As this year rolls towards its end and we look forward to the lazy days of summer, it’s important to realize that next year many of us will struggle harder to pay for our degree. Do you know how you will pay your tuition, your rent and buy food? For those who count on their financial aid package to cover some of the cost of tuition and books, it may be time to start thinking about accepting extra loans. Most of us are in a holding pattern right now, waiting for the next year’s financial aid award and hoping that the state and federal reductions will be small and can be covered by more loans. For me the wait is becoming harder to endure as I start to calculate the potential reduction in my financial aid award.
A lot of students at Eastern are from low income families who couldn’t afford college without the substantial help of state and federal assistance. This is the case for me. I qualify for the federal Pell Grant, the state Need Grant and the federally funded Work-study Grant. These three grants are given to me for free on the condition that I maintain my GPA and enroll as a full time student. Each grant has been cut; those of us receiving them will see those cuts reflected in our financial aid awards.
The Pell Grant pays for most of my tuition and is the largest contributor to my, and most Eastern students, overall financial aid package. This grant can provide as much as $5,550 to students who qualify. This grant was cut 62% by the federal government trying to balance its budget on the backs of those students who are the least able to pay for college on their own. Did you receive the Pell Grant this year? If you did, then perhaps you should pull out your financial aid award and imagine that grant reduced by a conservative 15%. Those of us who are determined the most eligible for this grant and receive the highest award amount will also experience a larger reduction in this aid. The $5,550 a year that pays for my tuition will be reduced by $830. More importantly the overall cut of the Pell Grant by 62% means that 1.7 million students across the nation who received the funding last year will not find the Pell Grant listed on their financial aid award. No matter how much or how little the Pell Grant contributed, next year there will be less, if any, on your financial aid award.
The Need Grant makes up another big chunk of Eastern students financial aid award and is annually being reduced in comparison to the needs of students. In 2010 this grant was cut by 7 million dollars which meant reductions in all students’ funding, in addition to 2,000 students who qualified for the grant being denied because the funds couldn’t cover everyone. (DailyUW). This year is no different as Gregour has once again targeted higher education as an appropriate place to reduce the state deficit. So, where does that leave qualifying students like ourselves? Perhaps we should imagine a conservative 15% being cut from my state Need Grant. There’s another $750 that I’m pretty sure I won’t be getting
I have an on campus job funded through the Work-study Grant. The federal or state funded nature of these programs complicate an understanding of what is going to the budget chopping block and how students will be affected. For the limited number of people who get this, their funding comes from two different sources, the state or federal budget, meaning that work-study positions are affected by two different sets of proposed budget cuts. There is a proposed 30% overall reduction in the federal funding that will be decided later this summer and similar decisions waiting to be made at the state level. This funding is not paid in a lump sum like the Pell and Need grants at the beginning of the quarter and so have less effect on the resources available to pay for tuition and more effect on daily life.
Personally, having a work-study job still makes a big difference in how well I study and live. I got work-study at the Falls both years I was there, managing to go to school and not take out any loans but, I didn’t get work-study funding when I transferred to Eastern. It was really hard to manage a job that wasn’t flexible about study time and I wasn’t able to keep it very long. I’ve always made school my first priority and I took out a loan so I didn’t have to work. I feel lucky to have gotten a work-study award this year, but with the hardship and financial cost of last year fresh in my mind I can easily imagine being cut again or at least experiencing a drastic reduction in the $3,000 that is meted out in two week increments throughout the academic year. That would be another $900 deduction from my resources.
So what’s my financial damage? With 15% reductions in my Pell and Need Grants and a 30% reduction in my work-study award it’s a potential loss of about $2,500.
Let’s not forget that tuition is going up by roughly 12%. Quarterly, we pay $2,021 and a 12% increase equals $2,263 per quarter and $6,790 for the academic year. So if annually I get $4,600 from the Pell grant and about $4,200 from the state Need Grant then I have $8,800 to pay my tuition, which will leave me with about $2,000 to subsist on for the year. Each quarter I will get a refund of $600 to buy books and live on. If I am fortunate enough to get work study I can count on a steady $400 a month. So I may attempt to live on $500 a month during the school year, I may be forced to work and I will defiantly have to take out another loan. Oops, I forgot about the $200 in fees every quarter. I defiantly can’t live on the leftover financial aid and will have to take out a loan, again.
I wanted to share all my financial information so that we could have a real life example of how increases in tuition and reductions in funding will play out next year. Each person will have different circumstances than mine and I’m sure there will be many students among us who will fare far worse than this conservative estimate of my own award next year. Some students receiving these state and federal grants will qualify for a much reduced amount and others who have received these grants in the past may not qualify next year.
We haven’t gotten our financial aid awards yet but I’ve been told we can expect them by the first week in June. Until then I will continue to wonder exactly how much assistance I can depend next year and whether or not I can expect to take out more loans. At worst case, if I lose my funding I can just take out more and more loans, right? That seems to be the message behind these cuts.
I noted a statistic that estimated the student loan debt for those graduating from a four year college is $24,000 (The Chronicle of Higher Education). This seems pretty conservative; I have seen other sources state a much larger estimate of $50,000. The question becomes which average will I be and what long-lasting consequences will educational budget cuts have on this generation of students? How will mounting loan debt affect my chances of completing a bachelors or continuing on to graduate school? Will I be forced to take a less desirable job immediately after graduation in order to begin paying off my loans without defaulting? If I take that less desirable job have I limited my future employment options?
Some of us will not be here next year and the ones who start may not be able to finish, will it be me or you…or both? When you open your financial aid award remember that you are not alone in experiencing reductions, remember that others may be affected more and know that as a student body and citizens we are not without recourse.
A lot of students at Eastern are from low income families who couldn’t afford college without the substantial help of state and federal assistance. This is the case for me. I qualify for the federal Pell Grant, the state Need Grant and the federally funded Work-study Grant. These three grants are given to me for free on the condition that I maintain my GPA and enroll as a full time student. Each grant has been cut; those of us receiving them will see those cuts reflected in our financial aid awards.
The Pell Grant pays for most of my tuition and is the largest contributor to my, and most Eastern students, overall financial aid package. This grant can provide as much as $5,550 to students who qualify. This grant was cut 62% by the federal government trying to balance its budget on the backs of those students who are the least able to pay for college on their own. Did you receive the Pell Grant this year? If you did, then perhaps you should pull out your financial aid award and imagine that grant reduced by a conservative 15%. Those of us who are determined the most eligible for this grant and receive the highest award amount will also experience a larger reduction in this aid. The $5,550 a year that pays for my tuition will be reduced by $830. More importantly the overall cut of the Pell Grant by 62% means that 1.7 million students across the nation who received the funding last year will not find the Pell Grant listed on their financial aid award. No matter how much or how little the Pell Grant contributed, next year there will be less, if any, on your financial aid award.
The Need Grant makes up another big chunk of Eastern students financial aid award and is annually being reduced in comparison to the needs of students. In 2010 this grant was cut by 7 million dollars which meant reductions in all students’ funding, in addition to 2,000 students who qualified for the grant being denied because the funds couldn’t cover everyone. (DailyUW). This year is no different as Gregour has once again targeted higher education as an appropriate place to reduce the state deficit. So, where does that leave qualifying students like ourselves? Perhaps we should imagine a conservative 15% being cut from my state Need Grant. There’s another $750 that I’m pretty sure I won’t be getting
I have an on campus job funded through the Work-study Grant. The federal or state funded nature of these programs complicate an understanding of what is going to the budget chopping block and how students will be affected. For the limited number of people who get this, their funding comes from two different sources, the state or federal budget, meaning that work-study positions are affected by two different sets of proposed budget cuts. There is a proposed 30% overall reduction in the federal funding that will be decided later this summer and similar decisions waiting to be made at the state level. This funding is not paid in a lump sum like the Pell and Need grants at the beginning of the quarter and so have less effect on the resources available to pay for tuition and more effect on daily life.
Personally, having a work-study job still makes a big difference in how well I study and live. I got work-study at the Falls both years I was there, managing to go to school and not take out any loans but, I didn’t get work-study funding when I transferred to Eastern. It was really hard to manage a job that wasn’t flexible about study time and I wasn’t able to keep it very long. I’ve always made school my first priority and I took out a loan so I didn’t have to work. I feel lucky to have gotten a work-study award this year, but with the hardship and financial cost of last year fresh in my mind I can easily imagine being cut again or at least experiencing a drastic reduction in the $3,000 that is meted out in two week increments throughout the academic year. That would be another $900 deduction from my resources.
So what’s my financial damage? With 15% reductions in my Pell and Need Grants and a 30% reduction in my work-study award it’s a potential loss of about $2,500.
Let’s not forget that tuition is going up by roughly 12%. Quarterly, we pay $2,021 and a 12% increase equals $2,263 per quarter and $6,790 for the academic year. So if annually I get $4,600 from the Pell grant and about $4,200 from the state Need Grant then I have $8,800 to pay my tuition, which will leave me with about $2,000 to subsist on for the year. Each quarter I will get a refund of $600 to buy books and live on. If I am fortunate enough to get work study I can count on a steady $400 a month. So I may attempt to live on $500 a month during the school year, I may be forced to work and I will defiantly have to take out another loan. Oops, I forgot about the $200 in fees every quarter. I defiantly can’t live on the leftover financial aid and will have to take out a loan, again.
I wanted to share all my financial information so that we could have a real life example of how increases in tuition and reductions in funding will play out next year. Each person will have different circumstances than mine and I’m sure there will be many students among us who will fare far worse than this conservative estimate of my own award next year. Some students receiving these state and federal grants will qualify for a much reduced amount and others who have received these grants in the past may not qualify next year.
We haven’t gotten our financial aid awards yet but I’ve been told we can expect them by the first week in June. Until then I will continue to wonder exactly how much assistance I can depend next year and whether or not I can expect to take out more loans. At worst case, if I lose my funding I can just take out more and more loans, right? That seems to be the message behind these cuts.
I noted a statistic that estimated the student loan debt for those graduating from a four year college is $24,000 (The Chronicle of Higher Education). This seems pretty conservative; I have seen other sources state a much larger estimate of $50,000. The question becomes which average will I be and what long-lasting consequences will educational budget cuts have on this generation of students? How will mounting loan debt affect my chances of completing a bachelors or continuing on to graduate school? Will I be forced to take a less desirable job immediately after graduation in order to begin paying off my loans without defaulting? If I take that less desirable job have I limited my future employment options?
Some of us will not be here next year and the ones who start may not be able to finish, will it be me or you…or both? When you open your financial aid award remember that you are not alone in experiencing reductions, remember that others may be affected more and know that as a student body and citizens we are not without recourse.
Like you and much of Eastern Washington University’s student population I too rely on financial aid in order to attend college. I have managed to make it with a little over $5k in loans, but this is soon going to end. Since I graduate here in a few days and in the Fall I start graduate school, I will be forced to loan the entire amount for graduate school in order to continue. I no longer qualify for it unfortunately. I am happy that I have little, compared to some. I question this notion that I don’t (or shouldn’t) qualify for it though. If I am to be a productive citizen and contribute to our “wonderful” society, why shouldn’t I qualify for help? People who earn a Master’s degree about earn $1.3 million more over their lifetime (About.com). This extra money enables me to assist others in need, avoid bankruptcy and government assistance, pay for my children’s education, exploitation by my employer...the list goes on and on. I think that withholding financial help from those wishing to further their education is ridiculous; we should receive help (anyone in need of help should get it). Education is the easiest way to raise and keep people out of poverty and off government assistance programs. Education provides hope and a chance for what the American dream stands for. If we continue to cut this type of funding, eventually there will be none and we will return to the days when the wealthiest were the only ones with access to education; including everything that follows with it.
ReplyDeleteIt is amazing the cycles that trying to get an education can throw us into. Do we simply take our chances by not going to college after high school in hopes that we can find a basic job and live from paycheck to paycheck knowing that we are at least trying to get by without the debt we might have accrued from student loans or do we jump into higher education knowing that we probably won't get out of school without having some kind of debt attached to our name, yet knowing that it was worth it because in the long-run we have an education that we are told will help us reach success? Well what is success when no matter which route you take your digging your way out of financial detriment? It is crazy to me to realize that in the United States, our collective mindset seems to be getting to the point where we can hardly imagine living debt free, we are just trying to get by with the lowest amount we can. Higher education seems to be a double-edged sword and it is nerve-wrecking as a graduating senior to realize that now is the time to make it or break it. We can only hope that the education we have been provided will land us a job where we can begin to pay off our student loans and that our choice will have been worth it in the long-run.
ReplyDeleteAs I am looking forward to graduating, I am also in a state of panic. Over the years I have accumulated over $40,000 in student loans. That seems so over whelming to me, especially considering that I am currently working 8-10 hours a week and the economy is so bad right now. My husband also has student loans that we have to pay off. I get so frusterated because you have to have a degree to get any sort of a good job, yet even if I can get a decent job I feel like I will still be broke paying back the loans! It is frusterating because there are countries that pay 100% for higher education. The U.S. wants the best and the brightest, but makes it difficult for people without much money to make that happen. An even bigger concern that I have is for my children. What is it going to be like in 8 years when my daughter wants to go to college? Is it even going to be obtainable? We have already started talking to her about the importance of her grades and sports to get scholarships if she even wants to think about college. We did just find out that she was accepted to the AVID (Advancement VIa Individual Determination) program for 7th grade! The program is supposed to prepare her for college and allow her to have an advocate to help her get into college and than be successful in college. It is not a program that is offered in every school, so we are fortunate that she is attending a Jr. High that does. I am so proud of her! I just hope that college will be an option when she is ready to go...given the economy amd budget cuts we are currently facing.
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