Grants' Share of Financial-Aid Pie Increasing

By Sean Cavanagh

Washington

As tuition at four-year colleges jumped over the past year by the greatest amount in a decade, the slice of the overall financial-aid pie awarded in grants increased faster than the share for loans for the second straight year, according to College Board data released here last week.

The slight shift toward grant aid for higher education may reflect pressures on colleges and states to lure cash-strapped students to campus, even as those institutions and governments face budget burdens of their own.

Overall, loans still constituted the majority of all student aid—54 percent, or $48 billion—while grants amounted to 39 percent, or $35.3 billion, of all aid in 2001-02, according to one of two annual reports released by the College...