Financial aid and self-reports by disadvantaged students: The importance of being earnest

The Effect of Loans on the Persistence and Attainment of Community College Students

“…Low-income and first-generation students may face significant barriers to accessing the information needed to make an informed decision about borrowing and may have greater difficulties than other students in completing required documentation (Kane, 1999;Nora and Horvath, 1989;Olivas, 1986). A recent analysis of NPSAS data indicates that many aid-eligible students fail to complete the federal financial aid form, with community college students least likely to take this first step (Gidjunis, 2004).…”

Measuring how college affects students: Social desirability and other potential biases in college student self‐reported gains

“…Social desirability bias occurs when students overreport desirable attributes and behaviors (for example, college GPA) or underreport undesirable attributes and behaviors (cheating). Porter (in press) suggests that social desirability on college student surveys may lead to distorted and misleading conclusions, because students tend to offer socially desirable responses in reporting their standardized test scores (Cole and Gonyea, 2010;Kuncel, Crede, and Thomas, 2005), college grades (Kuncel, Crede, and Thomas, 2005), family income (Olivas, 1986), and fi nancial aid (Trusheim, 1994). Stating that one has gained considerably while in college seems to be a socially desirable response; the unappealing alternative is to report that one has changed little, if at all.…”

Income and Access to Higher Education: Are High Quality Universities Becoming More or Less Elite? A Longitudinal Case Study of Admissions at UW-Madison

“…The most common sources for supplementing measures of family income are student responses to survey questions administered during ACT and SAT examinations as well as during the CIRP Freshmen survey. For a number of reasons, these responses can be woefully, sometimes systematically, inaccurate; most students simply do not have accurate information on family income and wealth (Olivas 1986; Trusheim 1994; Smith and McCann 1998; Gonyea 2005). To enable in depth institutional analyses, a new approach is needed.…”

“…These measures are based upon reported income data for approximately 1,200 individuals (600 households) at the census block level. With our large sample of applicants, and this smallest of the census units, this method promises to estimate family income imperfectly but with less bias and greater reliability than student self-reports (Olivas 1986). When this measure of applicant income is included in regression models, coefficients theoretically reflect the combined effect of contextual (neighborhood) and individual-level income factors, but should serve as a more valid method for drawing inferences about income than self-reports (on using aggregate data as a proxy, see Geronimus, Bound, and Neidert 1996; Smith, Ben-Shiomo, and Hart 1999).…”