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Loan demands rise as new study reveals roughly 3 in 4 students feel financially insecure
Would you be able to pay for college out of pocket? If you said no, you’re not alone. The majority of students are feeling the sticker shock of college courses as they scramble to apply for financial aid.
A new trend report from Ascent Funding reveals how today’s college students navigate costly decisions and what fuels their anxiety. Based on tens of thousands of student responses and third-party research from Trellis Strategies and CFP Board, the report explores topics from financial confidence to the majors students borrow to pursue.
The findings show that their top concern is not about debt. It’s about making high-impact financial decisions without enough information or support.
Roughly 3 in 4 Students Don’t Feel Confident About Money
Only 26.5% of students feel very confident managing their personal finances, according to Ascent’s new report.
That means roughly 3 in 4 students are facing one of the biggest financial commitments of their lives (tuition, housing, loans, interest rates) without feeling equipped to handle it. And it’s not just a background worry. The survey data says that 1 in 3 students say financial concerns have a major influence on their academic or career decisions.
Consider what this means in students’ daily lives. For example, a student who might perform well in a liberal arts program may choose a different path due to financial concerns. Another might postpone graduation to work extra hours. These experiences reflect the direct impact of financial stress on students’ educational journeys.
What would help? Students said it themselves: 31% believe better access to scholarship tools and guidance may build their financial confidence. They are not asking for handouts. They are asking for a map.
Tuition Is the Monster Under the Bed
Ascent’s analysis of 24,500 scholarship program submissions found that 49.2% of students cite tuition and fees as their top financial concern, making it the single largest source of stress for college students.
That alone is not surprising, but the full picture is worth considering. The second-biggest concern, reported by 25.9% of students, was finding enough scholarship or grant funding. So the top two stressors are the same problem from two angles: College costs too much, and there is not enough free money to help cover it.
Students are doing everything they can to bridge the gap. About 47% rely primarily on scholarships or grants to fund their education or manage their debt load.
But here is the catch: That well runs dry fast. According to Bold.org, which aggregates national scholarship data, only 0.1% of students receive full-tuition awards. The other 99.9% are stitching together a patchwork of partial scholarships, work-study hours, side gigs, and loans.
This generation shows impressive resourcefulness, but there are clear limits. The data suggest their toughness is being challenged.
First-Generation Students Are Carrying a Heavier Load
The report’s findings on first-generation students tell a familiar and frustrating story. These students, who represent 38% of respondents in the Trellis survey and 41% at two-year institutions, experience financial stress at a higher rate than peers with college-educated parents.
Sixty-eight percent of first-gen students worry about paying for school. Nearly a quarter (24%) aren’t even sure how they’ll afford their next semester.
They are not sitting on their hands: first-gen students are more likely to receive grants than continuing-generation peers (66% versus 48%). That sounds like good news until you see what is happening on the other side of the ledger.
First-gen students are also more likely to take out loans (40% versus 33%) and more likely to charge college costs to a credit card (35% versus 28%).
So even when the system delivers more grant support to students who need it most, the cost of attendance still pushes them toward higher-risk financing options. More grant money comes in, more debt goes out.
This shows the difficulty of the current system, which provides support while also presenting new obstacles for students.
Students Want Financial Education, But Access Is Lacking
Two-thirds of Gen Z college students say they want to learn more about personal finance, according to the CFP Board’s research. Students are not checked out; they are actively signaling they want financial literacy tools to make better decisions.
Yet 40% of those students identify money as a primary source of stress and anxiety, while 83% say financial well-being is tied directly to their overall happiness.
The gap between what students want and what they get is where much of the anxiety lives. These students are not inactive recipients of financial aid packages. They are trying to make informed decisions about borrowing, earning, and spending.
They need better information to do it well. Schools, lenders, and organizations that meet that demand with real tools rather than fine print will earn much trust.
The Majors Students Are Borrowing to Pursue Say a Lot
When Ascent reviewed the declared majors of approved borrowers between July and August 2025, the top five fields were nursing, business, biology, psychology, and mechanical engineering. This finding shows that students are focused on practical, stable career options.
Students are not just choosing what interests them; they are making calculated bets on their return on investment. When taking on debt to earn a degree, you think differently about what that degree should deliver.
That does not mean passion is dead in the college application process. But it suggests the strain of student loan debt is quietly reshaping which fields students feel safe enough to pursue and which they see as a financial gamble they cannot afford.
Methodology
This report draws from three primary data sources. Ascent’s survey data captures students’ self-reported financial confidence and decision-making. Scholarship application data comes from over 24,500 student submissions collected through Ascent’s Summer Scholarship program between May 15 and Sept. 15, 2025. First-generation student data is sourced from Trellis Strategies’ 2023 Student Financial Wellness Survey, which included 62,367 undergraduate respondents from 142 U.S. institutions. Financial wellness attitudes come from a CFP Board study conducted with College Pulse, which surveyed 2,025 verified college students between September and October 2025, weighted for demographics with a margin of error of ±2.2% at a 95% confidence level. Borrowing trends and major preferences reflect Ascent’s approved borrower data from July to August 2025.
This story was produced by Ascent Funding and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.
