Augenblick, John, et al. PATTERNS OF FUNDING, NET PRICE AND FINANCIAL NEED FOR POSTSECONDARY EDUCATION STUDENTS: DIFFERENCES AMONG STATES, INSTITUTIONAL SECTORS AND INCOME GROUPS. REPORT F79-X. Education Commission of the States, Denver, Colo. Education Finance Center. Feb 1979. 104 p. (ED167006)

In this study on financial aid to students in higher education, descriptive data are provided on differences found among states, institutional sectors, and income groups with respect to student costs and sources of funding, the reduction in cost of attendance due to the distribution of aid, and the resulting amount of overmet or undermet financial need of students. Data for first-time, full-time undergraduate students are drawn from the 1977 annual survey of entering freshmen, called the Cooperative Institute Research Program (CIRP). States chosen for the analysis are California, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and South Carolina. A sixth conglomerate "state" was created by pooling data from all states that have a small state grant program. The states comprising the conglomerate are Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, and Virginia. Estimates of the average student's budget or cost of attendance and a dollar and percentage breakdown of the major sources of funding to meet the student's costs are presented. The distribution of student financial aid and the resulting net price, the amount that a student and his family must actually pay to attend, are examined. Comparisons are made of the degree to which net price deviates from cost of attendance and of the variations in net price for states, sectors, and income groups. Data on financial aid recipients are presented, and comparisons are made of actual parental contributions with a formula-calculated expected parental contribution. (SW)