When it comes to financial aid, a lot of people complain that the government doesn't do enough to help the middle class. The theory goes like this: low-income applicants get a lot of aid, wealthy ones don't need any, and middle-class students—as their name suggests—get caught in the middle, expected to pay way more than they can afford. But
U.S. News & World Report published an
article yesterday about a new study that found that, in fact, low-income students are the ones most often hung out to dry.
For low-income students, the problems are twofold. First, only a small minority of the country's colleges and universities promise to meet all student need, and those schools—Ivies and the like—admit mostly wealthy students.
U.S. News calculated that, of the 3 million students who begin college each year, about 200,000 are enrolled at institutions that meet all or most of student needs. But of those 200,000 students, only 30,000 come from low-income families, constituting about 1 percent of all college freshmen.
Second, low-income students who do not enroll in such giving institutions usually don't receive enough government aid to cover their college expenses. The study found this to be a problem, on average, for households with yearly incomes under $70,000, and the gap between aid and need is greatest for the families with the smallest earnings.
For example, the government expects families earning $35,000 a year to contribute $2,600 a year to college. In 2008, students in this bracket received about $7,000 in financial aid. But the study estimated each student's college costs, including books and housing, to run approximately $20,000 a year, leaving $13,000 in expenses. If we subtract the expected contribution ($2,600) and an optimistic $5,000 in student loans and work study, that leaves a $5,000 gap. Using similar calculations, the survey found an almost $1,500 gap for families earning $65,000.
To explain this discrepancy,
U.S. News linked to an older
article about how the government calculates what families can afford
using budget estimates from 1967. These, of course, do not factor in modern expenses, like healthcare (more expensive now than it was then) or laptops, nor do they make the proper adjustment for living expenses in pricey areas like New York and D.C.
Are you surprised to find financial aid typically shafts low-income students, not the middle class? Can you believe the government relies on standards from 1967?
Comments (23)
I'll answer the last question first.
Can you believe the government relies on standards from 1967? Yes.
I use for my justification the Social Security system that pays the elderly a pension after they retire. The system does not adjust for current cost of living and instead pays them what they had paid in to the system ages ago. It does not adjust for inflation so the elderly who depend on this money may only receive around 400 a month, at best. 4800 a year is not even applicable for living, unless you stay with your kids or are in a retirement home.
As for financial aid, I've always had misgivings. I get told a lot that I can apply for that, loans, grants, and scholarships and should do just fine while in college, but what I'm worried about is the expenses after I graduate. Having even a 5000 dollar debt after college is a bit of a bad start and puts most behind.
Thus, I break out another point you made. The income gap of those accepted to a traditional college. As you stated more wealthy kids are accepted in than low-income. This is called Gatekeeping, which insures that there will always be a poor class. It is a system designed to continue the income gap way of life and will not change until education is viewed as a top priority and not a secondary need. With Obama making headway in his fight for health care which promises to force everyone onto a health insurance program regardless if they can afford it, things like college will continue to be passed off for immediate employment opportunities and reduced standards of living. Needless to say, Obama is turning America into a poor dominated society which will be ruled by the wealthy.
I guess I'm more shocked at the definition of middle class. That and the expectation that the government would pay for a $20,000 a year school no matter what your income. Go to a two year local and a pell grant will cover it (or at least would ten years ago) plus some.
@kpsmom3@xanga - Yeah, my family is low income and I attend a Cal State University. The pell grant covers all of my tuition.
@tieduh@xanga - Good for you! Take advantage of it while you can. I fall on that upper end of the "lower" class (sorry, I consider that middle class but live in a fairly low cost area) and with three kids I can't afford to go back and finish what I started ten years ago. I *really* regret not going while I could have gone free. *sigh* Hindsight.
This is why I go to community college for now.
I just graduated this year with an AA in Social and behavioral sciences. I paid for the entire degree with the PELL grant and the BOGG waiver.
I will be able to afford my 4 year degree, as soon as the Governator restores the Cal Grant.
I'm from a lower class family and I tried to go to a public university but even with an EFC of 0 I didn't get enough to really afford to go there. So I ended up transferring to a community college and now am going to a state college and living at home, so that way my grants & federal loans can cover tuition. My younger brothers wanted the full college experience though and are living on campus at a state college and have to take out extra loans to cover the gap between aid and the full cost of school. I know families who are considered middle class who are mad at me because I get aid and their child who goes to a 40k plus school a year doesn't get enough to cover half their tuition. What they don't realize is that while I might get an instituational grant if I went to that expensive of a school, that I too really wouldn't get that much aid. Basically financial aid does help to cover some of the costs of college but if you want to get the most of it, you need to suck it up and go to a cheaper school, or look for help from scholarships.
@itscatwithak@xanga - they cant get mad at you if they spend so much on their leisure, cars, and luxury items. poor people normally do not even have ridiculously lavish lifestyle or items. school expects middle-income student to pay more for school regardless of income, and the same goes for poor families, which is why they receive more aid than average family.
@falconfraudless@xanga - ya I know, right. What I've had said to me is that they've worked hard all their lives, so why should all the aid go to "poor slobs who do nothing but sit on their butts and take from all us who work hard for a living". Once again the people who abuse the system are the ones that stand out and thus give us other lower income people a bad rap, when in fact my parents worked hard for a living too. It's just what they could make was a lot lower then their middle class counter parts. I guess some people don't realize that in some areas there just aren't those cushy jobs with nice salaries, instead people have to work twice as hard to receive hardly anything. Ugg I guess that's enough of a rant, lol.
@itscatwithak@xanga - "poor slobs who do nothing but sit on their butts and take from all us who work hard for a living"
Oh hail no. That's a horrible stereotype. There are tons of poor &immigrant parents who work SO hard with a low-paying job. They face discrimination for not speaking English well. There are jobs with a degree that pay less than the median average salary as well, yet they are borderline poor and "lower" middle class. Low-income students are not all slobs, and in fact, they may be the hardest working people with a low socioeconomic background and came from low-income community. They've gone through more and struggle more.
@falconfraudless@xanga - It would be great if people actually saw that. Instead the parents complain, while their child gets to sit back and have fun at school, not worrying about working while in school or anything like that. It really pisses me off, as I myself have had to work my whole time in school, so if anything I'm as hard working as they claim to be.
My family had an EFC of 13,000. I don't know whose family was supposed to pay that....certainly wasn't mine.
@itscatwithak@xanga - I just want to jump in here. My family is considered middle class, but I don't think any of these folks take credit into account. They said I was supposed to be able to afford 13,000...can't really pay that. And on top of that, I wound up paying not too much more at a 40k+ private school than I would have at a state school. The difference was not that staggering. I was going to get NOTHING at a state school, but I got half of my tuition paid thanks to a scholarship and a generous grant from the school. I chose the 40k + private school because of it (it's where I really wanted to go). I had to work, too, and not at one of those nice work study jobs either because I didn't get work study. I'm glad my school worked with me, but now I have like 75k in loans coming out (if you subtract the price of my used car, it's about the same as I would have had to take out at a state school)...which is about the same or less as my best friend who was actually low income (which is a travesty in itself). Middle class folks have it bad, too. My parents helped with my first year, but after that, except for helping out when they could for my art supplies, I was having my retired grandmother cosign on loans for me. Just because we may look good on paper, doesn't mean that we actually are that good in real life. I had a friend who was low income and her entire tuition was paid for, had a cushy work study job, and spent a lot of time drunk. Parents who make significantly less than mine still qualified to help their kids with lower interest loans taken out in their own name...not so much here. Everyone has a different story. Middle class folks slip through the cracks, and my folks don't have a partiuclarly cushy lifestyle, either. The system is flawed for anyone making under six figures. And even still, I've heard some stories.
Yup. My mom made less than $30,000 last year, and this was my financial aid for the year:
$1,300.00
$1,700.00
$3,000 ... My cost of attendence for the year?
"Your estimated cost of attendance is $16,661.00."
Yeah... where to find $13,000?
So stupid, but that helps explain why I ended up having to try and scrape together so many loans since "financial aid" wasn't up to scratch.
It doesn't surprise me. I definitely think they need to re-evaluate their evaluation and calculation standards. They need to update these things. But, it doesn't surprise me that they haven't and aren't likely to do so. It's the kind of thing people know is unfair but also just figure that nothing can be done about it.
Maybe soon, though, this will change. If enough media exposure is given to it, then people might start to do something about it. I think that while a lot of people wouldn't be surprised, the majority of people in the United States might be. And once it's brought to everyone's attention enough times, something might get done. :)
I want to move to England where public universities are virtually free(so I've heard) if you attend public grade school. At present I am owing around 60,000 in principal on my federal and private loans. My interest accured is almost near 7 or 8 grand last time I checked. My family's EFC was around 6,000. HOW THE F is ANYONE supposed to come up with that when they have bills to pay and food to eat. The government needs to change things. ADJUST things to inflation. Wait...that will never happen until the older generation is GONE. Our kids will suffer with having over 100 grand in loan debt. The 100 grand in debt is BEFORE graduate school loans. =/
I spent one year at an out-of-state university and from that one year alone, I have nearly $27,000 in loans. I'm glad I made the better decision to transfer home to community college where I only had to pay $300 out of pocket and without loans. It drives me nuts when I fill out the FAFSA however; my sister and I fill out each of our FAFSA's together and we end up with different EFC's which ranged from $4,000 to $ 6,000.
I'm a physician assistant major and I'm at a community college right now. I live with my mom and her boyfriend, she doesn't work so he supports us with around $18,000 a year and I work part time. My college is paid in full with grants and loans. My schooling is $2,700 a semester. I'm transferring in the spring, and then my tuition will be around $4,000 a semester. I'm sure the government will help me out. I don't see why people feel the need to attend schools that are $20,000 a semester unless they want to be a doctor or engineer or something.
i get what youre saying. i myself am a low-income student. i enrolled in midamerica nazarene university, which for freshman year cost over $25,000!!! i filed as independent on my FASFA because i've been on my own for over 2 years, and i thought a poor white girl such as myself would not have to worry about coming up with anymoney for tuiton....and if i did it would be maybe just a few hundred dollars. but i owe more than $5000 dollars, and when i moved to campus, finding a job to cover that and pay my other bills was pretty much imposible! i tried so hard looking day after day and turning countless resumes and applications, yet i could not find anything!!! i had to move off campus....and back in with my dad.....geeze how humiliating...i moved out for a reason, and now im back....having to ask for gas money just to get to school. it deffinetly sucks and even though MNU is the school of my dreams, im going to have to transfer at semester to a ...community college. not that i am spoiled or anything.....im anything but! though i honestly feel that i am not going to be getting the same kinda of education at a cc. and i have a hunch that if my skin was any other color, i would not even have to worry about it.
i go to goucher college in baltimore and i understand completely.
i'm originally from brooklyn, new york and i come from a low-income family.i was never planning on coming here for college, but i just happened to do so.i applied for two loans, and i still have to pay 5,200 for the year (the tuition is 46,191 a year).my parents don't even make a quarter of the college's tuition.luckily, i was given a trust fund when i was younger (i had an accident that left a scar on my nose) so it's enough to help pay for the remainder.i don't my parents having to reach into their own pockets, when it's my fault that i put them in this mess.i am planning on applying for FAFSA when i am able to, so that i can get more financial aid.i kinda wish i stayed in brooklyn so that it would ease the financial pain for my parents, but at the same time i love goucher and wouldn't want it any other way.Well if you fill out those FAFSAs they actually have a line that asks "How much will your family Contribute?" If you dont put anything, no matter what income bracket you are in, then they will give you what is available. But maybe that only works if you are "Dependant" from whatever.... like now I have my daughter as a dependant and Im considered an independant person but we still live with my mom. Im still considered an adult though. My parents are not responsible for paying for my education so that is what FAFSA expects of me.
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