The Organizational Ecology of College Affordability: Research Activity, State Grant Aid Policies, and Student Debt at U.S. Public Universities

Abstract

Sociologists have theorized U.S. universities as a heterogenous organizational ecology. We use this lens to compare student debt and college prices for low-income students across public universities according to their research intensiveness and varied state grant aid policies. We show that students at research-intensive public universities have had an easier time repaying student loans than at other schools. By linking multiple data sets, we also provide the first comprehensive assessment for all 50 states of state-level need-based grant aid programs, which might alleviate loan repayment challenges. We find large disparities. California, Washington, Wyoming, and New Jersey spent more than $4,000 on aid per low-income student in 2015, more than the federal expenditure on Pell Grants for their state. Most states spend little in comparison. Contra the Bennett hypothesis, we also find that state need-based aid is strongly associated with both lower net prices and lower student loan nonrepayment rates.

Universities as peculiar organizations

“…Further amending the insight of academic anarchy, contemporary sociologists of US higher education describe how schools have developed varied functions suited to niches availed by complex public subsidies, status hierarchies, state regulations, and regional labor market demands (Bok, 2009;Eaton, Kulkarni, Birgeneau, Brady, & Hout, 2019;Gerber & Cheung, 2008;Scott & Kirst, 2017;Stevens & Kirst, 2015). At the ecological level, there is at least some order to the chaos.…”

Challenges for higher education in the United States: The cost problem and a comparison of remedies

“…Student loan default is defined by the US government as non-repayment for more than 270 days (US Department of Education, 2021).3 Just eight American states provide nearly three-quarters of need-based financial aid that derive from(Eaton et al, 2019). Some states provide mainly merit-based aid, which tends to benefit middle and upper-middle income students.…”

“… 3 3 Just eight American states provide nearly three‐quarters of need‐based financial aid that derive from (Eaton et al, 2019). Some states provide mainly merit‐based aid, which tends to benefit middle and upper‐middle income students.…”

The Student Financial Complex and Middle-Class Moralities

“…Considering the broader scope of inequality in debt and college also highlights the role of higher education institutions in the inequalities involved with navigating the student financial complex. Sociologists of education demonstrate that colleges and universities are themselves in binds created by the underinvestment in public subsidies alongside the large student financial aid system (Goldrick-Rab 2016; Eaton et al 2016;Eaton et al 2019;Berman and Stivers 2016). Institutions across sectors benefit from the open flow of money out of the financial aid system (McMillan Cottom 2017; Seamster and Charron-Che ´nier 2017).…”