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Middle class students granted substantial financial aid

March 12, 2008

By: Min Qiao <mqiao@hilite.org>

At a time when colleges and universities face congressional pressure to spend more of their endowments to help students, a growing list of institutions has moved to make financial aid more widely available.

According to a recent article published in the February issue of The Wall Street Journal, Stanford University will no longer require parents earning less than $100,000 to pay tuition, and families earning below $60,000 do not have to contribute at all to the cost of their child’s education, including expenses for room and board.

Tanna Hanger, a counselor at the College and Career Resource Center here, said that college tuition has always been on the rise, and she would love to see this trend of increased financial aid continue.

“What happened is that if one school does it, the rest of the schools have to follow suit,” Hanger said. “I think it started with Harvard or Yale and has sort of trickled down since then.”

According to same article in the February issue of The Wall Street Journal, more than 40 schools have moved in recent years to eliminate or cap the amount of need-based loans in their financial aid packages and replaced them with grants.

According to Hanger, Carmel has a relatively small percentage of students who apply to elite colleges.

“It will be interesting to see if that percentage increases with these changes,” Hanger said. “At this point, there is no way to know (how the changes will affect the percentage of students that apply).”

The article in The Wall Street Journal also states that some observers fear the availability of additional financial aid for higher-income students could fuel the already fierce competition for admissions to elite schools.

Junior Nick Cooper, who said he plans to apply to elite schools, said the affluent stereotype link to Carmel students has led some students to think that they are not qualified to benefit from financial aid.

“(From the people that I have talked to), most feel that they are less likely to get financial aid,” Cooper said. “Because of that connotation, it deters them from applying for aid.”

Hanger agrees that there is always a wealthy connotation linked to Carmel students and adds that students still need to be vigilant and meticulous when looking into financial aid, even if they don’t think they qualify.

Senior Catherine Chung, who applied to some of the more expensive schools, said that she expects some financial aid, but only for her minority status.

“Coming from a middle-class family, I’d like to say (that colleges should provide more financial aid to middle-class families),” Chung said. “But knowing that there are a lot of families that need the money more than mine, then no, (colleges shouldn’t give more financial aid to middle-class families). A school only has so much money they can give to families.”

At the same time, Chung also said that she feels that the lack of financial aid for middle-class families can place quite a strain on parents, especially if the family has several children going to college at the same time. She said that the debt from student loans can be quite a burden on the student’s future.

Similarly, Cooper said that while lower classes might have a lower income and need the financial aid, colleges will usually look at the family situation as well.

He also said that lack of financial aid could be a great obstacle in students’ paths to elite schools. He said that he knows quite a few students who would qualify for elite schools, but do not apply because of financial problems and debt. In fact, Cooper said that for most students, the financial aspect is the most important factor in a student’s decision for deciding on a college.

“Personally, I expect to receive a lot of financial aid,” Cooper said. “I think that colleges should give more aid to middle class because their family might need it just as much.”

“For me, I am definitely going to apply first and worry about the financial aspect later,” Cooper said. “You can’t put a price on education, and I am not going to let money deter me from getting a good (one).”

Hanger said that perserverance is most necessary when looking at colleges and universities.

“Parents and students need to be vigilant in looking at tuition opportunities in seeing whether they will qualify or not,” Hanger said. “Every senior needs to fill out the FAFSA form to see if they can benefit from federal aid. Every parent and student needs to be vigilant on every school they apply to to see if there are programs available (that provide financial aid). It’s just about being vigilant and on top of things.”

Updated by John Zhong · Filed Under News 

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