<p>Working after school to support one’s family is a very respectable EC…</p>
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<p>Okay. </p>
<p>Most local state unis, even the prestigious flagships range about 5k to 10k I do believe. Good community college programs often offer stuff at 80 dollars per credit hour, so for a typical 30 hour year that’s about 2.4k a year. (Definitely covered by Pell Grant.) If your community college is in say, Northern Virginia, the rigour is nothing to laugh at. </p>
<p>So let’s say you do have to take out 2-5k in loans per year for say the local unis. That isn’t horrible, especially if you get them subsidised. So you end up having to pay say, 25k over ten years (a very off the hand estimate in real dollars after adjusting for inflation).</p>
<p>Community college is the most popular option for low income students.
Our local cc is affordable, but no public trans, 1st year dropout rate about 50%.
In my state, loans for our local state u were $5,500 first year, which with
tuition increases,interest comes to about $28,000 over 4 years. Unmet need
after grants and loans came to about $8,000 for the first year - usually
covered by summer work, weekend work and plus loans. The 4 year
graduation rate is only 34% It’s precarious for low income kids, a car
breakdown, a job loss and you’re dropping out for awhile. sure, there’s
kids that make it, but addressing the problems of low income students
requires a broad based response and a lot more commitment than is
currently being shown. Our flagship state u is not accessible to low
income kids and is increasingly being filled by wealthy students taking
advantage of a state subsidized education. That trend is also impacting
the lower level states - they’re becoming more selective. Our local
state u admits less than 50% of apps and is only 14% pell. Unfortunately,
without tremendous effort and a good deal of luck, the door to higher ed
is being closed for most low income kids.</p>