Excessive College Financial Aid Debt – Part 2

This series of financial aid blogs cites a Houston Chronicle article, that explains how huge college loan debt is handcuffing college students to monster payments for years after they graduate. As a result, this excessive college loan debt severely limits the graduates’ life options.

The newspaper article mentioned a lawyer who couldn’t afford to buy a house, go on vacation or do much of anything because of her $150,000 college loan debt. With a huge debt hanging over their heads, Christian college graduates can’t go into mission work, the ministry, or non-profit work, all of which pays less than corporate jobs.

When my son Chris was selecting a college, this issue came up. One of the colleges that accepted him was a private university in Texas. It was his first choice, but it was very expensive. (I should point out that it was less expensive than Ivy League colleges and even some Christian colleges.)

The Federal Aid Office, the government agency that determines how much parents can afford from their FAFSA (Free Application of Federal Student Aid), sent us our SAR (Student Aid Report) with an EFC (Expected Family Contribution) of $20,000 a year. In other words, they thought we could afford to spend $20,000 on Chris’ freshman year. We couldn’t. And Chris didn’t want to graduate with a debt of $80,000 (which assumed he would graduate in four years). He chose to attend the University of Houston, a state school. This was before I knew the secrets of financial aid.

As it turned out, Chris’ choosing to go to the University of Houston resulted in multiple blessings. My late husband Hugh was diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease) only months after Chris started college. Chris took small class loads and even a whole semester off to help me care for Hugh. (A real blessing for me and Hugh.) Because of his maturity and unselfishness, Chris will graduate three years after his original graduation date, but without a huge debt weighing him down. (A definite blessing for Chris -- You can imagine what seven years at the expensive college would have cost!) He also met his fiancé at University of Houston, so there’s a third blessing.

The first secret I learned was that you don’t have to accept the first financial aid package that a college offers you – you can appeal the amount and the kind of aid. (Some kinds of “aid” are loans.) You can appeal even if the university has not awarded you any financial aid.

I will go into the process of appealing financial aid packages in my next blog.

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Blessings,
Bonnie