These competing demands are one reason part-time students are more responsive to customer service and convenience. Some Commuting students will pay more tuition and fees to attend an institution that reduces the amount of time they have to lose for registration, bursar, parking and bookstore purchases. With respect to external factors, student characteristics do matter. Family income and family are also more important. For both traditional and non-traditional students, financial aid has been proven to have an impact on persistence.
Financial aid lowers the net cost of attendance and increases the probability of persistence.
This impact of financial aid upon persistence has only recently started to be studied in-depth. It is important for enrollment managers to realize that they not only use financial aid to attract students, but also to retain them. There are, of course great variations in persistence rates among different types of institutions. Residential colleges and universities have higher retention rates than commuting institutions. Generally, as the prestige of a campus increases so do retention rates.