http://www.murray.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=college-affordability-share-your-story
While the form seems to be directed toward Washington State residents and has a political bent (stated goal is to put pressure on Republicans in the Senate who don’t want to find a compromise on the issue of college affordability), it seems open to anyone who wants to share their story.
It seems like a good venue for students and parents to share their stories and, according to the Washington Post, they are all welcome.
This would also be a good venue for parents to explain unwilling non-custodial parent nightmares, for students considered dependents even though their parents don’t contribute toward college, unaffordable cost of flagship for middle and lower income families, cost of some public universities (IL and PA come to mind), etc…
Notes (unrelated to “share your story” website but in reaction to two claims in the article):
contrary to the article’s point, there’s no such thing as “limitless flow of federal financial aid” for needy students (the federal loans to students is capped at $5,500 for the first year and even with Pell many flagship’s tuition is totally unaffordable for lower income students, let alone rooom&board;federal loans + Pell thus can’t possibly explain palatial residence halls and gyms and in any case are not “limitless”. Whoever wrote that is badly mistaken or hasn’t been in college for a long time.) Parents on CC know that, why don’t the journalists?
And the idea controling the costs of college means increasing access to private loans or increasing the presence of private lenders scares me deeply.