Research in Higher Education, Vol. 31, No. 2, 1990 PRICE RESPONSE 1N ENROLLMENT DECISIONS: An Analysis of the High School and Beyond Sophomore Cohort Edward P. St. John o ° = = , , , ° m ~ ° ° . , ° . , , p = ° ° ° , ù , ° = ~ ~ l ~ ° , , . ° o ° ° Q = , = ° . , . ° = . ~ ~ ° , . o o , ° ~ , ° . o , ~ ° . . . ® Most research on student price response was conducted on students who entered college before the Pell Grant program was implemented in fall 1973. This study uses the High S¢hool and Beyond Sophomore ¢ohort, the High School Class of t982, to analyze the effects of the amount of tuition charged and aid offered on student enrollment decisions. The findings include (1) all forms of financial aid--grants, work, and Ioans--were effective in promoUng enrollment; (2) one hundred dollars of aid (any type) had a stronger influence on enrotlment than a one-hundred-dollar reduction in tuition; (3) Iow-in¢ome students were more responsive to increases in grant aid than to increases in loan$ or work study; and (4) high-income students were not responsive to changes in aid amounts. Student price response is a wide]y discussed issue in higher educafion, yet there is very little recent research on how price changes--tuition or financial aid awards--influence enrollment decisions. Most of the student demand studies reviewed in widely read meta analyses (e.g., Jackson and Weathersby, 1978; McPherson, 1978; and Leslie and Brinkman, 1988) cornpared findings from studies of students who entered college before the Pell Grant program was implemented. Many of these studies did not even consider the influence of student aid, but instead focused exclusively on tuition. And there has been very little reseärch on student price response using more recent data. And the one recent, national, cross-sectional study that explicitly examined student price response (Schwartz, 1985) used estimated tuition charges and loan eligibility rather than actual amounts, an approach to price-response research that is Edward P. St. John, Associate Professor, Department of FAucadonal Leadership and Foundations, University of New Orleans, New Orleans, LA. 161 (~A(,i,O3~5190/Ü400 O[OI~{~O.(M)I(} © ~990 Hun1111n Scicz~ces ~,~s. Inc.