State Oversamples

To date, states have been oversampled in two released NPSAS studies to allow for state-level analyses. In both cases, the study was designed to ensure comparability with prior NPSAS studies in the national sample and the instrumentation to ensure that important comparisons could be made across collections.

• NPSAS:04: NPSAS:04 was designed to provide state-level estimates for undergraduate students within three institutional strata—public 2-year institutions, public 4-year institutions, and private not-for-profit 4-year institutions' for 12 states that were categorized into three groups based on population size—four large, four medium, and four small: California, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Maine, Nebraska, New York, Oregon, Tennessee, and Texas.
• NPSAS:08: NPSAS:08 was designed to provide state-level estimates for undergraduate students within four institutional strata—public 2-year institutions, public 4-year institutions, private not-for-profit 4-year institutions, and private for-profit institutions' for six states: California, Georgia, Illinois, New York, Minnesota, and Texas.
• NPSAS:18-AC: NPSAS:18-AC is a unique study that is based solely on administrative data sources to provide nationally representative financial aid estimates. This study is nationally representative for undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in public, private not-for-profit, and private for-profit institutions at the 4-year, 2-year, and less-than-2-year levels. It is also state representative for all undergraduate students for 30 states overall, 36 states for public 2-year institutions, and 45 states for public 4-year institutions. Unlike other NPSAS studies, NPSAS:18-AC does not include student survey data and does not include data on private loans.
• NPSAS:20: NPSAS:20 was designed to include both national and state-level representative data on postsecondary students enrolled in 2019-20. This study is nationally representative of undergraduate and graduate students who were survey respondents enrolled in public, private not-for-profit, and private for-profit institutions at the 4-year, 2-year, and less-than-2-year levels. It is also state representative for all undergraduate students for 30 states overall, 34 states for public 2-year institutions, and 40 states for public 4-year institutions. Like NPSAS:18-AC, the state-level representative data do not include data on private loans.