National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS)

3. KEY CONCEPTS

Described below are several key concepts relevant to financial assistance for postsecondary education. For additional NPSAS terms, refer to the glossaries in published statistical analysis reports and database documentation.

Level and Control of Institution. Control refers to the source of revenue and control of operations (public, private nonprofit, private for-profit), and level refers to the highest degree or award offered by the institution in any program. Doctorate-granting institutions award a doctoral—research/scholarship or doctoral—professional practice degree in one or more programs; non-doctorate-granting 4-year institutions award at least a bachelor’s degree; 2-year institutions award at least an associate’s degree; and less-than-2-year institutions award certificates or other credentials in vocational programs. Public 4-year, non-doctorate-granting institutions are further subdivided by whether the institutions primarily conferred subbaccalaureate awards (certificates and associate’s degrees) or bachelor’s degrees.

Attendance Pattern. A student’s intensity and persistence of attendance during the NPSAS year. Intensity refers to whether the student attended full- or part-time while enrolled. Persistence refers to the number of months a student is enrolled during the year. Students are considered to be enrolled for a full year if they are enrolled 8 or more months during the year. Months do not have to be contiguous or at the same institution, and students do not have to be enrolled for a full month to be considered enrolled for that month.

Dependency Status.If a student is considered financially dependent, the parents’ assets and income are considered in determining aid eligibility. If the student is financially independent, only the student’s assets are considered, regardless of the relationship between student and parent. The federal definition of dependency status has remained the same in each administration of NPSAS since academic year 1995–96. All students who are age 24 or over in the fall term of the NPSAS year are considered to be independent. Students under 24 who are married, have legal dependents other than a spouse, are veterans, or are an orphan or ward of the courts are also independent. Other undergraduates under age 24 are considered to be dependent, unless they can demonstrate to a financial aid officer that they do not receive any financial support from their parents. All graduate students in programs beyond a bachelor’s degree are considered to be independent

Expected Family Contribution (EFC). The amount of financial support for the student’s undergraduate education that is expected to be provided by the student’s family, or directly by the student if the student is financially independent. This amount is used to determine financial need and is based upon dependency status (see above definition), family income and assets, family size, and the number of children in the family enrolled in postsecondary education. This information is gathered from the Department of Education’s financial aid system (the Central Processing System), or it is imputed from student income.

Title IV Financial Aid. The sum of the following types of federal aid: Pell Grants, Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grants (SEOG), Perkins Loans, Direct Loans (also known as Stafford Loans), PLUS Loans, and Federal Work Study. NPSAS:08 also included Academic Competitiveness Grants and National SMART Grants.

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