Andrew Crighton
Staff Writer
Fact: College is really expensive.
If you graduated from ISU in 2013, on average you would have paid $18,077 per semester, which includes in-state tuition, living expenses, books and other supplies. Recently, costs have been rising and just the following year, the 2013-2014 academic year, tuition increased 4.5 percent. For the 2014-2015 academic year, tuition again rose by 3.5 percent, and this year it increased another 3.3 percent. In the course of three academic years, tuition increased 11.3 percent.
Federal Pell Grants are one of the main tools that are used to help students gain a college education. Pell Grants are entitlements; if anyone fills out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid and meet the requirements, that student will receive a grant to pay towards school that does not need to be repaid. The amount received is determined by several variables filled out in the FAFSA. The only exceptions are that those incarcerated in either state or federal prisons cannot receive Pell Grants.
Pell Grant funding is not increasing at the same rate as tuition. In the 2012-2013 academic year, 47.5 percent of students at ISU received Pell Grants, but that same year the average amount of debt owed directly to the government was $23,660. It’s important to note that these numbers do not include any amount of loans that students took from private companies.
With a decreasing amount of grants and tuition increasing, students are more often forced to take out loans either with the government or with private loan companies, and that can add up fast.
Caitlin Hogge studied dental hygiene at ISU and graduated in 2013 after five years of classes, at the end of her education she had accumulated around $66,000 in debt, mainly to the government.
“I’ll probably be paying them off until the day I die,” said Hogge. She explains that while she was taking classes, the amount of her loans adding up didn’t really seem like a large issue at the time, but that changes once you graduate.
“I just bought a house this year, and to [the banks] it just looks like pages and pages of debt,” Hogge said. “It really limits you once you get out of school.”
One of the reasons that school loans are so hard to pay off is because they are one of the few types of debt that cannot be cleared by a bankruptcy, so it will be with you until you pay them off. That can take a long time as well when the average payment is $262.00 a month.
Receiving a lot of grants can really help when it comes to accumulating debt while in school. Neisha Tuckett graduated from ISU in 2013 as well, and studied visual communication. Over four years of classes she accumulated around $13,500 in loans, owed mostly to a private company.
Another caveat of paying off loans is that it can be difficult to work with those in charge of arranging payment plans.
Tuckett explains that she paid $10,000 off right after graduation, and when she tried to work with the company to make a plan, “They weren’t very friendly about it, even after paying a large portion of it back immediately after.”
Considering the fact that in 2013 ISU had a 30.5 percent non-repayment rate on federal loans, the business’ unwillingness to work with Tuckett seems odd.
While it’s undeniable that receiving grants can be an extreme help to students, it can be harder to get them than the application process would lead you to believe. While it is true that anyone who qualifies will receive a grant, sometimes numbers on an application can be skewed.
“A lot of people don’t get Pell Grants because their parents, who are on the application, are in a certain tax bracket where it doesn’t look like they need help,” said Hogge, “But they really have to be paying their bills as well.”
ISU is set up as a six-year school, and in 2013, 33.9 percent of students graduated in six years, but among students who received Pell Grants, only 26.7 percent graduated in six years.
One thing that no one can disagree with is that a secondary education is becoming more and more necessary.
“It’s necessary for the government to see these loans,” Tuckett said, adding, “Because if you don’t have a degree, you won’t be able to make the median income.”
But if students, especially those who can’t pay for some or most of their degree out of pocket, can’t get help, then perhaps they’re at a disadvantage for trying to get ahead, and that resonates with a lot individuals.
“Just in general school shouldn’t be so expensive,” said Hogge. “If you want to get an education, you should be able to.”
Further information and statistics for other universities can be researched by visiting https://projects.propublica.org/colleges/.
