Financial Aid Study to Focus On Graduate Students

WASHINGTON

The National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA) and Access Group Inc. announced the launch of the 2003 Survey of Graduate Aid Policies, Practices and Procedures (SOGAPPP), a research project designed to provide new information on the funding, distribution and administration of financial aid for graduate and professional students.

While a substantial body of research exists about financial aid for undergraduates, relatively little is understood about the strategies that administrators use to package aid for students in law, medicine and other graduate and professional programs. The SOGAPPP is intended to help bridge this knowledge gap.

This will be the second SOGAPPP study. The first was completed in 1999. This new study will provide an update on the policies and practices that administrators use to help graduate and professional students finance their educational programs.

Daniel R. Lau, president and CEO of Access Group Inc., says the new study "will provide solid information on current costs of attendance, current levels of aid and where it's coming from, and an overview of the wide range of need analysis, packaging strategies and processing technologies now in use."

The 2003 SOGAPPP will use a Web-based survey to collect information on a variety of topics of interest to the community that serves graduate or professional students, including:

• Full- and part-time enrollments in graduate and professional programs;

• Proportion of students who receive financial aid and amounts received;

• Loan packaging policies and use of private or alternative loans;

• Proportion of total costs covered by financial aid and strategies used by students to cover their "unmet" financial need;

• The effects of cumulative student loan debt and debt burden on students' career choices.