The Hope Center has released a new analysis of emergency financial assistance on college campuses, and the news is not good.
Currently, half of all students could not come up with $500 in cash or credit to cover an unexpected expense, yet those emergencies are all to common:
... A car breaks down on the way to a final exam, a medical bill arrives the same week as rent, or a laptop fails in the middle of a term –for a student living close to the financial edge, any one of these can end a college career. The expense itself is often modest; what makes it destabilizing is the absence of savings, family support, or other financial buffers to absorb it. A small and timely grant can mean the difference between finishing the term and withdrawing altogether. (bold added)
Yet in Autumn 2025, only 4% of students got emergency grants to tide them over these events. During the pandemic, nearly 44% of students accessed emergency grants.
During the pandemic, the federal government provided billions for students to use on food, housing, transportation or medical care. That funding has ended, though so many students are still navigating food and housing insecurity and are working on aging laptops. Some states and campuses have created their own emergency funding programs, but few students are now accessing these funds.
There are are multiple reasons for the collapse in access to small emergency grants. Few students may even know about the availability of the funds, and campuses may not publicize local funds for fear that they could not meet demand. Many student financial aid offices are seriously understaffed, so there are too few resources available for outreach and communication. But ultimately, the campus and state programs can offer only a fraction of the funding that the pandemic era federal grants provided.
Drawing from research from the Trellis Project, the Hope Center confirms that first-generation, low-income, and single parenting students all face crises when facing routine emergency expenses in college.
Single parenting students are among the most financially exposed of all: 81% of single parents in the Trellis SFWS said they would struggle to find $500 for an emergency. Most relied on public assistance to get through the year. Former foster youth and students from low-income and first-generation backgrounds carry a comparable burden. For a student with no family wealth, a single unexpected expense ceases to be a passing setback and becomes a decision about whether to remain enrolled.
The Hope Center offers suggestions about targeted communications and about reduced administrative "friction" when students need emergency support, and those recommendations should be read by staff and faculty and student leaders on every campus.
The report suggests, also, potential flexibility in some federal assistance that could translate into bigger pools of emergency funds. Beyond existing funds, the Hope Center also recommends restoration of emergency funding to ensure that all students can ride out the "unexpected" that everyone can expect.
Everyone advocating for first-generation and low-income students would do well to read those recommendations about federal support that made such a difference during the pandemic, and then contact their representatives about funding college for the thousands of students arriving on campus without the cushion of family wealth or even a savings account.
It's a political choice that students who cannot access family wealth may have to leave college before graduating when a car breaks down or a landlord issues eviction notices as they sell their building.
It's a political choice that some students are dropping out over the price of a laptop repair as their classmates benefit from families who hire rush consultants to help get them into the best Greek houses.
And it is certainly a choice for campuses to message to each that success in college is mainly about personal hard work and inherent talent.
