Where to target financial aid?

7/14/2011: To the most disadvantaged. Richard Kahlenberg of the Chronicle reports on a recent study by some economists:

… At the same time, those Pell students who were more disadvantaged (had lower ACT scores and parents lacking a college education) benefited a great deal from the supplemental grants. Their persistence rates after three years climbed dramatically, by 17 percentage points (or 31 percent), from 55 percent for the control group to 72 percent for the treatment group. These students, many of whom regularly send money home to their families, appear to have felt somewhat less pressure to work long hours for employers during college, and thus were able to spend more time studying for classes. (Win one for the liberals.)

Here at UO, most of it goes to the jocks.