Servingness within universities aims to best support underrepresented students throughout their college careers. This study focused on how the use of financial aid resources relates to academic success in the form of GPA and grade satisfaction among low-income students at the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC). 

An anonymous survey was administered to 188 students in a research methods psychology class, 126 of whom self-identified as low-income. The questions pertained to students’ experiences with financial aid, their GPA, and grade satisfaction. Our study found that financial aid resource use was not strongly tied to these measures of academic success at UCSC. Therefore, financial aid resource use may not be a predictive measure of academic success. 

Reducing the focus on financial aid, and utilizing a more representative sample, further research should be conducted to look into other resources to better serve low-income students in their academic careers at UCSC.

SCROLL THROUGH THE INFOGRAPHIC TO LEARN MORE!