Those are all reasonable expenses. But still not possible for a student without parent help.
Hope doesn’t count +/- grades. So a B- is still a B and counts as a 3.0. Same thing with a B+
16-24k is till completely out of reach for Pell grant families. Even factoring in work earnings, full Pell, and federal loans, anything above 15k is going to be impossible. If we want debt-free, then we’re talking under 10K. for Pell eligible students.
So, we have three issues:
- how to make community college free: as Tennessee developed, necessary to ensure economic growth and general business attractiveness
- how to have affordable public universities for Pell recipients (Pell = lower income and middle class)
- how to ensure debt-free public universities for all instate residents
There need to be more online options and more computer options. As a former low income student the CUNY system was a life saver. I don’t think I would have been able to attend college if I didn’t live in NYC. Low tuition coupled with the ability to commute made it affordable.
The SUNY universities (UB) has a total COA of about $25,500. The tuition is $9500 of it. A lot of state schools have expensive housing. Noticed that with the California schools too. A bit better in the South
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.politico.com/agenda/amp/story/2019/01/16/tennessee-free-college-000867
An article about how Tennessee has done it with free Community colleges
In the German system tuition is free but housing and living costs are up to you. For a student in NYC that’s similar to staying with the parents and commuting to a CUNY school while paying tuition using grants (Pell, NYS-Tap) or NY excelsior. In Germany about 50% of the population graduates from the college preparatory high schools and thus earn access to college level education. Others are tracked into apprenticeships, vocational and trade schools.
Translated to the US that would mean to disqualify the lower 50% percentile of high school graduates from free public college, for example below a SAT score of 1050, but also offer alternative professional career pathways. Actually, many professions that require college in the US like for example nursing, computer programming or banking are in Germany accessible via the vocational apprenticeship/trade school track, where young people earn an income on the job at the same time as attending school.
Actually, this is no longer as true as it used to. Germany has changed its system a lot, in part due to PISA.
Haupschule students are still tracked into apprenticeships and vocational courses only, but Realschule students and the new comprehensive high schools lead to higher education. The Fachhochschule (undergraduate-only colleges, with Bachelor’s degrees in Applied sciences, nursing, business, engineering…) in particular, offer an excellent opportunity for both Gymnasium and Realschule students, as well as for all comprehensive HS graduates. Apprenticeship for higher education (nursing or engineering) is also highly valued and is not reserved (at all) to the lower performing students.
Key: vocational education is free. Apprentices get a stipend.
@MYOS1634 Living at home gets rid of the room and board costs and knocks off ~10K per year and most GA public schools tuition come in at 6-10K (similar numbers across the entire southeast for non-flagship public schools). A student with a max pell grant and low paying part-time job (even without Hope or Zell Miller) could go to school with little to no debt as a commuter student in my area (Atlanta suburbs). I know that being able to commute may be harder in some areas of the country. There are certain pockets of the country that are struggling a lot more with this issue and citizens need to make their voices heard. I am proud of my actual home state (Tennessee) for investing in their citizens and hope more states figure out how to do the same.
A good starting point is either commuting or online education. Get rid of room and board and you’ve already cut the COA in half.
College students living with parents still consume food and utilities there, and commuting typically costs some money. While that is typically a substantial savings compared to living at the college, the cost of such is not $0 (even though many students and parents assume it is), so the net savings would be college room and board minus food and utilities minus commuting costs.
^ But some of the largest utilities costs: heating the home in the winter and cooling it in the summer are going to be the same no matter how many people live in the household. Same applies to internet/cable packages.
The student living with parents still consumes more food, water, and energy (for heating the water and cooking extra servings of food) than if s/he were not there. Commuting costs are commonly not $0 if public transportation or driving is necessary (especially if the family needs to have another car and car insurance for the student to drive to school).
Yes, it is typically much lower than living in the dorm. But it is not $0 like people pretend it is.
Ohio State covers full tuition for Pell grant families:
https://news.osu.edu/ohio-state-to-cover-full-cost-of-tuition-for-ohio-pell-families/
The part about needing to downsize and not having the funds to pay for food seems odd, unless the family was on welfare or food stamps. If the parents successfully provided those for 18 years, there is no reason why they suddenly would be unable to do so when their kid turned 18. Whether they would want to do so is another question.
If room/board costs 9-16k, who really thinks living at home is the same financial burden on a family? And we aren’t talking about impossible commutes (or shouldn’t have to.)
Agree that 20k, even 10k, is out of reach for many. But am still intrigued by the idea of working off tuition, while a student. A lower course load. More earned than typical work study.
Btw, online learning works best with adequate feedback and for kids who can process that via a computer, as opposed to the classroom setting.
Most college students commute. Most Hugh school graduates do not find their own living quarters immediately after highschool. They continue to live with family. Unless joining the military or going away to school, few can afford to find own place. It’s not a rite of passage much less a right of passage
Funds needed to shore up the CCs to be able to better handle those enrolling.
Most wouldn’t (although commuting costs may be higher to college than high school, since distances to colleges are often greater). However, that also means that if the student lives in a college dorm that costs $D, the increase in cost is $D - $H - $C (where $H is food and utilities at home, and $C is commuting costs), not $D.
Students should be also able to live cheaply off campus avoiding costly campus housing and meal plans, especially for rural colleges. On the other hand, NYU dorms for example seem relatively cheap compared to open market rents.
In GA I believe GT tuition and fees is about 14-15k now which is the most expensive in the state. Then the students with zell pay maybe 3k and with hope maybe 6k so with pell its free before living expenses. Additionally there are many other state schools probably unknown to those outside the region including GA State, Kennesaw, Georgia Southern, North georgia, West Georgia, Valdosta and more which are less expensive. For those of us in Georgia attending college is completely doable without debt, minimal debt and possible even for those whose parents will not help.