How Latinos Pay for College Fact Sheet

Overview

Excelencia knows college is not affordable for many Latino students. One of our first reports (2005) summarized how Latino students paid for college. Fifteen years later we see significantly more Latinos in higher education—but challenges in affordability remain. The profile of Latino students and their participation in federal financial aid are important as we consider implications for policy changes and investments.

Latino students make pragmatic choices to finance their college education. Latino students pay for college through grants more so than loans and adapt their enrollment and the types of institutions they enroll in to make college affordable.

In this factsheet, Excelencia provides a summary of how Latinos pay for college to better inform financial aid policy to ensure Latino college access, retention, and success. This summary includes Latino students’ participation in federal student aid overall, Pell Grants, Federal Work-Study, and federal student loans with the latest available data from the 2015-16 National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS).