Forging pathways : how low-income STEM students navigate college on a free tuition program.

In light of the ever-increasing cost of tuition, colleges and universities are starting to turn to free-tuition programs as a way to make college affordable for those students demonstrating the most need. In particular, STEM majors offer a unique chance to understand the true effectiveness of this financial aid as students in these programs traverse some of the hardest academic courseloads on campus. This proposed project, therefore, seeks to answer the following question: How and in what ways is the college-going navigation of low-income STEM students influenced by a free tuition pathway in a selective, affluent university? Answering this question will help higher education scholars and practitioners understand how low-income STEM students negotiate the barriers and possibilities present on campus, and free tuition programs can be better modified to improve the student experience.