<p>Ugh, that's not right Pdaddy. Again, is there somewhere that private citizens can contribute to students who have the ability but not the finances to complete college? Possibly sponsoring a student without specifying a particular school? A student from the lower economic strata who graduates from college is helping our country IMO.</p>
<p>There was a small but reliable relationship at the University I mentioned above between family income and academic performance. At this university, there is a strong link between academic performance and graduation. Perhaps there is something about low income that interferes with academic performance. </p>
<p>Here are the cumulative gpas. </p>
<p>$0-$20000 2.70
$20000-$40000 2.74
$40000-$60000 2.83
$60000-$80000 2.88
$80000-$100000 2.85
$100000-$120000 2.92
$120000 and above 2.91</p>
<p>One way you might be able to help is via Modest Needs. If you're a large enough donor (over $365, i think), they'll let you adopt certain requests personally. If you give less than that, you can't direct your donations specifically, but you can rate applications for aid (and you could rate highly those from students who are struggling in college).</p>
<p>check it out at modestneeds.com</p>
<p>Thank you hoedown, I will do that.</p>
<p>The relationship between financial aid in the form of University grants gift aid and the graduation rate can be deceiving. More grant money is usually given to lower income students who tend to be less prepared academically for college. So, you find statistics that make it look like more grant money has a detrimental effect on graduation rates, which, on the surface, does not make sense.</p>
<p>For example, at Cornell:</p>
<p>graduation rates of:</p>
<p>students who received institutional grant money
african american 82%
hispanic 91%
caucasian 94%
total 91%</p>
<p>students who received loan but no grant
african american 72%
hispanic 89%
caucasian 93%
total 93%</p>
<p>students who received work-study or no other Cornell aid
african american 67%
hispanic 91%
caucasian 94%
total 93%</p>
<p>It seems like african americans are the only racial/ethnic group at Cornell whose grad rate benefits from grant aid.</p>
<p>"There was a small but reliable relationship at the University I mentioned above between family income and academic performance. At this university, there is a strong link between academic performance and graduation. Perhaps there is something about low income that interferes with academic performance."</p>
<p>It's called stressing about money...and employment!</p>
<p>Stress about money and employment...stress about anything...is distracting and demoralizing. It would probably affect academic performance.</p>
<p>Low income families are more likely to have this kind of stress but money issues are not exclusive to low income families. There are plenty of high income families out there with high credit card debt and school loans to pay off from younger siblings. Financial aid formulas are unsympathetic to these high-income, high-debt families.</p>
<p>On the flip side, there are families who seem like low income but they come up with the money such as single parent families in which the low-income custodial parent fills out the FAFSA, not the high-income non-custodial parent.</p>
<p>I am not disagreeing, mini, I am merely saying that the money issue is complex.</p>
<p>An afterthought...
How much help can a $4000 Pell grant be? In NYS there are TAP awards up to $5000 in addition to Pell...even $9000 barely makes a dent...but better than nothing.</p>