Barriers to Success: High Unmet Financial Need Continues to Endanger Higher Education Opportunities for Low Income Students

Abstract

For nearly three in four people, paying for a postsecondary education seems out of reach. The cost of college has far outpaced the growth in incomes for more than a decade. Low-income students are disproportionately affected by these skyrocketing costs because they have fewer resources to fall back on. When student financial aid cannot meet educational expenses, low-income students are more likely to borrow or work more, cut their course load, or even drop out. CLASP’s 2013 “Mind the Gap” paper shined a spotlight on the problem of unmet need among community college students, documenting that virtually all of the neediest independent community college students (98 percent or more) had unmet need. This report points out some of the barriers to success in the higher education for low-income students.