The Case for IES Postsecondary Studies: What NPSAS and BPS Tell us About College Affordability and Student Outcomes

The recent cancellation of critical grants and contracts at the Institute for Education Sciences (IES) jeopardizes the future of congressionally mandated and statistically robust surveys on postsecondary education experiences and outcomes. These include the National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS) and its longitudinal follow-up study of the outcomes of first-time college students, the Beginning Postsecondary Study (BPS). These data sources provide crucial insights about students’ enrollment, persistence, affordability, on-campus experiences, degree completion and post-college outcomes. By analyzing these data, we gain a better understanding of how these factors vary across different student characteristics.  

This post explores key questions that can only be answered by reviewing and analyzing NPSAS and BPS data.  

Which Students Have the Most Difficulty Paying for College?

While other resources reveal how much institutions charge students and how much they receive in grants and loans, NPSAS and BPS are the only sources of information about how students pay for college and how those choices affect future outcomes. That’s because other federal postsecondary data sources collect data from colleges’ on tuition and fees, students’ average living expenses, and the typical grant aid awarded. While useful, these institution-level data tell us nothing about what students can afford, whether they can cover tuition and living expenses, and which students face the greatest financial barriers.

Because of NPSAS, we know that unmet need is a problem for many students:.  

• After accounting for grant aid, the typical Black student is charged about $9,000 more than what their family can afford.
• Students who qualify for federal Pell Grants are typically charged about $10,000 more than they can afford.
• In contrast, students who did not receive a Pell Grant can typically afford to spend about $5,000 more on college costs, after accounting for grants and scholarships. 
• Students from families with the lowest incomes would need to pay 148% of their family’s annual income to cover the average net price for a single year at a four-year college—while students from a families with the highest incomes would only need 13%.

Without NPSAS, these affordability gaps would remain hidden. 

How do Students Cover College Affordability Gaps?

Fortunately, NPSAS goes far beyond illustrating the extent to which students struggle with affordability. It also offers insights into how they attempt to close those gaps. Among students with unmet need in 2019-2020 school year:

• 40% reported taking out student loans, nearly twice the rate of students without unmet need (21%).
• 33% reported working at least 30 hours per week while enrolled, despite strong evidence that working more than 20 hours per week can be detrimental to student success.
• Only 42% reported receiving financial support from their parents for their educational expenses.
• 26% met the criteria for low or very low food security, and 9% reported experiencing homelessness over the last 30 days.

This suggests that for many students with unmet need, a lack of financial resources puts them in a dire situation where basic needs must be sacrificed to make ends meet. Combined, these findings suggest that students with unmet need frequently borrow, work long hours, or cut back on necessary expenses to address financial shortfalls. These strategies can create additional difficulty for students’ completion and post-college outcomes.  

Without NPSAS, we wouldn’t know how students navigate affordability gaps, or what they sacrifice to stay enrolled.

How do Affordability Gaps Shape Student Outcomes?

The BPS survey is the only source of information about how students’ affordability gaps shape completion, loan repayment and wages. Among students with unmet need in their first year of undergraduate studies, six years later:  

• 34% had not completed a postsecondary degree or certificate, compared to only 26% of students without unmet need.
• 19% defaulted on a student loan at least once, compared to only 6% of students whose need was fully met.
• Their average earnings were $26,700 annually—well over $8,000 less than students without unmet need.  

Leaving school without a degree, defaulting on federal student loans, and low average earnings all provide evidence that students with unmet need often do not experience the full economic value of pursuing college.   

Without BPS, we wouldn’t see how financial hardship affect students beyond graduation.

The NPSAS and BPS survey programs provide critical information about how students pay for college, what strategies help them overcome inadequate grant aid, and how scarce resources can influence college completion and post-college finances.

In addition, NPSAS is required by statute and the recent abrupt cancellations risk violating legal requirements. Cutting longstanding contracts also wastes substantial resources that have already been spent on survey development, testing, and data collection and processing. Without these studies, policymakers, researchers, and student advocates lose critical tools to improve college affordability and student success.

This is the first in a series of IHEP blog posts that will explore the potential impact of the sudden cancellation of grants and contracts at IES.  The posts will shed light on the critical insights policymakers, researchers, student success professionals and the postsecondary field writ large stand to lose if these studies end permanently.  

Unless otherwise noted, all data points included in this post were generated from the National Center on Education Statistics DataLab. Readers can access the underlying data output using the DataLab’s “Quick Launch” tool. For data on students’ affordability strategies use code zzyapf, for data on student outcomes use code qhtdxi.