Campus leaders and state policy makers regularly need to decide how to balance awarding need-based aid and merit aid to prospective students. New data suggests that at the state level, the amount of funding for need-based aid is growing. To put it in dollar terms, states allocated $233 million more in need-based grants in 2016-17 than they did the previous year, and just $18 million in additional non-need-based grants. Another area of state financial aid policy that has been drawing attention is the question of whether states are shifting support toward students who attend public universities and away from those at private colleges.
