A Racial Equity Study of Federal and Institutional Financial Aid Verification Processes

I designed this descriptive correlational critical quantitative study to investigate the effect of race on the likelihood a student is selected for, and time it takes to complete, the federal financial aid verification process. Federal financial aid application forms do not ask any questions about race or ethnicity and therefore larger quantitative studies using national data sets are at a disadvantage when investigating racially inequitable outcomes. However, for this study, I utilized an existing single institution’s dataset to investigate the federal verification process while paying particular attention to the impact that race has on a student’s likelihood of being selected for, and the time it takes to complete, the federal and institutional financial aid verification processes. Using a critical quantitative methodology (QuantCrit), I found that Asian, Black or African American, Latino(a)/Chicano(a), and students reporting Two or More Races were all statistically more likely to be selected for the federal financial aid verification process than white students. I also found that Asian and Black or African American students are statistically more likely to take longer to complete the verification process than their white peers. The results of this study can and should be used to inform and further discussions of policy and practice changes that are necessary at both federal and institutional levels in order to reform financial aid policies to ensure more racially equitable outcomes