| This study examined the relationship between recipients of institutional student financial aid and student persistence at a comprehensive midwestern state university. A longitudinal study was conducted of the 1992 Freshmen class for the Fall 1992 through Spring 1996 semesters.; Twenty-one research questions were answered to examine the relationships of 51 academic, demographic, and financial aid variables on student persistence for all institutional aid recipients in the population as well as within the four institutional student financial aid award categories merit only, merit-need, need only, and non-categorized. The data analyses included descriptive statistics, chi-square analyses, and logistic regression analyses.; The results showed that institutional aid recipients persisted at a much higher rate than the class as a whole. Within the four institutional aid recipient groups, every group except need-only persisted at a much higher rate than the class as a whole. Need-only institutional aid recipients actually had a lower persistence rate than the whole class.; The results of the logistic regressions presented models for determining the most effective rate of student persistence for each of the institutional aid categories. Research implications as well as recommendations for administrators were also discussed. |
