JRN 200
6 November 2015
Broke College Students
A common
stereotype associated with college students is that they’re broke. While other
factors may play a part, the costs associated with college may be what are mostly
to blame.
According
to a 2015 report done by CollegeBoard, “the average published tuition and fee
price of a full-time year at a public four-year institution is 40 percent
higher, after adjusting for inflation, in 2015-16 than it was for 2005-06.”
According
to CollegeBoard’s report, in-state tuition and fees at four-year public
institutions increased at an annual rate of 3.4 percent per year, beyond
inflation, between 2005-06 and 2015-16.
Prior
to adjusting for inflation, the annual increase for in-state students at
four-year public institutions was $265 annually, according to CollegeBoard’s
report.
Val
Meyers, an Associate Director for MSU’s Office of Financial Aid, said “schools
had to raise tuition, we have to fund it, if we’re not getting it from other
places we get it from the students and their parents.”
Meyers
said that the recession helped cause federal and state funding for the
university to drop, and that most of the state money MSU receives goes to needy
students.
Meyers
also said that the need for student aid has gone up, but as the economy has
started to level off a bit, so has the increase for student aid at MSU.
These statistics don’t
even cover the costs of living that college students also have to worry about.
Michigan
State University freshman Keondanaya Sturdivant has a scholarship that covers
her full tuition, and her only expenses are room and board, since she lives on
campus, she said.
Despite
the fact that Sturdivant is paying significantly less than some other students
because of her scholarship, she sais she still stresses out about paying for
room and board.
“It
didn’t really hit me until like maybe mid-September, when my bill was due, and
I had to take out a loan,” Sturdivant said.
According
to CollegeBoard’s report, the average cost of room and board at a four-year
public institution is $10,138, for both in-state and out-of-state students,
which is $352 more than last year.
The
average cost of room and board for a private four-year nonprofit institution is
$11,516, which is $354 more than last year, according to CollegeBoard’s report.
The $5,000 loan she
took out is something that also serves as a stressor for Sturdivant, who is
already working at Sparty’s and sets money aside each month to pay that loan
off, she said.
Sturdivant
said that after completing the required training that comes with taking out a
loan at MSU, she realized she could begin paying off this loan and avoid paying
for interest, which would happen if she were to wait to pay her loan off.
According
to a national financial wellness study conducted in Fall 2014 and Winter 2015 by
Ohio State University, 64 percent of students use loans to pay for college, and
more than one-third of those students use loans as their primary source of
funding for their tuition.
One
of these students is MSU freshman and in-state student Audrianna Gibson, who
also has a scholarship to help pay for MSU, she said.
“I
don’t come from like, an affluent background so I really have to rely on
scholarships and loans, so I have to do that extra effort in order to pay for
college, and there’s not a guarantee that I’m gonna be able to stay here, so
that’s like, the biggest stressor on me,” she said.
Gibson
said that stress is something she deals with every day, and that she definitely
wants to get a job soon to help alleviate that stress.
Gibson
also said that she thinks that a lot of other students feel stressed about
financing school and other costs associated with college, since there are
“different people with different circumstances” on different campuses.
According
to OSU’s study, 72.19 percent of students feel stress regarding personal
finances.
“Nearly
60 percent of all students agree that they worry about having enough money to
pay for school,” the study said.
Students
aren’t the only ones taking out loans, either. Rochelle Rivera, an out-of-state
student at MSU, said that her father is paying for her education, and has taken
out loans to help pay for her tuition and room and board, which also includes
her meal plan.
Rivera’s
father is paying for her education while he is still paying off loans he took
out from when he was in school, she said.
“My
dad is 40 years old and he’s still paying for his own college loans, so he’s
basically paying for two schools at the same time. It’s a lot of sacrifice and
stress.”
Taking out
loans may also affect a student’s major choice.
“If you want to just have an education in
something that may not make you a ton of money, that’s a really hard decision
to make now,” Meyers said. “If you’re borrowing $100,000 you really wanna make
sure you can pay it off.”
Rivera,
a social work & international development major, said she finds it interesting
that the bills for her college education are higher than what her salary will
give her, but she doesn’t let that affect her major choice because it’s what
she’s passionate about.
“I
hear all the time that people are so sick of their major but they have to do it
because that’s what’s gonna give them money, and that sucks because that’s not
what life’s all about,” Rivera said. “I know of people who are not doing what
they want just because they need the money.”
Word count: 929
Sources:
·
Val
Meyers, Associate Director, Office of Financial Aid, 517-353-5940, meyersv@msu.edu
·
Keondanaya
Sturdivant, 313-753-5336, sturdi12@msu.edu
·
Audrianna
Gibson, 269-364-8157, gibsonau@msu.edu
·
Rochelle
Rivera, 939-475-9998, rivera33@msu.edu
·
CollegeBoard
Report: http://trends.collegeboard.org/sites/default/files/trends-college-pricing-web-final-508-2.pdf
·
Ohio
State University Study: http://cssl.osu.edu/posts/documents/nsfws-key-findings-report.pdf
REWRITE
GRADE: (redacted)
INSTRUCTOR
COMMENTS: A SOLID JOB, BUT STILL TOO NARROW. WE SHOULD HAVE SPOKEN TO PARENTS
AND THE PEOPLE WHO AUTHORED THE STUDIES WE CITED. STILL, NICE WORK.
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