Students from financially modest backgrounds can have it tough going to college. Students are likely to spend upward of $120,000 for a bachelor’s degree, considering the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) averages one year of tuition, fees and room and board at $30,031.
Luckily for federal aid recipients, online schooling is gaining traction in higher education, and students who opt for purely online modalities can save tens of thousands of dollars on on-campus housing. Moreover, Forbes has identified the colleges and universities ensuring Pell Grant students succeed, rivaling the rest of the student body.
Colleges and universities could take a page out of these ten schools’ books, considering that 32% of undergraduate students received Pell Grants in the 2021–22 academic year, according to NCES.
To create this ranking, editors from Forbes analyzed data from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System, comparing the graduation rates of Pell Grant recipients and the rest of the student cohort. It also took into account the proportion of Pell Grant students present at the college.
Universities from Florida were the most likely to take care of its underserved students, followed by California. On the other hand, universities ranked near 200 had Pell Grant recipient graduation rates of less than 35%.
The friendliest Pell Grant recipient schools
| Rank | Institution | % grads w/ Pell Grants | Pell Grant recipient grad rate | Overall grad rate | Gap between Pell Grant students and overall grads |
| 1 | Parker University (Texas) | 43% | 85% | 88% | -3% |
| 2 | Florida International University | 53% | 70% | 69% | -1% |
| 3 | University of Central Florida | 34% | 72% | 76% | -4% |
| 4 | Arizona State University Campus Immersion | 38% | 67% | 52% | -5% |
| 5 | Illinois College | 39% | 64% | 67% | -3% |
| 6 | San Jose State University (Calif.) | 36% | 66% | 68% | -2% |
| 7 | Florida State University | 28% | 83% | 85% | -2% |
| 8 | Hamline University (Minn.) | 40% | 60% | 69% | -9% |
| 9 | San Diego State University (Calif.) | 32% | 71% | 78% | -7% |
| 10 | Mercer University (Ga.) | 33% | 69% | 74% | -5% |
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To see beyond the top 10, browse through this table from Forbes.
As helpful as some of these institutions may be, all 200 find themselves in a similar tricky spot with the FAFSA continuing to be postponed, which hurts some of the most financially insecure students.
