<p>Needy students at Illinois’ public universities are straddling </p>
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<p>Needy students at Illinois’ public universities are straddling the biggest gap ever between skyrocketing tuition bills and stagnant pools of financial aid. Now more than $200 million short of funds to meet financial need, Illinois public universities must count on students to pay a far larger portion of the tuition bills.</p>
<p>In the last five years, the amount of unmet need at Illinois universities rose nearly 50 percent.</p>
<p>That has forced some students to take out more loans or work longer hours to pay for school – on top of loans and work study they already shouldered under federal financial aid formulas. Others have dropped courses or live at home to save money. Still others switch to more affordable two-year community colleges. </p>
<p>Dora Magallon of the Austin neighborhood was accepted by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign but won’t be going because her aid package had too many loans and still fell $3,000 short. </p>
<p>Based on family income, assets and savings, the federal government determines a student’s Expected Family Contribution – or the amount of money a student’s family can afford to pay toward college. The difference between your that amount and the total cost to attend a school (including tuition and fees, books, living, transportation and other expenses) is the amount of financial need you have. Schools package federal, state and institutional grants along with federally backed student loans and work-study to meet that need. The amount of need that the school still can’t meet is considered unmet need.</p>
<p>State beefing up MAP grant funding
Despite deep cuts to the state’s financial aid program in recent years, students this fall will finally see a healthy increase in state grants.</p>
<p>How much the gap between costs and available financial aid has increased overall, and for the average recipient, at public Illinois universities.</p>
<p>Dora Magallon was accepted by the state’s flagship public school, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign – but won’t go because her aid package had too many loans and was nearly $3,000 short of what she needed. She is now planning to attend Triton College this fall. </p>
<p>"Just working so hard to go there and then having to end up at a community college is disappointing,‘’ said Magallon, 18, of the Far West Side.</p>
<p>‘It’s discouraging’</p>
<p>Mary Guzman, 25, of Bensenville, took a full-time job, moved in with an uncle and dropped classes to be able to afford education courses at Chicago State University. Her aid packages at the school the last two years were a combined $21,130 short of her estimated need. </p>
<p>"It’s discouraging,‘’ said Guzman, who is supporting herself. "I just want to say forget it.‘’ </p>
<p>For students with unmet need, the average gap in aid at each school now ranges from $1,700 to nearly $7,000 per student, according to a Chicago Sun-Times survey of the 11 public, four-year universities in the state. The gap at all of the schools surveyed exceeded the $1,400 average at public universities nationwide, according to Postsecondary Education Opportunity, a newsletter that analyzes higher-education trends.</p>
<p>While many students do receive enough aid to meet their need, experts said the reason for the growing gap for others boils down to two main factors: stagnant federal and state aid and rapidly rising tuition. Federal Pell grants have increased only $50, to $4,050, since 2002. The maximum grant awarded under the Illinois Monetary Award Program went down 10 percent in the last five years, to $4,520. </p>
<p>Things will improve this fall as MAP grants increase to nearly $4,870. The Illinois Student Assistance Commission will consider increasing that by an additional $100 at a special meeting Wednesday. Gov. Blagojevich on Sunday signed a bill creating a new MAP Plus program that offers $500 scholarships to students who maintain good grades and come from families with income under $200,000.</p>
<p>‘They go into a panic’</p>
<p>And a new federal program will grant more money to Pell-eligible students who take rigorous high school curriculums or major in high-demand areas like science, math and technology.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, tuition has gone up between 70 percent and 115 percent for new students at those schools since 2001-2002. </p>
<p>Those realities have made the college admission process a mixed bag for students, said Ivette Nieves, director of Aspira, a youth development center in Logan Square that helps students in the financial aid process.</p>
<p>"When they receive the letter of acceptance, it’s good news,‘’ she said. "When they receive the financial aid letter, they go into a panic.‘’</p>
<p>Guzman said she plans to stick with it at CSU, possibly by taking even more loans. </p>
<p>CSU officials said the high level of unmet need at their school – nearly $7,000 per student, on average – reflects the fact that a majority of its students are low-income. The school is about to launch a major fund-raising campaign that in part will go to address unmet need.</p>
<p>Middle-class families also get hit hard, experts said. In recognition of that problem, state Sen. Miguel Del Valle (D- Chicago) only awards full- tuition General Assembly scholarships to students who aren’t eligible for Pell or MAP grants. </p>
<p>$7,000 shortfall</p>
<p>Eighteen-year-old Melanie Flores learned last week that she had been granted a one-year full-tuition scholarship to the U. of I. by Del Valle. Until then, she had been scrambling to figure out how to afford $21,298 to attend school Downstate for one year. That figure includes tuition, fees, books, transportation and other expenses. </p>
<p>Her parents’ combined income is $65,000. When she submitted her financial aid application to the federal government, it determined her family could afford $11,715 of the total bill. But she did not qualify for any federal or state grants, and the U. of I. didn’t offer her any institutional awards. She was offered a $2,625 student loan. </p>
<p>Melanie Flores will be attending the U. of I. on a full-tuition scholarship arranged by state Sen. Miguel Del Valle. (KEITH HALE/SUN-TIMES)
That means she had nearly $7,000 in unmet need – until Del Valle stepped in – on top of her family contribution. While the U. of I. offered her parents an $18,000 loan, financial aid administrators acknowledge such a loan really doesn’t meet student need.</p>
<p>She was elated to receive the scholarship, but she is still trying to find help to pay her other costs beyond tuition.</p>
<p>‘Every year, it’s getting worse’</p>
<p>"I don’t want to be one of those students having to pay so much when I graduate,‘’ said Flores, who ranked 14th in her class at Noble Street Charter High School in Chicago.</p>
<p>Officials at the U. of I. say since the late 1990s, it has become harder to completely fill every student’s need. For the last several years, the school has spent millions in institutional funds (including $9 million last year) to fill the growing gap between the maximum MAP grant and tuition. Low-cost federal student loans have also been restricted even as tuition went up.</p>
<p>And middle-class students have problems because needier students tend to get more of the available grant money.</p>
<p>"Every year, it’s getting worse,‘’ said Bob Andersen, senior associate director of financial aid at the U. of I. "At first, a lot of parents can ask grandma and grandpa and uncle and aunt to help make up the difference. But unless something is done, it’s going to get really bad.‘’</p>
<p>The U. of I. offered Magallon a grant of nearly $1,500. She was eligible for a partial MAP grant and work study. They also offered her two loans totaling more than $6,000 for her first year next fall.</p>
<p>"My parents said that’s too much of a debt to take on at such a young age,‘’ Magallon said . Instead of moving into the dorms with other students she knows attending the school, she’ll live at home while attending Triton.</p>
<p>"It’s disappointing. I don’t know how they expect me to come up with all this money. U. of I. was my top choice.‘’</p>