4 Lessons on Lower-Income Student Success

Getting lower-income students to graduation requires more than making college affordable at the point of enrollment.

Recent research highlights how food insecurity, unexpected expenses and other financial pressures can threaten persistence, even as it offers lessons from institutions with strong outcomes for Pell Grant recipients about how to support students through graduation.

Here are four takeaways for colleges looking to address the barriers that can stand in the way of student success, especially for low-income enrollees.

1. Look beyond college access.

Higher education has long been considered an avenue to economic mobility, but lower-income students continue to face disparities in college access and degree completion. Those gaps have persisted even as college enrollment has expanded, raising questions about which institutions are most successful at supporting lower-income students through graduation and into the workforce.

Recent research from the University of Wisconsin at Madison, published in AERA Open, identifies colleges and universities where Pell Grant recipients enroll and graduate at relatively high rates, face small completion gaps compared to their higher-income peers, and see strong earnings after college.

Drawing primarily on federal data from 1,462 four-year institutions from 2015–16 through 2019–20, researchers evaluated colleges across three dimensions: access for Pell recipients, degree completion and postgraduation earnings. They also examined whether institutions graduated Pell recipients at higher rates than expected based on their student populations, resources and other characteristics.

The researchers identified 149 high-performing-Pell institutions that met their criteria. At those colleges, Pell recipients had an average graduation rate of 76.5 percent, compared with a 50 percent median across the broader sample. The average graduation gap between Pell and non-Pell students was 3.8 percentage points, compared with 13 points across the sample.

Taylor Odle, assistant professor at UW Madison and co-author of the study, said the institutions identified as high-performing represent a wide range of colleges and universities, challenging assumptions about where strong outcomes for lower-income students are possible.

“Good work is being done across the higher education sector,” Odle said. “What we want to do is show that there is data out there that complicates some of the stories that we’ve always had in our minds, but that data can be used to make very high-stakes decisions in support of these lower-income students.”

2. Recognize the academic toll of financial strain.

For some college students, covering basic needs means taking on debt. Some put expenses such as food, housing and transportation on credit cards, and many carry unpaid balances as they manage the costs of college. Recent research from Trellis Strategies suggests that financial strain can follow students into the classroom, making it more difficult to focus on their studies.

The data comes from the postsecondary research and consulting firm’s 2025 Student Financial Wellness Survey, which drew more than 65,000 responses from undergraduates at 153 institutions in 23 states, including over 32,000 credit card users. It found that 54 percent of respondents reported using a credit card in 2025, up from 43 percent in 2018.

Fewer than half of student cardholders (47 percent) pay their balance in full each month, the survey showed. Among those carrying a balance, 88 percent said they worried about covering basic monthly expenses, compared with 61 percent of those who pay in full. Some 60 percent of students carrying unpaid balances also reported difficulty concentrating on schoolwork due to financial stress, compared with 43 percent of those who pay their balances in full.

Bryan Ashton, managing director at Trellis Strategies and co-author of the report, said the findings highlight the financial pressures students can face as the cost of living rises while their options for borrowing to cover expenses outside of tuition remain sparse.

“We have limitations on what we can do with student loans, especially federal student loans, because of caps,” Ashton said. “But when indirect costs go up—cost of living, housing, food, transportation—we don’t really see the ability for students to increase borrowing without going to the private market. So sometimes credit cards become the one way that students can close that indirect-cost gap.”

3. Close the emergency aid gap.

An unexpected expense is one of the most common reasons students stop out of college. Research has shown that emergency aid—a timely grant that helps a student cover an unexpected cost—can greatly improve the odds that they stay enrolled and complete a degree or credential.

However, an analysis from the Hope Center for Student Basic Needs at Temple University found that despite growth in emergency aid programs on college campuses, far fewer students are receiving that assistance.

Using data from Trellis’s Student Financial Wellness Survey, the analysis found that the share of students receiving emergency aid fell from 44 percent in fall 2021 (when colleges were distributing federal COVID relief funds) to 4 percent in fall 2025—a decline of roughly 90 percent.

Muhammad Kara, policy and research analyst at the center, said emergency aid is designed to help students respond quickly to an unforeseen financial crisis. Unlike traditional financial aid, which is packaged months before a term and disbursed on a fixed schedule, emergency aid can be distributed when a student faces an immediate expense.

Kara said the decline in students receiving emergency aid suggests colleges are either failing to publicize available support or operating programs that are too limited in scope or funding to meet student need.

“These have real-world applications,” Kara said. “If a student can’t pay a medical bill or afford food or housing, they’re really not going to be focused on their academics.”

4. Address food insecurity before it derails students.

Pell Grant recipients are nearly twice as likely to experience food insecurity as students who do not receive the federal grant, according to an analysis from the Institute for Higher Education Policy.

Drawing on data from the Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study, the analysis found that 42 percent of Pell recipients experience food insecurity, compared to 22 percent of students who do not receive Pell Grants.

Marián Vargas, former IHEP assistant director of research and co-author of the report, said food insecurity can make it harder for students to stay enrolled and complete their degrees.

“Students should not have to choose between eating and staying enrolled in college,” Vargas said. “Supports like Pell and SNAP are essential tools for expanding opportunity and supporting student success, but right now the supports are not keeping pace with students’ financial realities.”

“Sustained investment in affordability and basic needs support can help more students persist and complete their degrees, and it’s absolutely essential if we want to create a new socioeconomic reality in this country,” she added.

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