Students Make Costly Mistakes With Financial Aid

Financial aid

The thing about colleges is that I feel they don't do anything to benefit your needs. I mean as of now I am a freshman at community college. My car broke down, I have twins that are 18 month olds and are not walking as of yet, I have no money, I have no family, I mean no father, no mother, no aunties, no uncles, no grandparents, no cousins, nothing. So because of my car breaking down I talked to people at the college and due to my situation they told me to drop all of my classes because there was no way that I can take my classes online for the rest of the semester. I told them that what the hell do you do to benefit those students who don't have nothing. What do you do to benefit those students who don't have not one single family member to help them out. All they told me was that they can't do anything to help me. I come from a family that is poor and not educated. I am 19 years old. After graduating high school I wanted to attend college so I can start another family legacy. I have a dead father whos been dead every since I was a year old. My mother, every since I was nine years old, is to busy with her own life so I cut her out of my life for good. I have no extended family. I moved out of my moms home when I was 17 years old three days after my twins were born( by the way my twins were premature)and every since then I am struggling to make ends meet. i can't find a job and no one wants to hire me because I am not flexible with my schedule. So back to the subject, I feel that colleges are hear just to take your money out of your pocket. I wanted to go into real estate, but since I have twins, I can't make choices for myself. So I decide to go into nursing. I really don't like it too much. I am bored to death. See students who have money and have family to help them and provide for them can do anything they want to do. But students who are underprivileged have to take on careers they don't even like. I asked some of my fellow students who are all came from the same background as me said they didn't like the program they were in. All they wanted was a career that makes a lot of money. I find that kind of sad and disgusting. I mean these students should be able to feel that they have some freedom to choose. Its just kind of sad that you have to do something you don't want to do. So for all you privileged people out there you are very lucky to habe family and friends because like me I have nobody. Absolutely NOBODY. Thank God everyday for what you have.

It's not such a shock that wealthier kids might have a higher graduation rate. Also, it's not such a shock that people spend insane amounts of money while in school. Geezus, have YOU seen TUITION costs??? It's obscene! Really, these "schools" are stealing money from kids who enter into a four year sentence that rains a severe financial penalty (basically an "edu-mortgage") on their heads. It's a dumb mistake to go to school if you can't afford the "investment". That *means* you can't major in subjects that you might love purely for educational incentive. Better be thinking of engineering, medical, or accounting. Also, don't think you're finished after getting your undergraduate degree. Not in today's world! To be competitive, you have to have at least a Masters degree.

Don't get me started on complaints about the shamefully overpriced textbooks!!!

yet, it is rarely said that college is kind of overrated!

Our American society has been bombarded with standard hype suggesting that college will vastly improve one's life. Americans are led to believe that four years of extra school will some how teach students something invaluable? Well, having graduated from college, I think it was a silly waste of time (grad' with a 3.7gpa with vast selection of coursework ranging from hard sciences to liberal arts)! I gained nothing of educational value for what I paid into it. There's other ways to gain education like by life experience. I think two years immersion in a travel expedition around the world would be a better "investment". Such an nonstandard education would wake up a creative mind. The student gets a real world education that goes beyond the silly cheap lecture delivered by the jaded professor. There's many other routes young people should consider taking instead of college. Too many colleges seem to be fundamentally wrong! They (not all, but most) are lousy institutions with the worst of intentions such as thieving money (got to pay administration and faculty and so and so costs) from naive young students who usually don't know what they want to do with their lives (this is one reason I advise against college as the place to "find yourself"). College is ordinarily too structured, very deadline specific, solidly formal, and just too rigid to allow much education to really happen (but you do learn how to parrot back information beautifully). I think an individual can learn these mentioned "skills" by heading directly into the world of work. Apprenticeships ought to be an alternative to wasting one's time at school. School tends to lean too heavy on standardized theory and crap that does NOT deliver RESULTS in the real world outside academia. My advice? Don't go to college!!!! just because it seems to be preached as *the* next route to take after high school. Do something DIFFERENT from the standard! RESEARCH your chosen school with a fine toothed comb. What's the real monetary value of your educational investment (it's a HUGE financial and time commitment that equates to a gamble really)? Research alternatives to school!!! I just wish people would accept the idea that maybe undergraduate college education is kind of overrated! I can say that even if such a statement devalues my own degree. I think Americans need to stop thinking that a degree means that a person is "educated". For many, real world experience trumps anything one will do in college. I feel like I have to catch up on the four years I wasted.

After saying all of that, I do advocate formal college for the pursuit of hard sciences. But liberal arts, business, and other such pursuits don't require college.

I was shocked to read this article. It made me rethink how im going to spend my money in the future. I also realize how paying for an education and taking out loans out can make a person go broke. I am realy fortunate that I hav e parents that can afford to send me to college. I agree that someone who works for their money appreciates it more than someone who is just handed it.

It is hardly just the financial aid recipients

I echo all the comments indicating that middle class kids are just as disorganized about money.

I also think it is a question of the current age. As a young professional I was heavily encouraged to take on debt to finance career advancement. People said it was an "investment" to have a laser printer at home, to pay for seminars, etc. I thought and think it was insane, but these were the 80s and the 90s.

Also: I as a middle class child was constantly told by parents that we were poor. I am not the only person I know who was taught this. What I assumed: that what we were buying must be on credit, since we were "broke" and had "no money." What I learned: that the things we had were the things people had even when they were poor.

I am very logical and saw through a lot of it, but I can easily see how people wouldn't, and the pressure to live above one's means is very very strong in this society.

FAFSA

The government assumes that parents have saved for their child's education and that they will be willing to contribute. Many times this is not the case. I am funding my own education with the meager federal student loan that was given to me. It just covers the cost of my tution at the community college I am attending and I work part-time as a full-time student to make ends meet.

A Matter of Maturity Not Afluency

The lack of financial responsibility is the plague of the rest of the college student population. Trust funds dry up, wealthy and middle-class parents receive calls from frantic children desperate for cash, and yes, even the financial aid kids can't manage it. This isn't an issue of first generation college students being unable to manage funds its a matter of college students not being able to manage funds. None of whom want to take time out of their day's to learn about it. This is directly in relation to straight out of highschool college students. When you get into the range of non-traditional studetns. Parents, and older students who have been there and done that, you find that they know a thing or two about money management.

These kids get the short end of a very short stick

Ms. Clark fails to realize or chooses not to mention that the things that these kids are 'wasting' their money on are things that those wealthier 'well-adjusted' kids who graduate on time take for granted because their parents buy them for them.

Each of these young people in the study is coming from a life of never having enough of anything and watching other kids buy all the things that make a kid 'socially acceptable' -- things they couldn't even dream about because their parents, living month-to-month, knew they couldn't afford them. Or, worse, they grew up with parents who spent money they didn't have in order to buy some of these things.

They're plunked into the independent world of college with a big sum of money at the beginning of each semester.

Small wonder then that these young people would rather face financial hardship -- certainly nothing new -- in the hazy future than give up the ability to finally be able to feel 'normal' and buy and do the things that the wealthier kids take for granted.

Anyone who tells them that they have to continue living a life of severe constriction and lack of resources for pleasure and fun, while working their tails off day in and day out, is giving them a very bitter pill to swallow. It's all the bitterer because they can see all around them, plain as day, their peers who will never have to taste it. Any attempts to help and encourage them to manage their money more wisely will absolutely have to address this factor.

My suggestions would be 1) mandatory support/discussion groups about finances for the first year for low-income students and 2) mandatory programs to help remove temptation, i.e. parceling out money by the month, and to help them budget and prioritize their funds to include some spending on pleasure and fun.

As Ms. Clark points out, these are young people who are not only immature (like all the other students) but also have no good role models or guidance for managing their money. It is ludicrous and hypocritical to leave them to figure it all out on their own and then castigate them for making poor decisions (including whether or not to seek help).

KEEP IT SIMPLE

I think the best approach for colleges is to require students to enroll in and pass personal finance courses in the freshman year and perhaps the financial aid departments can offer to assist college students(even if they don't recieve aid) in creating budgets based on their personal aid amounts/income which would show them the exact amt they can spend each week w/o going hungry before the semester ends, the # of hours of work they can do on a job w/o interfering with classes..etc.

A simple computer program could print it out... Just something to help get them started down the right path.

But I would cut it off there and keep the policy clear to avoid ill informed perhaps well meaning faculty/admin from interfering in students personal lives "she's wearing new shoes" "he's got a cell phone he didn't have last week","her grades are low, she must be here only to get the aid check".. speculating/stereotyping could easily lead to a harrassing environment that further distracts students from learning.

I did have good role models for finance at home-- my parents talked about money at the dinner table, I learned about mutual funds and CDs, I saw how my parents saved for my college fund-- and I still couldn't manage a checking account during my first couple of years of college! I was bouncing checks and finally had to go back to a plain old savings account. I was disorganized and impulsive because I was 18 years old. I don't think a class or training would have changed that. I had to go through the learning process myself. Unfortunately, when student loans are in the picture there's a lot of money riding on that learning process. I think schools and/or parents need to monitor and control the spending pretty tightly, at least at first.