Student Financial Aid Benefits

Scholarships, grants, loans, and work-study funds are the four main ways in which students are able to have financial aid when applying and paying for college. Loans are a form of financial aid that you are required to pay back over time, either to the government or private institution that granted it. Grants are sums of money given to students by federal governments, and do not need to be repaid. Scholarships and work-study funds are types of financial aid that do not need to be repaid, but students are required to maintain a certain grade point average and academic standing, or be employed by the university, respectively. The high cost of pursuing a higher education for many students comes with financial struggles from the past, and added

The Pell Grant, a government funded sum of money given to students who apply for it and are in need of money to pay for college, was founded in the early 1970's as a way to address the financial weight college bares on students

(History of Student Financial Aid). Grants are unlike loans that need to be paid back over time.

The money given to someone from a grant does not need to be paid back, and is used to pay for the education it was given for. In the Early 1990's, several additions to government funded education aid were made, including making FAFSA, free for those who apply, and adding new grants for prospecting college students (History of Student Financial Aid). More recently, in academic aid, new tactics have been looked at to once again, improve student's performance and retention due to low-income. Methods of improving classroom environments to provide a more confident learning environment have been explored by Erik Morales in his look at "How

Original Research on Academic Resilience Informs What College Faculty Can do to Increase the

Retention of Low Socioeconomic Status Students". His finding of seeing the benefits of demonstrating how to apply what students are learning as a way for them to see the

Service learning programs are an example of what universities are implementing to aid retention. These service learning programs teach students how to apply what they are learning in ways that help the community; this in turn has shown to teach students valuable skills in term of community responsibility as well as academics (Sandoz 72). By getting at-risk students the proper support when it comes to applying what they're learning, they are able to succeed in the academic field as well. A study done over time showed that out of a group of 22,000 students, those who participated in service learning were shown to "have higher GPA's, better self-assessed writing skills, and better self-assessed critical thinking skills" (Sandoz 72). Sandoz recognizes that with the help of service learning programs for new college students, development in four key areas is present; these areas are academic abilities, social capacities, personal insight, and cultural awareness (Sandoz 72).