30-07-2025
Fathers In College Face Competing Demands, Unlikely To Seek Help
Male college student with baby stroller at bus stop
Fathers in college spend less time caring for their children than student mothers, but they also face different financial pressures, with a much higher percentage saying they are financially responsible for other family members than student mothers.
Parenting students account for one out of every five undergraduate college students, according to research from the Urban Institutes SPARK Collaborative, a collaborative project lead by the urban Institute, The Pregnant Scholar and Child Trends. The majority of student parents are mothers, but 30% are fathers, accounting for approximately 800,000 of the more than three million undergraduate student parents enrolled at American colleges and universities. students.
In some cases, student fathers face fewer responsibilities outside of college than their female peers, but once you dig into the details, student fathers face distinct obstacles to success in college that require different supports and solutions.
What Does the Data Say About Fathers In College?
New research from Trellis Strategies, based on responses to their annual Student Financial Wellness Survey, digs into the nuances of parenting father's experience in college, and how colleges and universities can change and improve support to student fathers to ensure their success.
Trellis' 2024 SFW survey gathered data from more than 53,000 students enrolled at 104 colleges and universities around the country. The survey has been running since 2018, and in that time, Trellis has surveyed 3.8 million students. This latest report hones in on the responses form the 1,300 student fathers who responded to this year's survey.
Similar to their female peers, student fathers tended to be older than other students, and face huge demands on their time. Data from the Spark Collaborative shows that 46% percent of student fathers are 30-39 years old. Student fathers are more likely to be working full time while in college, with 68% working full time, compared to 53% of student mothers.
Student fathers tend to spend less time caring for their children than mothers in college, with 44% spending 40 or more hours on childcare each week, compared to 62% of student mothers. This mirrors the general pattern of women shouldering more of the burden for child care than men. But student fathers were more likely to face additional financial pressures than student mothers. Fathers in college were more likely to be providing financial support to a partner or spouse, parents, or other family members.
What Challenges Do Fathers In College Face?
Even though student fathers face more financial demands, they were less likely to apply for financial aid than student mothers.
'I think this ties into broader trends by gender where men are less likely to complete the FAFSA compared to women. Approximately 26% of our male parents did not complete the FAFSA in the 2024 SFWS.' said Allyson Cornett, the author of the brief, via email.
The FAFSA, is the Free Application for Federal Student Aid. The form is used to determine eligibility for the Pell Grant, the main federal grant program to help students pay for college, as well as federal student loans and Work-Study. Most states and colleges also use FAFSA information to decide eligibility for state and institutional financial aid.
Cornett noted that they asked students who did not complete the FAFSA follow up questions about why they did not apply for financial aid. The most common responses from student fathers were a fear of taking out student loans, that they were paying for school without financial aid, or a lack of information.
Lower FAFSA filing rates could be seen as a positive at first glance if viewed as part of lower borrowing rates. However, student fathers might be missing out on better ways to pay for college. They tended to rely more on personal savings, current income, and credit cards to pay for college expenses. Federal student loans have much lower interest rates than credit cards, and come with more protections. The choice to use credit versus student loans may actually be harming student fathers, as they will pay more over time than with a traditional student loan.
Not applying for financial aid also means some student fathers are missing out on grants and scholarships they would not need to repay. Changes to FAFSA signed into law at the end of President Trump's first term mean college students with children are more likely to qualify for Pell grants than they were previously, especially single parents. Single fathers in college are especially likely to stop out of college, based on research from Aspen Ascend, so increasing the rates FAFSA filing for student fathers could help relieve financial pressure on them.
What Support Do Fathers In College Need?
Cornett noted that student fathers were generally less likely to seek help compared to student mothers. 'This is in line with the broader data on student fathers from the SFWS 2024 – where we are still seeing high levels of need, but lower utilization of federal aid and other programs. In fact, 72% experienced financial difficulties (compared to 82% of mothers), 48% were food insecure (vs. 55% of mothers), and 54% were housing insecure (vs. 65% of mothers), but rates of public assistance were much lower than their female peers'.
As college demographics continue to change, it is increasingly important to ensure that parenting students can enroll, feel at home, and succeed in college. Trellis' data suggest schools need to think about the different types of support students fathers may need in order to succeed.
'Student parents are often treated as a monolithic group – and much of the conversation is focused on student mothers (which makes sense as only 30% are fathers).
Cornett emphasized the importance of colleges thinking carefully about which supports fathers in college need that are distinct from mothers, saying that, "when we disaggregate the data… a more nuanced picture emerges. Our findings stress that student fathers, in particular, may benefit from more targeted financial aid counseling and communication, as well as awareness of public benefit programs and other resources available to them. On-campus or subsidized childcare might not be the best solution for student fathers, as evidenced by the SFWS data. This all culminates in the importance of institutions recognizing the diverse and competing priorities student parents face. Their needs differ not only from their non-parenting peers but also across gender lines,' said Cornett.
