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Carroll College is mentioned in USA TODAY (September 23, 2009)

Costs weigh heavy as families plan for college

By Mary Beth Marklein, USA TODAY
GRAND BLANC, Mich. — Watching daughters Jessica and Nicole fret over college financial aid forms has been bittersweet for Geri Baudoux, a mother of five who quit nursing school when she and her husband started their family.

"I always told them, 'Get your schooling,' that I wish I would have just completed" mine, she says. But encouragement is all she and husband Art have to offer. Plans to help pay for college vanished last year when Art was laid off from his job in the auto industry...

...Playing the aid game

Some families also were luckier than others.

Dave Fiore, of Pendleton, Ore., says he "would have made it work" had son Mike been wowed by his alma mater, Santa Clara University in California. But he adds that he "breathed a deep sigh of relief" when Mike, 18, decided Carroll College in Helena, Mont., was the better fit.

With Carroll's lower tuition and more generous scholarship, the total annual cost is about $21,000 — a closer match to the $80,000 in a college trust set up by Mike's grandfather, and about half what he estimates he would have paid to his alma mater...

See the whole story at -- Costs weigh heavy as families plan for college - USATODAY.com