<p>I have a very hard time with the whole high cost of education situation. My stance has always been that education is important, extremely important. I think that going off to college is one of the better ways a student can spend his young adult years before truly going off on his own. The college provides a “safety” in terms of people of like interests and ages. Yes, there are other alternatives, but for kids who need to go away somewhere, it is often the best thing available. Some of the kids who can least afford to go away to college could gain the most out of the experience, since there are a number of such kids who are in environments that are threatening to their well being. Also as kids get to the age of adulthood, even in the most nurturing families, it benefits everyone’s mental health to ship the kid out somewhere…like college. THere is a book out there that has other alternatives, and I certainly think gap years and other programs would fit a need but right now college is a traditional venue. They might as well try to get an education as they enter the chrysalis of young adulthood. </p>
<p>The question becomes how much debt is truly too much. Seeing my 24 year old currently struggling to make ends meet with his low salary WITHOUT student loans, making a mess of his credit, bouncing checks, mismanaging financies, making every financial mistake in the book, makes me see how much harder this would be for kids who on top of this have big loans on their backs without parents who can help out. And as a parent with 5 kids spread out in ages, I can see now that we are midway through our kids going off to college, that we can be in trouble if we took out big time loans for each of our kids. Thankfully, we were able to meet a goodly amount of our first one’s colllege costs, and our second one is in a state school that is affordable to us. This allows the third one to go to a private school with some merit aid, and I have may fingers crossed for the last two. I am truly scared of what position we can be in when we are in our old age. This is with what is considered a high income–we are not eligible for financial aid. </p>
<p>Right now a student with a zero EFC, is entitled to enough in guaranteed loans and Pell to go to a local school living at home in most states. In some states he can go away to a state school especially if he is willing to pound salt and work to earn the difference in cost. It’s when we start looking at private schools that the problems start unless they are willing to subsidize the difference. The other kids with problems going to college are those whose parents refuse to provide FAFSA numbers or pay the cost of going to college. There are many parents out there who still don’t get that the undergraduate system is set up so that PARENTS not the STUDENTS are responsible for the cost of the education. They don’t get it that if they are considered able to pay, their kids are not going to get aid, and with no credit record/work history they won’t be able to get much in loans without co signing.</p>