Postsecondary Education Plans and Choices: Review of the Literature and Design for Analysis of the Parents Data

This report is in two parts. The first part is a review of the literature on factors affecting the postsecondary education decision-making process, with special emphasis on parents' and students' characteristics and attitudes. This second part of the report suggests the ways in which the parents data might be analyzed to fill in the gaps in our knowledge about family decision making concerning postsecondary education. It is focused on the ways the parents' aspirations and expectations for their child are developed and affect their child's plans; on the parents' knowledge of postsecondary education options; on their willingness to pay; and their planning for financing of their child's further education. It also examines parent's ability to make the contributions to their child's postsecondary education expected under different methods of needs assessment for financial aid.

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