EWING -- Grace Sandel aced high school.
The Pemberton resident said she was the type of student who could study for five minutes and still get an "A" on her exams. The daughter of a truck driver and a retired music teacher graduated in the top 10 percent of her class.
But when the 18-year-old freshmen arrived at The College of New Jersey this summer, she said she wasn't sure how she was going to do. Sandel qualified for a five-week program for low-income students that offered her a chance to arrive on campus weeks before other freshmen to take summer classes and learn study skills she would need.
She was grateful for the help. Sandel said she has seen friends and classmates scramble to keep up once they got to college.
"They definitely struggled more than I thought they would," Sandel said. "It's hard to tell how you are going to do."
New Jersey has long had one of the most generous financial aid programs in the country to help low-income students afford college. But some critics say colleges need to provide more support for low-income students once they get on campus.
Freshman Grace Sandel, right, graduates from the Educational Opportunity Fund summer program at The College of New Jersey in August. She stands with Tiffani Warren, the college's EOF director. The school has begun to boost its graduation rate for low-income students by offering a five-week summer program to help students learn study skills and get ready for the school year. (Anthony Caruso | The College of New Jersey)
Many of the students, who are often the first in their families to go to college, fall behind in classes because their high schools did not prepare them for college-level work. Others face financial problems in their families that may delay them from finishing their degrees on time or force them to drop out.
Last year, state officials began tracking how many low-income students make it to graduation at New Jersey colleges. The state Higher Education Student Assistance Authority began requiring colleges to report the graduation rates for low-income students who receive taxpayer-funded Tuition Aid Grants - or TAG - to help them pay for college.
The maximum TAG awards range from $2,680 at county colleges to $12,438 at private colleges. There are no income limits on which students are eligible for TAG awards. The state hands out the money based on students' financial need, the cost of their school and the amount available in the fund.
New Jersey taxpayers invest $404 million in the TAG program every year and state officials want to make sure students are actually completing their degrees after receiving the grants, HESAA officials said.
"High graduation rates demonstrate that the state's investment in the TAG program is paying off by helping students to graduate well prepared for successful careers," said Marcia Karrow, a HESAA spokeswoman.
The first batch of data collected looks at TAG students who began college in 2007 and should have graduated by 2011, if all went well.
An NJ Advance Media analysis of the data collected by the HESAA found the four-year graduation rate for TAG students at the state's traditional four-year colleges ranged from 12 percent at New Jersey City University to 100 percent at Princeton University. (The analysis excluded Thomas Edison State University, religious colleges and other schools with non-traditional formats.)
At New Jersey City University, a public college in Jersey City, the graduation rate for the 441 low-income TAG students who enrolled as freshmen in 2007 was the same as the four-year graduation rate for the rest of the undergraduate population, which was also about 12 percent, according to the data.
Though Princeton had the highest graduation rate in the state for low-income students, it also had one of the smallest numbers of TAG students. Just nine students receiving TAG grants started as freshmen at the Ivy League school in 2007, according to the data. All nine graduated within four years.
Rutgers University, which has the largest number of TAG students in the state, enrolled 1,912 freshmen with TAG grants in 2007, according to the report. Less than 41 percent of the low-income students graduated within four years. By comparison, about 50 percent of Rutgers' general student population graduated within four years.
The slideshow above shows the four-year graduation rates for TAG students at all of New Jersey's traditional four-year colleges and universities.
The state is also collecting data on how many TAG students graduate within six years or transfer to other schools.
For now, state officials are only using the new data to help policy makers understand how state financial aid is being spent. The data, published on the HESAA website, can also be used to help TAG students decide which colleges provide them with the best chance of graduating.
In the future, state officials may flag colleges that are doing a poor job of getting low-income students to graduation.
"Depending upon what the data shows as more years are collected, HESAA may use the data in the future to assist institutions where TAG students are not achieving graduation rates at acceptable levels," Karrow said.
The College of New Jersey had one of the highest graduation rates for low-income students, according to the state data. But the public college also had one of the widest gaps between four-year graduation rates for TAG students and the general undergraduate population. Of the students who entered as freshmen in 2007, 55 percent of TAG students graduated in four years compared to 71 percent of the school's general population.
Officials at The College of New Jersey are already stepping up efforts to get extra help for low-income students. In recent years, the public college in Ewing has expanded its summer program for students in the Educational Opportunity Fund program, a state program that offers financial and support services for students from disadvantaged backgrounds.
This year, EOF students attended a five-week summer program on campus before their freshman year. The free program ran from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. each day and included advanced coursework in math, science and writing. Students also got lessons on using the campus library and adapting to life away from home. Students stayed in the campus dorms for free for the summer.
The College of New Jersey will continue to offer help and counseling for EOF students during the school year.
"Our goal is to graduate them in four years," said Tiffani Warren, the college's EOF director. "This is just the tip of the iceberg."
The summer program is not cheap. The College of New Jersey spent more than $500,000, including $217,000 in state funding, to offer the summer program for free to about 80 EOF students, Warren said.
But, the efforts are paying off, Warren said. Graduation rates for low-income students have been rising steadily since The College of New Jersey began focusing on providing extra help for the students in 2014.
Sandel, the freshman from Pemberton, said she feels like she is a step ahead of her classmates thanks to the extra preparation she got in her summer program before classes started.
"I feel like I'm going to be the top freshman," Sandel said, laughing. "I just love this program. I'm so happy I got to be part of it."
Kelly Heyboer may be reached at kheyboer@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @KellyHeyboer. Find her at KellyHeyboerReporter on Facebook.