Latino students are making pragmatic financial choices to pay for their education, and institutions are increasingly responding with tailored support, according to a comprehensive new report released today by Excelencia in Education.
The report, “How Latinos Pay for College: 2025 National Trends,” builds on two decades of research and reveals that while Latino students demonstrate high financial need, they are employing effective cost-saving measures to make higher education affordable.
“Latinos are representative of a post-traditional student profile and changes in policy will be more impactful if made with the strengths and opportunities to serve this profile of students,” write Deborah A. Santiago, CEO, and Sarita E. Brown, President of Excelencia in Education, in the report’s foreword.
The study found that Latino students, who represent one in five postsecondary students nationwide, are more likely to be first-generation college-goers (51% compared to 22% of white students), come from lower-income households (70% have family incomes below $50,000), and have an expected family contribution (EFC) of zero (45%).
“Latino students make pragmatic choices with what they can control to make college affordable,” said Cassandra Arroyo, a research analyst at Excelencia and co-author of the report.
To manage costs, Latino students employ multiple strategies: 56% work 30 or more hours weekly while enrolled, 55% attend part-time or mix their enrollment, 81% choose public institutions, and 89% live off-campus or with parents. These tactics represent a clear departure from the traditional college student profile and align with what Excelencia calls “post-traditional” learners.
The data reveals that Latinos rely more heavily on federal financial aid (58%) than state (30%), institutional (23%), or private aid (13%). Perhaps most significantly, Latino students are more than twice as likely to receive grants (67%) than take out loans (27%), indicating a strong preference for aid that doesn’t require repayment.
Yet despite high application rates for aid (85%), Latinos receive the lowest average financial aid among all racial/ethnic groups at $11,004, compared to $15,850 for Asian, $12,937 for White, and $12,365 for African American students.
“Twenty years later, we are revisiting what has changed and what has stayed the same. There has clearly been some progress, but the need to expand access to opportunity remains,” noted Santiago in the report’s foreword, referencing Excelencia’s initial study on Latino financial aid patterns from 2005.
The report also examines differences in aid receipt by institution type. Latino students at public two-year institutions are less likely to receive financial aid (57%) than those at other sectors, especially private institutions (87%). Furthermore, undergraduate Latinos attending private for-profit institutions are more likely to borrow federal loans (60%) compared to those at public two-year institutions (5%).
Another key finding reveals that Latino students are more likely to receive need-based aid rather than merit-based aid. For state grants, 16% of Latino students received need-based grants compared to only 2% who received merit-only grants.
The report highlights innovative approaches implemented by institutions certified with the Seal of Excelencia. These 46 certified institutions represent less than 1% of all colleges and universities but enroll 17% and graduate 19% of all Latino students nationwide.
Among these institutions, several standout examples emerged. The University of Texas at Austin’s Texas Advance Commitment fully covers tuition for students with family incomes up to $65,000, while Miami Dade College provides “Last Mile Scholarships” for students who left with 13 or fewer credits remaining. Other institutions, like Metropolitan State University of Denver, created emergency retention funds to support students experiencing unexpected financial challenges.
“Leading institutions make choices with what they can control to make college more affordable,” said Emily Labandera, director of research at Excelencia and co-author of the report. “The institutions highlighted in this brief represent a select group of trendsetters that make up the Seal of Excelencia certified institutions that strive to go beyond enrollment to intentionally serve Latino students.”
The report concludes with policy recommendations at institutional, state, and federal levels. These include investing in guaranteed tuition plans by family income, including basic needs in financial aid calculations, prioritizing Pell Grants, and revising the Federal Work-Study distribution formula to better support students with high financial need.
“Excelencia believes that good policy is informed by good practice,” the authors note, emphasizing that intentionally serving Latino students at scale requires understanding what works to accelerate their success.
With Latino enrollment in postsecondary education projected to increase by 31% by 2030, the findings provide critical insights for institutions and policymakers seeking to create more affordable pathways to degree completion for this growing demographic.
“We firmly believe that disaggregating our data and knowing how Latinos are participating in financial aid informs opportunities to compel action that can more intentionally serve other students as well,” write Santiago and Brown. “And understanding how institutions committed to intentionally serving Latino, and all, students are leveraging financial support to recruit, retain, and advance them to degree completion and connect them to the workforce is an opportunity to leverage and scale their innovation.”
