Simulating the Longitudinal Effects of Changes in Financial Aid on Student Departure from College

Student Aid and Its Role in Encouraging Persistence

“…Similarly, two recent studies shed further light on the longer-term workings of merit aid. In a singleinstitution study, DesJardins et al (2002) report that merit aid has one of the largest effects on student persistence but that the effects diminish after the first 2 years. Singell and Stater (2006) conclude that: "[a]verage merit-based aid was positively associated with graduation.…”

“…This makes it possible to examine how various forms of financial aid interact with student background characteristics and types of institutions to influence student persistence. The weaknesses of these databases include the following limitations: Braunstein et al, 2000Li and Killian, 1999Bresciani and Carson, 2002Lichtenstein, 2000Cabrera et al, 1992Singell, 2004DesJardins, 2001Singell and Stater, 2006DesJardins et al, 2002Somers, 1995Herzog, 2005Lam, 1999Stinebrickner and Stinebrickner, 2003 (1) they may lack sufficient sample sizes to examine the effects of specific state financial aid programs, (2) they do not allow for the examination of the effects of institutional aid programs at a specific college or university, and (3) large national databases typically lack sufficient measures of the effects of college experience variables (such as academic and social integration) that have been found to be strong predictors of persistence. The first National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS:87) includes GPA, hours of required instruction per week and remedial course-taking (NPSAS, 1987).…”

Financial Aid and Student Dropout in Higher Education: A Heterogeneous Research Approach

“…More recently, event history modeling has been introduced to consider the temporal nature of student departure (Chen & DesJardins, in press;DesJardins et al, 1999;DesJardins et al, 2002a;Ishitani & DesJardins, 2003). This analytic technique has been frequently used in economic and social science research for investigating the occurrence and timing of events (Diggle et al, 1994).…”

“…With few exceptions (Chen & DesJardins, in press;DesJardins et al, 1999DesJardins et al, , 2002aIshitani & DesJardins, 2003;, the literature on student persistence/departure adopts a limited time perspective. Researchers generally considers two points in time: the point of entry and the time when dropout is determined (Tinto, 1982).…”

“…More recently, scholars have come to realize that detailed information about financial aid would be lost if only aid types rather than aid amount variables were used. Thus, the measure of aid amount has been integrated into research models (DesJardins et al, 2002a;2002b;Paulsen & St. John, 2002;St. John, 1990).…”