There is growing recognition that the interplay of student collegiate finances and academic performance influences key student outcomes like retention and graduation. Students experiencing high levels of stress related to finances and meeting basic needs may struggle to reach their academic potential.
Trellis Company developed the Student Financial Wellness Survey (SFWS) to help inform discussions about college affordability, student debt, and financial wellness at the campus level and among policymakers. Financial wellness incorporates the concepts of financial literacy, competency, and capacity. School administrators and government policymakers who have sophisticated understandings of student financial wellness of their populations may be able to develop more cost-effective initiatives to improve key student success metrics.
Trellis Research, a department within Trellis Company, designed and implemented the SFSW to document the financial well-being of postsecondary students at participating schools. The Spring 2018 implementation of the survey captures the attitudes, perspectives, competencies, and self-reported financial behaviors of more than 6,000 students from 12 colleges and three states.