Nearly all of the full-time, first-year undergraduates who faced higher sticker prices or sticker prices below $12,000 in public research universities can be classified as traditional. Characteristics of traditional students include being single, younger than 24, or financially dependent on their parents. Also, the family incomes of the undergraduates attending institutions in the two institutional groups did not differ statistically.

The percent of full-time, first-year undergraduates attending college out-of-state, and the percent living on-campus differentiated those who enrolled with higher sticker prices from those enrolling with sticker prices below $12,000 in public research universities. Fifty-five percent of full-time, first-year undergraduates with higher sticker prices enrolled in institutions out-of-state compared with 19 percent of those with sticker prices below $12,000 in public research universities. Further, 92 percent of the full-time, first-year undergraduates with higher sticker prices lived on-campus compared with 74 percent of those with sticker prices below $12,000 in public research universities.