College Costs, Financial Aid, & Student Debt

How do students pay for college?

The National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS) is a comprehensive nationwide study that helps policymakers understand how students and their families pay for postsecondary education. Since the early 1990s, MPR has played a central role in the development and dissemination of NPSAS data. We collaborate on defining the data elements, review and monitor critical items during the data collection process, and prepare data for analysis. We also conduct analyses and write reports on the characteristics of undergraduates and student financing of undergraduate and graduate education. Visit the NPSAS website for more information on this survey and links to related reports.

DataLab puts data at your fingertips

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) is the repository for a vast amount of postsecondary education data. To make these data and related tabulations and reports accessible to researchers and the public, MPR designed, built, and maintains DataLab. QuickStats, a feature of DataLab, is an easy-to-use online tool that allows visitors to create simple tables quickly from several NCES datasets; the Data Analysis System (DAS) allows them to conduct more complex analyses; and the Data Library allows them to search existing tables and figures for answers to their questions. Visit DataLab