Mar 27, 2025
Contact: Media@EdExcelencia.org
Excelencia in Education Brief Highlights How Latinos Pay for College and Trendsetting Institutions Making Degrees More Affordable
WASHINGTON, D.C. (March 27, 2025) – Excelencia in Education, the premier authority on accelerating Latino student success in higher education, released today a brief detailing how Latinos use financial aid to pay for college and ways that institutions intentionally serving them ensure a degree is affordable. The brief shows Latinos are more likely to apply for and receive financial aid than other groups, yet they receive the lowest average amount of aid. It then identifies concrete examples of how institutions financially support Latino, and all, students, including institutional aid, paid internships/on-campus employment, and robust advising services.
The brief, “How Latinos Pay for College: 2025 National Trends,” comes in the wake of executive actions that are impacting higher education broadly, including financial aid. It reveals that 85% of Latino students applied for and 71% received financial aid, according to the most recent data from the National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS) in 2019-20. This represents the largest proportion of financial aid participation among any group except for African American students. Latinos are also more than twice as likely to receive grants (67%) than loans (27%) to pay for college.
Despite demonstrating high financial need, Latinos received the lowest average amount of aid — just over $11,000, compared to almost $13,000 for all students. This is explained in part by Latinos’ pragmatic choices to access college despite a complicated financial aid system. Latino students who attended less costly community colleges (40%), worked 30+ hours per week (56%), enrolled exclusively part-time (28%), or chose to live off-campus and/or with their parents (89%) were less likely to receive federal financial aid, the most important source of aid for them to pay for college.
“As the youngest, fastest-growing population in the U.S., Latinos’ increasing representation in colleges and universities provides unique opportunities for social mobility and economic growth,” said Deborah Santiago, co-founder and CEO of Excelencia. “Financial aid is critical to supporting Latino, and all, students’ access to higher education. Our brief makes this clear and informs what institutions and policymakers can do to make financial aid more effective for our students and ensure access to quality, affordable education.”
In addition to detailing how Latinos finance their education, the brief identifies six practices increasing access and financially supporting Latino, and all, students at trendsetting colleges and universities that have earned the Seal of Excelencia — a national certification for institutions that strive to go beyond enrollment to intentionally serve Latinos:
Align institutional aid to provide funds to mitigate students’ unexpected financial challenges.
Offer paid internships or on-campus employment opportunities so that Latino students can offset the cost of their degree while simultaneously gaining transferable skills.
Provide support services to help students make informed decisions about their college costs.
Contain student costs by offering OER (Open Educational Resources) for courses.
Advance full tuition scholarships to students with family incomes at or below a specific financial level.
Facilitate and simplify access to aid by managing joint admissions and financial aid applications between two-year and four-year college partners.
Findings from the brief inform Excelencia’s policy recommendations for college affordability. At the federal level, recommendations include making basic needs a part of financial aid calculations and prioritizing Pell Grants. At the state level, recommendations include investing in guaranteed tuition plans by family income and mandating FAFSA completion.
“How Latinos Pay for College: 2025 National Trends” was made possible with support from Lumina Foundation.
Access the full brief: EdExcelencia.org/research/publications/how-latinos-pay-for-college-2025-national-trends
About Excelencia in Education
Launched in 2004 in the nation’s capital, Excelencia in Education leads a national network of results-oriented educators and policymakers to tap the talents of the Latino community and address the U.S. economy’s needs for a highly educated workforce and engaged civic leaders. With this network, Excelencia accelerates Latino student success in higher education by promoting Latino student achievement, informing educational policies with a Latino lens, and advancing evidence-based practices. For more information, visit: EdExcelencia.org