Website Provides Student Aid Data

The Institute for College Access and Success (TICAS) launched economicdiversity.org last Friday, becoming the first website to make financial aid data for more than 2,000 colleges and universities available to the public.

Executive Director of TICAS Bob Shireman said that there were a few reasons for making the information, which includes the number of financial aid applicants, race and ethnicity breakdowns, and income distribution charts, accessible to the public.

“We wanted to provide more information so that colleges pay more attention to their efforts to bring low-income students to colle­­ge,” Shireman said. “And at the other end of the spectrum, a lot of students at community colleges don’t apply for financial aid who could benefit from it.”

Shireman added that he hopes the website educates policy makers about “the nuances of higher education finance” and how the financial aid system works.

The website allows users to look at institutional summaries for individual schools, providing facts such as the average amount of debt per graduate.

A comparison feature lets visitors create tables that can compare up to 128 types of criterion between institutions.

Harvard’s profile indicates that for the 2003-04 application season, 55 percent of undergraduates did not apply for financial aid.

The website also reports that six percent of students received Pell grants, which the website states typically go to students with family incomes lower than $40,000.

Shireman said that he admired Harvard’s efforts to recruit low-income students through the Financial Aid Initiative.

“Everyone looks to Harvard for leadership, and Harvard is sending the right message to students of low-income families that they can afford college,” he said.

But Harvard’s profile shows that 45 percent of students graduate with debt, averaging $9,640 per student. Princeton, on the other hand, had only 15 percent of students graduating with debt, averaging $4,030 per student.

All of the data on the site comes from the U.S. Department of Education, Shireman said. And all of the numbers that are currently posted are from 2003-2004.

Edie Irons, program associate for TICAS, said the site will be updated as soon as new data becomes available.

“There are limitations to the conclusions that can be drawn using the data that exists, but part of our mission is to push for better data collection,” Irons said.

Economicdiversity.org is sponsored by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, which gives grants to solve social and environmental problems, according to the foundation’s web site.