bill" - was most beneficial to students with financial need, as the maximum Pell grant will leap even higher than last week's chart (below) anticipated.

The federal commitment to needy students - finally unstuck after years of underfunding - may become even more substantial, depending on the progress of the economic stimulus bill that is headed to a House-Senate conference.

While a higher share of students borrow to attend private colleges, the percentage difference between public and private sectors is not as great as you might believe.

The newer need-based OCOG aid program offers a smaller share of money overall to students at independent campuses - although with a larger average grant - than the old OIG for two reasons. First, the difference in awards in OCOG to students at public and private colleges reflects less of the difference of the tuition charged by each sector than in OIG. Next, part-time students who constitute a larger share of enrollment at two-year and for-profit colleges are eligible for an OCOG award but not for an OIG.

Independent College Shares of Student Headcount and State of Ohio Higher Education Funds (not including capital funds)

Academic Year 2006-2007/Fiscal Year 2007

If you factor in money from the state's capital budget that supports infrastructure at public campuses, the share the state offers to independent colleges toward meeting Ohio's higher education goals shrinks even more.

Ohio's independent colleges award more than 3/4 of the grants received by their students - a commitment to their students unmatched by any other education sector.

Ohio's independent colleges have a large and increasing share of providing financial aid grants to their students - totaling nearly 3/4 of a billion dollars in the 2006-07 academic year.

The total dollars awarded in institutional financial aid grants by AICUO members jumped by 136 percent in a decade, far outstripping the 10-year increase in tuition and fees of 61%.

This fall, nearly 2/3 of the financial aid given to first-time, full-time freshman at AICUO member institutions came from the institutions themselves.

Undergraduate Financial Aid by Source

Ohio's independent colleges are the single largest source of financial aid to theirstudents - a half billion dollars annually.

Student Choice Grant Levels

Although the current state budget cut the Student Choice Grant for Ohio students at the state’s independent colleges by almost a third, the grant still removes more than $2,500 from a student’s loan debt after four years of study.