Chart of the Week: Grants and Loans by Class Level

For today's Chart of the Week, we take a look at undergraduate grant aid and loans (for 2008) by undergraduate class level, as reported in the Dept. of Ed's Data Analysis System. As this chart shows, the average freshman and sophomore receive the lowest amount of grant aid but also take out, on average, smaller loans than upperclassmen. While juniors and fourth year seniors receive the most generous grant aid, fifth year seniors have the greatest disparity between the grant aid they receive and the loans they take out, suggesting that fifth year seniors rely more heavily upon loans for financing college than other undergraduate students.