The Racial Scorecard on Federal Aid to Undergraduate College Students

New data from the U.S. Department of Education shows that in 2004, 47.7 percent of all undergraduate black students enrolled in higher education received a federal grant to help finance their education. For whites, only 21.3 percent of all undergraduate students received federal grant money to help defray the cost of college.

The average dollar amount of federal grants to black undergraduate students was $3,442. The mean dollar amount of grants to white undergraduates was $3,075.

Whites were slightly more likely than blacks to receive nonfederal grants. These included state, foundation, and private grants, as well as scholarship grants from the higher educational institutions that they were attending. The mean dollar value of these nonfederal grants was higher for whites than for blacks.

More than 43 percent of undergraduate black students also received federal student loans. The figure for white undergraduate students was 35.5 percent.