Proportion of Full-Time Students With Unmet Need Is Greatest at Community Colleges

Community colleges may be the bargain of higher education, but many students who attend them cannot reasonably afford them, according to a new analysis by the Institute for College Access and Success.

Community-college students enrolled full time are more likely than their counterparts at both public and private four-year colleges to have unmet financial need after receiving student aid. Eighty percent of full-time students who demonstrated need at community colleges received less money than they needed, compared with 54 percent at public four-year institutions and 53 percent at private four-year colleges.

The institute’s analysis, “Quick Facts About Financial Aid and Community Colleges, 2007-8,” is based on data from the U.S. Education Department’s 2007-8 National Postsecondary Student Aid Study. The institute analyzed information only for undergraduates attending college full time, about a quarter of whom are at community colleges.

Even though tuition at community colleges is generally far lower than that at most four-year institutions, the average cost of attendance is still $10,392 with books, transportation, room and board, and other education-related expenses. The vast majority of full-time community-college students have documented need, and 65 percent of those receive Pell Grants. But, on average, they still face the same gap — $5,277 — between need and aid as students at public four-year institutions ($5,286).

That results in part from the fact that relatively few community-college students take out federally backed loans that may be part of their aid packages. But they also have less access to state grants, institutional aid, or Work-Study funds than do their four-year counterparts. —Elyse Ashburn