Fair / 63° FDr. Robert Harrison: A college education doesn’t have to mean a lifetime of debt
Published 10:06am Thursday, October 15, 2009This is the third in a series of articles on the value, opportunity and impact of community colleges.
If you’re like me – the parent of a college student – you’re probably feeling a little anxiety right about now.
The excitement that your college-bound child feels about entering a new chapter in his or her life is only matched by the swirling emotions that parents face on numerous fronts. For many families, a primary concern is the cost of education.
In a recent U.S. Department of Education study, two thirds of four-year undergraduate students graduated with some amount of debt, and the average student loan debt was more than $23,000. Recent reports also indicate that the latest student loan default rate increased to 6.7 percent, up from the record-low of 4.5 percent just four years earlier.
Cost of education is one of the reasons that more and more families are choosing community colleges. Community colleges are a great place to start or complete a post-secondary education. In fact, each year almost half of the nation’s undergraduates begin their higher education careers at community colleges. In Michigan, a family can save an average of $17,000 over two years (on tuition, fees, room and board) at a community college compared to a public four-year institution.
Paying for college is a complex issue when you consider all the factors. Between tuition, fees, room and board, books, transportation and supplies, costs can sky-rocket. Purchasing new college textbooks alone can average upwards of $900 per year.
But help is out there and smart choices can be made to help defray the cost of an education. Numerous financial aid options are available from a variety of sources such as federal and state loans and grants to work study money, scholarships and private loans.
Regardless of the amount of money that students need to fund their education, we encourage every student to seek financial aid assistance and not to assume they won’t qualify for aid. In fact, at LMC more than 77 percent of our student body that applies for financial aid receives some sort of financial assistance.
One important component to our financial aid package is scholarships. Like many community colleges, at LMC we have generous individual and corporate donors who help our students meet the financial challenges by supporting scholarship funds.
Scholarships are gifts that do not need to be re-paid by the recipient and are available for a variety of reasons – not just for superb academic performance.
Exploring college and financial aid options early can be vital to learning what there is to know, meeting important deadlines and helping your family make the best decision for your situation.
To help in this process, on Monday, Nov. 2, LMC will present a Parents Workshop at the Bertrand Crossing Campus in Niles where families can receive free assistance to help answer all the questions that they may have about sending a child to college. Information will be covered in a general way so that it is applicable to all, no matter which school families are considering. One of the topics at the Parents Workshop will focus on financial aid.
By taking a proactive, early approach to shopping for a college education, families can make good choices today that will lead their college-bound child to find the right “fit” for their future without breaking the bank or digging a deep hole of debt.
Dr. Robert Harrison is president of Lake Michigan College.
A good strategy in dealing with our daughter’s student loan was have the interest billed to us monthly instead of allowing it to accrue. Whenever I got a bill for the interest, I would always paid the interest plus $25 or $50 or whatever I could afford. Both my girls were surprised when after they were done with school that they owed less than they borrowed. Adding that interest payment to the loan month after month adds up considerably over the life of the loan.