How many are paying sticker price?

AlmostThere2018
Sun, 22 Apr 2018 03:21:04 +0000

Research has found that for families earning less than $30,000, the share of TOTAL family income required to pay the total cost of college attendance was 77 percent at 4-year public universities and 50 percent at public community colleges!! This is more than twice the burden on any other income group.

Pell grants, as I posted earlier, pay 30% of a public 4-year university’s cost, on average, compared to 70% in the 70s, both because of higher college costs and because the size of the grants has not kept up with inflation. And the vast majority of these student are NOT getting need-based aid beyond their Pell grant because so very few go to colleges that can meet that need. Students work and borrow to pay the balance.

So no, Pell recipients do NOT have it made, and in fact many public universities and community colleges are opening FOOD PANTRIES b/c their students are barely scraping by and in fact skipping meals so they can buy textbooks.

My family too is in the ‘donut hole’ but by no means should anyone compare families like mine to the immense struggles that the vast majority of students from low-income families face as they try to get any kind of degree. A few high stat kids from these families can get 100% of need met, but they are a mere teeny tiny sliver of that population.