"Many colleges say they provide enough aid for students to enroll. New analysis suggests otherwise.
The rhetoric of college admissions is all about possibility. Prospective students are encouraged to enroll and told of the availability of aid – federal, state and institutional – to help.
But is that rhetoric overstated? A new analysis by the Center for Law and Social Policy suggests that it is a stretch to say that most students receive enough money to afford college." …
This is given that one thinks the EFC numbers on the FAFSA are fair and just. I disagree with that premise so I think the gap is even larger than the article suggests. My EFC is 3.5 times my annual mortgage payments (with living in a high cost area of The USA). That seems crazy to me and I am sure I am not alone. Even just a COLA adjustment would make sense.
Only the most selective colleges even claim to meet need, so for most Americans who don’t have top credentials they will be on their own.
Nothing new to see here, folks.
This supposed solution puzzles me: States and colleges should do more to connect students with benefits for which they qualify but may not know how to obtain. So a solution is for colleges to provide more services to connect students with non-college-provided benefits. This would require increased staff, which requires increased salary/benefits. Not sure how that will translate into lower costs for students, since someone has to pay those costs.
IMHO, this is the real problem, if it is true: Many colleges say they provide enough aid for students to enroll. If this statement is not accompanied by the statement that aid includes student and parent loans and there is no caveat that the statement is predicated on the assumption the family can/will pay its calculated EFC, it is misleading. Schools should market aid less and discuss the realities of aid more.
I wanted to know who, specifically, is saying this, so I read the linked article. And… the article doesn’t cite any source claiming that most students receive enough money to afford college. It would be helpful to know which schools overstate the amount of aid that is provided which supposedly allows most students to afford the school.
The phrase “meet need” is heavily used here, but is much less meaningful than most people assume, since definition of “need” from the same financial information varies.
I googled “A new analysis by the Center for Law and Social Policy” and found:
which says
There’s a link to the brief, which in turn is footnoted with sources. YMMV.
This seems silly. We all know that most colleges do not provide adequate aid pkgs, nor can they.
That said, there have been some padding of COAs (including priciest dorms, largest meal plans, etc) that even if a student is gapped, the student can close some of that gap by choosing standard double/triple dorms and smaller meal plans, and by being frugal with “personal expenses.”
I think some schools pad their COAs a lot just so parents can borrow more to cover some other costs. I’ve seen high COAs that include $10k+ private room dorms, but students choose $6k standard doubles, and use the rest of borrowed money to cover Greek costs, etc. Not wise IMHO, but I’ve seen this go on.
Mom- the colleges that DON’T pad the COA’s get criticized all the time for creating a two tier system- the nice dorms for the full pays, and the bare bones dorms for the financial aid kids.
What’s a college to do?
In our day (when dinosaurs roamed the earth) the “scholarship kids” knew we were going to work in the library, dining hall, cleaning crews even though there were tonier jobs (which paid less) on campus. We bought the cheapest meal plan and used the forbidden immersion heaters for canned soups and canned pastas for a few dinners a week. There was no shame in having to scrimp and save a bit to be on campus. We took Greyhound to go back and forth, even when it meant switching buses three times at odd hours of the night. (my roommate- Scranton PA at 1 am? It sounded hideous).
That doesn’t fly with parents these days. They want the kid to have the “full on” experience which means an air conditioned dorm, a single (what kid shares a bedroom at home so why should they at college), etc??? And what kid who owns a car in HS doesn’t think it’s their god given right to take it to college, regardless of how much parking costs???
Many D1 NCAA schools had big jumps in COA a couple years ago when the NCAA allowed a stipend for athletes up to the COA. Alabama couldn’t let its players suffer on a $3000 stipend when Penn State was giving $6000