Wednesday, February 1, 2023

High School Counseling and College Financial Aid

 

A new NCES report, High School Counseling and College Financial Aid, investigates whether students who expected to go to college after high school met with a high school counselor about financial aid and completed the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), and whether meetings and completion varied by parental education. It also describes whether students who met with a high school counselor about financial aid received need-based or merit-based grants in college. The reports finds:

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Among students who planned to go to college, a higher percentage of those who met with a counselor about financial aid completed a FAFSA (87 percent) compared with those who did not meet with a counselor about financial aid (59 percent).

The difference in FAFSA filing between the groups of students who did and did not meet with a counselor was larger for students whose parents had a high school diploma or less than it was for students whose parents earned a bachelor’s or higher degree.

About two-thirds of college students who met with a high school counselor received need-based grants, compared with 45 percent of college students who did not meet with a high school counselor. In contrast, there was no measurable difference in merit-based grant receipt by high school counselor meetings about financial aid. 

This Data Point uses data from the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 (HSLS:09), a national study of more than 23,000 ninth-graders in 2009. Students answered surveys between 2009 and 2016. College transcripts and financial aid records were collected in 2017–18 in the Postsecondary Education Transcript Study and Student Financial Aid Records Collection (PETS-SR).

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