Nelnet Campus Commerce worked with participating institutional partners to evaluate the impact payment plans are having on their campuses. The participating institutional partners provided payment plan data that did not include names or other personally identifiable information (PII). Data was subjected to Chi-Square, a single number that shows how much difference exist, in all feasible samples.

• While working with institutional partners, Nelnet data scientists empirically measured the impact of payment plan use at an institution to identify a quantifiable positive correlation
• 2-Year Institutions – 70,000+ student records, over 5 years
• 4-year Institutions – 469,000 student records, over 15 years

The study concluded that institutions are positively impacted from the use of payment plans. With matriculation rate being more crucial than ever, offering a variety of ways to pay for education is important to students and parents.

• Student retention was impacted the most by payment plan usage – positively impacting the institution’s persistence rate
• Students utilizing payment plans completed an additional six (6) credit hours over the course of their enrollment at a 2-year college and nearly 12 additional (11.73) hours during enrolment at 4-year institutions
• On average, only 1 in 5 students utilize a payment plan, meaning the opportunity to increase their usage is substantial