By Allie Negron on November 11, 2017

We are pleased to share “Affording to Finish: Strategies to Improve Students’ Financial Health & College Completion.” This report summarizes key findings from uAspire’s Washington D.C. convening of national leaders and addresses our collective concern that while college enrollment is up, college completion is not.

Working with students, we see how difficult and stressful it can be to pay the college bill and manage college costs, especially for students from low-income families. Increasingly, we see students leave college without a degree because they cannot afford to stay.

What can be done on a broad scale to improve the financial well-being of college students, and reduce their risk of dropping out? “Affording to Finish” recommends several solutions by:

• Identifying the financial challenges low-income students face and innovative strategies to address them
• Highlighting 11 case studies, “Promising Practices Profiles,” of pilots implemented by colleges to promote student financial well-being and completion
• Reviewing an expanded list of related resources for further exploration

uAspire would like to thank MetLife Foundation for its generous support of our research and the convening. We greatly appreciate the convening attendees for their participation, contributions, and continued efforts to help students afford to finish.

We hope you gain new insight from this report, and encourage you to share it with your colleagues and networks.

Read the report here.