Group B2: How Do Student Pay For College?

How Do Students Pay For College?

Group B2: Michelle Franklin, Audra Pettit & Halimah Alkhatib
EDT 180 Section B
Gary Lewallen
April 26th, 2016

Introduction:
Our group decided to research the most common way college students pay for their
education and analyze those results based on both gender and ethnicity. We received these results

Group B2: How Do Student Pay For College?

through a survey that asked the gender of the person, their grade level, their ethnicity, and how
they paid their tuition. The survey also asked the participants which of the various ways to pay
for their education they used. These choices were loans, grants, scholarships, and financial
assistance from family and friends. In order to collect this data, we created a Google Doc form
that was sent to a number of people. We had 255 people respond to the survey.
Discussion:

In this graph, we simply took the number of people that said they did or did not use each
type of financial aid. We found that the most common form of financial aid that people use is
student loans, followed by federal aid, scholarships, and help from friends and family. The data
supports the first part of our question by showing which type of financial aid most people use.

Group B2: How Do Student Pay For College?

This stacked bar graph depicts the type of scholarship used based on the ethnicity of the
student. The majority of students that completed the survey were caucasian, which contributed to
the large amount of caucasians using all types of financial aid. The small number of European
and Middle Eastern people taking the survey led to low amounts of financial aid used.

This bar graph displays the amount of females and males that are receiving student loans
as a form of financial aid. Here, we can see that a large amount of females took the survey
compared to men. We also see that more males accept student loans than females. In addition to
2

Group B2: How Do Student Pay For College?

this information, there is a significant difference between the amount of people who accept
student loans and those that do not. Nearly half of both genders accept student loans as a form of
financial aid.

This stacked bar graph shows the amount of males and females that received financial aid
from friends and family. In general, financial aid from friends and family was the least used in
this survey. Because of this, the amount of people that accepted financial help from friends and
family is almost equal to those that did not accept or receive financial assistance.

This pie chart represents the amount of males and females that have earned scholarships
as a form of financial aid to pay for their tuition. Again, it is seen that there was a significantly
3

Group B2: How Do Student Pay For College?

more amount of females that participated in this survey compared to males. This shows that out
of all of the scholarships that were chosen in the survey, more than 75% of them were from
females and less than 25% of them were from males. These statistics show that females are more
likely to receive and accept scholarships than males.

This bar graph depicts the amount of federal aid that was accepted and received by
students that participated in the survey. These statistics show that females have received and
accepted federal aid more than males by almost triple the amount. The graph also displays that
more females participated in the survey than males. This in turn provides us with skewed results
of the data because there are not an equal amount of males and females within the survey.
Analysis:
From our research, we have come to the conclusion that the most common form of
financial aid received and accepted by students are student loans. In addition, we also found that
there were more females and caucasians were offered and accept a form of financial aid.

Group B2: How Do Student Pay For College?

While completing our research, we experienced a few issues while analyzing the data.
First, when we looked at ethnicity, we allowed participants of various ethnicities to select the
forms of financial aid that applied to their financial situation. Because of this, our statistical
analysis of each type of financial aid was not congruent with the number of people that took the
survey. Because of this, it was difficult to determine which ethnicity group used which form of
financial aid the most. The second issue that occurred when analyzing our data was that we also
allowed each gender to choose multiple forms of financial aid as it pertained to their financial
situation. This made it difficult to analyze which gender used which form of financial aid the
most. Our results became jaded because Arizona State University seems to have a high
population of caucasians and females attending the university. Therefore, these results may not
pertain to other universities that have a more diverse population.
If we were to recreate this survey, we would change the question to ask the participants
which form of financial aid they received and accepted to cover the majority of their tuition so
that there isnt any overlap in our data. By changing the question to be more focused and direct,
we are provided with more precise data concerning how many students from each gender and
ethnicity use one form of financial aid. This would make the results more exact and we would be
able to determined which gender and ethnicity group received one form of financial aid the most.