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Bureaucracy and Burden: Understanding Take-up of a Need-Based Financial Aid Program

Elizabeth Burland,
Jasmina Camo-Biogradlija,
Kelcie Ferrara-Gerson,
Xavier Fields,
Katherine Michelmore,
Nathan Sotherland,
Kevin Stange,
Marissa Thompson,
Megan Tompkins-Stange

Social welfare programs, including college financial aid, often only reach a fraction of eligible beneficiaries. We examine this problem through the lens of Michigan’s Tuition Incentive Program (TIP), a state need-based grant aid program. We conduct a large-scale mixed-methods study using data on over one million Michigan public-school students, and 55 interviews with front-line administrators, high school counselors, and financial aid staff. We find that while one third of Michigan high school graduates are eligible for TIP, its take-up rate is only 14 percent, diminishing its impact on college affordability. We identify key barriers that shape take-up: the presence of administrative burdens, and constraints faced by front-line administrators in alleviating these burdens when administrative responsibility is fractured and ill-defined.

Keywords
Financial aid, College Access, Administrative Burden
Education level
Post-secondary education
Topics
Policy, Politics, and Governance
Tags
Higher education
Download 09/2025
Document Object Identifier (DOI)
10.26300/0ezs-5g46
EdWorkingPaper suggested citation:
Burland, Elizabeth, Jasmina Camo-Biogradlija, Kelcie Ferrara-Gerson, Xavier Fields, Katherine Michelmore, Nathan Sotherland, Kevin Stange, Marissa Thompson, and Megan Tompkins-Stange. (). Bureaucracy and Burden: Understanding Take-up of a Need-Based Financial Aid Program. (EdWorkingPaper: -1283). Retrieved from Annenberg Institute at Brown University: https://doi.org/10.26300/0ezs-5g46

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