Impact of the institutional financial aid process on students of color

The study examines the impact of the institutional financial aid process on students of color at the California Community Colleges. The institutional financial aid process starts after a student completes the Federal Free Application for Federal Student Aid and ends when a student has been awarded financial aid and makes a decision to enroll. Through the use of quantitative based methods, two application failure rates were analyzed for African-American, Asian, Hispanic, and White students against the independent variables of the institutional application process using multiple-regression analysis. Calculated application failure rates for the 43 California Community Colleges in the study were as low as 2% and as high as 47%. Findings include descriptive statistics of the current state of the institutional application process at the California Community Colleges as well as statistical analysis. The multiple-regression analysis found increases in application failure rates with significance with higher student to financial aid staff ratios for most student ethnicity groups and the overall student population. Analysis also found lowered application failure rates with significance with increased office hours and increased availability of financial aid forms online for most student ethnicity groups and the overall student population. Recommendations were made about how the California Community College financial aid offices might implement changes to decrease student financial aid application failure rates