The Impacts of Financial Aid on Student Success at Model College

The national conversation on student loan debt has led to questioning the value of American higher education. Students are relying on federal and private student loan products to pay for the cost of attendance at American higher education institutions. To address this challenge, many institutions have launched no-loan initiatives. One such institution is Model College (pseudonym), a highly selective NCAA Division I, private liberal arts college on the east coast that launched a no-loan initiative in 2019. This study shows the differences in student experience and student success by evaluating student life experience, academic experience, and experience with financial aid and work-study between the cohort of students who receive financial aid packages that include loans and work-study and those who do not.