Should colleges give any need based grants?

gladmom
Sat, 26 Apr 2008 20:19:21 +0000

Here are my picks, Curmudgeon.

First, I agree that scamming the FA system in illegal ways is despicable, and I hope they all get caught and punished. I hope that rules can be changed to prevent the legal loopholes, too. My comments below are about honest people.

My family is middle-income and my kids would not receive need-based FA from any schools except the elites with new enhanced aid programs, and I am FOR need-based grants for low-income families. I agree with the government and all the colleges that give need-based aid, that it is absolutely essential for many families. Many low-income college applicants have already overcome enormous obstacles to just get admitted to college.

And, as Curmudgeon says, until the broken need-based FA system is fixed to address inequities that seriously affect middle income families and more need-based aid is made available to them, merit aid is essential. Middle income families with high achieving students can get a break from the incredibly high COAs at many colleges with merit aid. State schools can be a bargain, but some of them cost the same as privates with merit aid. Our instate flagship engineering COA for this year was $28K+.

My kids applied for and got generous merit aid from many schools. They had the luxury of not having to work at minimum wage jobs during the school year. Their “work” was doing the very best they could in their classes. They had time to do the ECs and volunteer work that they enjoyed and that look good to admission and scholarship committees. My kids had parents with the time and inclination to help them in the college search and jump through the myriad hoops of applications, FAFSA, Profile and IDOC. Kids from low-income families often don’t have these and many other benefits that middle income families can provide.

I would not like to see a certain segment of society eliminated from higher education because of their financial situation. And “only loans” would be punitive for people who might not even be able to get the large loans necessary even for the cheapest schools, not to mention the extreme difficulty of paying off those big loans when their salaries are so small to begin with. Yes, hopefully the student will be able to make a decent living after graduating, and they can certainly work to pay off their own loans and help the parents to pay off theirs. But imagine a poor family trying to pay off loans for the entire cost of a college education for one or more kids. The stresses have to be huge - no money for the payments, no leeway, no cushion, no room for mistakes. Seems overwhelming to me.

The government gives a little to these students. Colleges give what they can for low-income families. They know how hard it is for these folks and the value in giving them a leg up. I hope that in future that more help can be given to middle-income families. But it has to start with the low-income families. They need it more than we do.