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

Student Aid and Its Role in Encouraging Persistence

“…Some examples include the following: Bean, 1990;Mallette and Cabrera, 1991;Stage 1989;Tinto, 1993;and Williamson and Creamer, 1988. In addition to efforts to test the models of Vincent Tinto (Braxton et al, 1997;Cabrera et al, 1990;Halpin, 1990;Hurtado and Carter, 1997;Milem and Berger, 1997;Nora et al, 1990;Tierney, 1992) and John Bean (Andreu, 2002;Farabaugh-Dorkins, 1991;Himelhoch et al, 1997;Stahl and Pavel, 1992), there is a growing body of literature that examines the effects of student financial aid on student persistence (e.g., Cabrera et al, 1992;DesJardins et al, 2002a;Dowd and Coury, 2006;DuBrock and Fenske, 2000;Paulsen and St. John, 2002;St. John et al, 1996;Singell and Stater, 2006).…”

“…Somers (1995) utilizes both within-year and year-to-year persistence as outcomes. Studies of community colleges incorporate transfer, return, and reenrollment into definitions of persistence (e.g., Battaglini, 2004;Dowd and Coury, 2006). Other studies examine persistence as ultimately defined by graduation (Alon, 2005;Stinebrickner and Stinebrickner, 2003;Singell and Stater, 2006).…”

“…Relatively few studies focus on the effects of financial aid on persistence at community colleges; notable among these are studies by Cofer and Somers (1999), Dowd andCoury (2006), andTurley (2005). In addition, many of the studies that use state or federal financial aid programs focus most of their attention on students attending 4-year colleges and universities.…”

“…While simple consideration of these categories characterizes a great proportion of the work in this area (e.g., Cofer and Somers, 1999;Dowd and Coury, 2006;Gladieux and Perna, 2005;St. John et al, 2005), variations on the theme highlight some interesting points.…”

Understanding High School Students’ Willingness to Borrow to Pay College Prices

“…Although research has examined the consequences of borrowing for such aspects of students' postsecondary experiences as choice of college to attend (Kim, 2004), persistence and degree completion (DesJardins, Ahlburg & McCall, 2002;Dowd & Coury, 2006;Kim, 2007;St. John, 2003), and graduate school enrollment (Choy & Carroll, 2000;Ehrenberg, 1991;Fox, 1992;Monks, 2001;Perna, 2004;Weiler, 1991), prior research on students' perceptions of loans is limited in several respects.…”