Does Financial Aid Make Students Consider Colleges with a Wider Cost Range?

A reanalysis of American College Testing Program data (Munday, 1976) using multiple regression techniques found systematic relationships between student ability, family income, and college choice set characteristics with the budget, selectivity, and affluence characteristics in the college attended for a general college-bound sample but not for a similar sample of students who had applied for financial aid. Contrasts are drawn to other college choice research findings and implications of the study are discussed.