Using the Two-Year Option
When she began looking at college, Maribel Albarran didn't even consider going to a four-year university. It was just too expensive, and even with in-state tuition in Arkansas and with all the aid and scholarships she was offered to go elsewhere, she knew she had to start small.
In 2004, Albarran began school at Crowder College, a community college in Missouri, which was just across the state line and where she received a full ride her first year. "I didn't even apply to many other schools," she says. "I was just trying to see what was available and where I could afford to go."
But Albarran's undergraduate career didn't end after two years at Crowder, where she earned an associate's degree in theater. With the help of a $2,500 grant from the Hispanic Scholarship Fund, Albarran made the switch from community college to four-year university. In the fall of 2006, she enrolled at the University of Arkansas, and she plans to graduate next year.
Life in Fayetteville has been more hectic than at Crowder. Albarran is now studying broadcast journalism and has thrown herself into campus life, joining Gamma Eta, a multicultural sorority. With the help of financial aid and work-study at an after-school child-care program, she hasn't taken out any loans so far, but between summer school and living in an off-campus apartment with two roommates, she has begun to feel the financial pinch. As challenging as paying for college has become, Albarran says she has grown more responsible. And, she notes, "there is so much more I need to learn."
This story appears in the April 16, 2007 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.