Study: Financial aid most helpful to students unlikely to succeed without it

A first-of-its-kind study found that financial aid may be most helpful to the Wisconsin college students who are the least likely to otherwise succeed. For the last three years, UW-Madison professors Sara Goldrick-Rab and Douglas Harris followed a group of students who received grant money from the Fund for Wisconsin Scholars program. The program was created through a $175 million donation by John and Tashia Morgridge, providing a $3,500-a-year grant to some first-time, full-time students enrolled in the University of Wisconsin System. Goldrick-Rab and Harris tracked data from the 600 students who received Morgridge grants, plus 900 eligible non-recipients. In initial results, they found that the most disadvantaged group of students were more likely to stay in college if they received the Morgridge grant, compared to those who did not.