State of Student Aid in Texas – 2022

Section 7: Need and Work

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Unmet Need for Low-Income Students in Texas Is Over $10,000

Unmet need is defined as a student’s cost of attendance* minus his or her expected family contribution (EFC)** and all financial aid including grants, scholarships, work-study, and loans. This is the amount that students and/or their families must cover over and above their EFC, which is also an out-of-pocket expense.

The lowest-income students in Texas tend to have the highest unmet need; in 2019, average unmet need for this group was $11,215 statewide, or over $1,200 per month over the course of the 9-month school year. At private four-year schools, the lowest-income students experienced average unmet need of over $16,000. Besides having greater financial resources to contribute to EFC, those in the highest income category are more likely to attend more expensive four-year institutions, which further increases EFC. Data on students who attended proprietary institutions are not available.

Average Unmet Need for Students in Texas by Income Category and Sector
(Fall 2019)

Average Unmet Need for Students in Texas by Income Category and Sector (Fall 2019)

Average EFC for Students in Texas by Income Category and Sector (Fall 2019)

Average EFC for Students in Texas by Income Category and Sector (Fall 2019)

* Estimated sum of tuition and fees, books and supplies, food and housing, transportation, and other expenses for a full-time student for nine months.
** EFC is determined through a federal formula that considers family size, income, and the number of children in college, among other factors. It is considered a rough estimate of a reasonable, affordable annual payment for a family with a given set of circumstances.
Sources: Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB), “Unmet Need and Expected Family Contribution” (unpublished tables).

Unmet Need Among Community College Students Often Exceeds Expected Family Contribution

Despite substantially lower cost of attendance at public two-year schools, unmet need* is not significantly lower on average for students at these institutions compared to students at public four-year institutions. The average community college student had over $1,000 per month in unmet need over their nine-month school year.

For all racial/ethnic groups, average expected family contribution (EFC)** was much higher at four-year universities due to a higher cost of attendance and a larger concentration of students from higher income families. Higher income students are disproportionately White or in the “Other/unknown” category, which explains the higher EFC amounts for those racial/ethnic groups. This is particularly evident at public four-year schools, where students in these racial/ethnic groups are not only wealthier on average but also more likely to enroll at higher cost universities.

Average Unmet Need and Average EFC* by Race/Ethnicity for Texas Public Institutions (Fall 2019)

Average Unmet Need and Average EFC* by Race/Ethnicity for Texas Public Institutions (Fall 2019) 4-Year

Average Unmet Need and Average EFC* by Race/Ethnicity for Texas Public Institutions (Fall 2019) 2-Year

* “Unmet need” is the gap that remains between a student’s resources and his/her total cost of attendance even after accounting for grant aid, loan aid, and EFC.
**EFC is the formulaically determined amount that the student can reasonably be expected to pay out of pocket.
Sources: Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB), “Unmet Need and Unexpected Family Contribution” (unpublished tables).

Texas Students With Unmet Need Were Less Likely to Graduate Than Those With No Unmet Need

University students in Texas who had no unmet need were more likely to obtain a bachelor’s degree than their peers who had unmet need. Over 60 percent of students with no unmet need had graduated within six years of initially enrolling in college, compared to 40 percent of those with unmet need below $4,000, 34 percent of those with unmet need between $4,000 and $9,999, and 35 percent of those with unmet need of $10,000 or higher.

Unmet need is the gap that remains between a student’s resources and his/her total cost of attendance even after accounting for grant aid, loan aid, and expected family contribution (EFC; the formulaically determined amount that the student can reasonably be expected to pay out of pocket). The cost of attendance is the estimated sum of tuition and fees, books and supplies, food and housing, transportation, and other expenses for a full-time student for nine months.

Graduation Status by Unmet Need Amount, 2013-2014 Public Texas High School Graduates Enrolled in Fall 2015 in Texas Higher Education

Graduation Status by Unmet Need Amount, 2013-2014 Public Texas High School Graduates Enrolled in Fall 2015 in Texas Higher Education

Sources: Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB), “Baccalaureate Graduation Status within Six Years by Unmet Need” (unpublished tables; special request).

About Two-thirds of Undergraduates Applied for Federal Aid

About two-thirds of undergraduates nationwide had applied for some form of aid in academic year (AY) 2017-2018. Most of the students who applied for aid had applied for federal aid, with a small minority only applying for non-federal aid. The public two-year sector had the highest percentage of students not applying for any aid.

Applied for Any Aid, by Sector (in AY 2017-2018)

Applied for Any Aid, by Sector (in AY 2017-2018)

Sources: U.S. Department of Education, National Postsecondary Student Aid Study – Administrative Collection (NPSAS-AC) 2018 (http://www.nces.ed.gov/das).

More Than Two-thirds of Public Two-Year Students Worked While Enrolled During the Fall 2021 Semester

Over two-thirds of respondents attending public two-year and 64 percent of respondents attending public and private, non-profit four-year institutions reported in Trellis’ national Student Financial Wellness Survey that they worked for pay during the fall 2021 semester. Of the respondents who did work for pay, those attending four-year institutions were more likely to consider themselves to be students who work compared to students who were attending public two-year institutions. Seventy-seven percent of four-year students considered themselves to be students who work while nearly half of public two-year students considered themselves to be workers who go to school.

Note: Trellis’ Student Financial Wellness Survey is open to any college nationwide that wants to participate. In the fall 2021 implementation, 104 colleges from 25 states participated – 71 community colleges and 33 four-year institutions. There were 44,254 respondents attending public two-year institutions and 19,497 respondents attending four-year institutions. The results are not nationally representative.

Q23: Do you work for pay?*

Q23: Do you work for pay?*

Q126: Do you consider yourself a student who works or a worker that goes to school? (of respondents who reported they work for pay)

Q126: Do you consider yourself a student who works or a worker that goes to school? (of respondents who reported they work for pay)

*Responses indicating “I Don’t Know” are not shown
**Includes Public and Private, non-profit institutions
Sources: Fletcher, C., Cornet, A., & Webster, J. Student Financial Wellness Survey: Fall 2021 (unpublished tables).

Community College Students Are More Likely to Work 20 or More Hours per Week

While most students work while attending college, the number of hours they work per week varies greatly by school sector. Based on the responses to Trellis’ national Student Financial Wellness Survey, more than three-quarters (81 percent) of respondents who were attending public two-year institutions in the fall 2021 semester worked 20 or more hours per week while enrolled. Working fewer than 20 hours per week was more common among students attending four-year institutions. A majority of students in both sectors reported that they used their current income to pay for college.

Note: Trellis’ Student Financial Wellness Survey is open to any college nationwide that wants to participate. In the fall 2021 implementation, 104 colleges from 25 states participated – 71 community colleges and 33 four-year institutions. There were 44,254 respondents attending public two-year institutions and 19,497 respondents attending four-year institutions. The results are not nationally representative.

Q127: During the school year, about how many hours do you spend in a typical 7-day week working for pay?

Q127: During the school year, about how many hours do you spend in a typical 7-day week working for pay?

Q29: Do you use your current income to pay for college?

Q29: Do you use your current income to pay for college?

* Includes Public and Private, non-profit institutions
Sources: Fletcher, C., Cornet, A., & Webster, J. Student Financial Wellness Survey: Fall 2021 (unpublished tables).

Paying for A Bachelor’s Degree Through Work Alone Would Require 75 Hours per Week at Minimum Wage

In earlier decades, many students financed an undergraduate education by taking a full course load while working enough hours to cover living and educational expenses, perhaps with the aid of savings from a full-time summer job. From 1966 to 1981, a time in which the minimum wage increased fairly regularly, an industrious undergraduate could have paid for a year of education at a public university — including tuition, food, and housing — by working about 24 hours per week at a minimum wage job.

In the early 1980s, as the cost of education began to climb and the minimum wage increased less frequently, the number of work hours needed to pay for an education began to rise. The hours needed to pay for an undergraduate education continued to inch upward in the 1990s, then rose again sharply at the turn of the century.

In 2020-2021, an in-state, residential undergraduate would have had to work 75* hours every week of the year to pay for two semesters at a Texas public university, and 57** hours for two semesters at a Texas community college. This is an increase from the previous year and is a continuation of the upward trend beginning in 2010, which reflects the period of annual minimum wage increases (2006-2009) coming to an end.

Hours of Minimum Wage Work per Week Needed to Pay for an Average Undergraduate Education in Texas, by Sector (2003 to 2020)

Hours of Minimum Wage Work per Week Needed to Pay for an Average Undergraduate Education in Texas, by Sector (2003 to 2020)

*The average weighted student budget for an in-state, residential student at a Texas public four-year university in AY 2020–2021 was $26,415. In 2020, the minimum wage was $7.25 per hour, with 6.2 percent taken out for Social Security. At a net of $6.80 per hour, a full-time Texas student with no other financial aid or assets would have to work 3,885 hours per year, or 75 hours per week, to put him or herself through school.
**The average weighted student budget for an in-state, residential student at a Texas public community college in AY 2020–2021 was $20,232. In 2020, the minimum wage was $7.25 per hour, with 6.2 percent taken out for Social Security. At a net of $6.80 per hour, a full-time Texas student with no other financial aid or assets would have to work 2,975 hours per year, or 57 hours per week, to put him or herself through school.
Sources: Minimum wage: U.S. Department of Labor. Employment Standards Administration, “History of Federal Minimum Wage Rates” (http://www.dol.gov/whd/minwage/chart.htm); U.S. Data: Postsecondary Education Opportunity. “‘I worked my way through college. You should too,” 2008 update to Research Newsletter, Issue Number 125 (November 2002) (www.postsecondary.org); Texas Data: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, IPEDS Data (http://www.nces.ed.gov/ipeds/).

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