“I always knew I would go to college. It never dawned on me that it would cost so much until I actually got there,” stated Keisha Hall, a current student at SUNY Old Westbury. Most professions at least require an associate’s degree, and even with that degree many job candidates are chosen from those who have a bachelors, masters, or Ph.D. It has become a world of survival of the smartest and those who have a higher degree are at the top of the totem pole. College is such a great resource to success but, without financial aid, grants or scholarships, taking out loans is the only option left.
According to the Reverend Jesse Jackson, thirty years ago, Pell Grants covered 77% of the cost of student tuition. Today, that percentage has decreased to 33%.This is because the state has been cutting funding to schools, leaving the responsibility of paying for school up to the student with borrowing as the only option.
Keisha Hall, a senior at SUNY Old Westbury, is someone who is dealing with the hardship of finding money for school. Her dream school was Long Island University (a private school) and although she attended for a year, and had a partial scholarship, it was just too expensive to stay. Hall was forced to leave to attend SUNY Old Westbury.
She said: “LIU is a great school, and if it wasn’t for the expensive tuition I would still be there now. When I attended, the price of tuition was around 18,000 per semester. My scholarship was six thousand per semester; this didn’t really seem like much when I looked at the bill.”
State funded schools like Old Westbury aren’t nearly as costly. With little financial aid, Hall has to take out her own loans for school and should be able to pay back loan companies six months after graduation. According to the Rainbow Push Coalition, an organization working to help reduce the rate of student loans, it takes a student up to a year to find work prior to graduation. This leaves the students who have loans no choice but to default on them.
Hall said: “I am in debt of about thirty-five thousand dollars, which is just an estimate. I still have to finish up my senior year, and get into grad school. I don’t know what I’m going to do about the bills when they come rolling in, hopefully I will have a great paying job to assist me.”
The stress of paying for college weighs on the chests of many students. After college, one in five students defaults on a loan because they don’t have sufficient income. When this occurs, students are reported to the credit bureau and are forced to pay back more than the original loan because of added interest.
Laura Lunkenheimer, the founder and president of Peaceful Schools, an organization that helps students with their social skills in Syracuse, NY, described her current struggle to pay back school loans: “Here I am now, out of college for at least twenty years, and I am still getting loan bills in the mail. It’s easier for me now because I have a great career but, fresh out of college was a nightmare. I remember having to decide on if I would pay my rent, or my loan; in fear of having bad credit. It was horrible. Even today, I struggle because I have car payments, mortgage, and expenses for the company.”
College graduates are a necessity for the work force, and the need for them will only increase in the upcoming years. Organizations such as the Rainbow Push Coalition are fighting for the rights of college students with hopes to eliminates interests on loans and in the future, eliminate expensive tuition completely.
“I’m nervous about what lies ahead when I finish school, Hall says. “I’m sure I’ll be living at home for a long time until I save whatever bit of money that does not go to pay bills.”