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.

If you want receive the next blog and all upcoming blogs, subscribe to the RSS feed or subscribe to be notified by email. If you subscribe by email, you will receive a confirmation email from confirmation@emailenfuego.com

Before you subscribe, put that address in your address book to ensure the confirmation email goes to your inbox and not your spam folder. Christian College Parents is an anti-spam organization, so you must confirm so we can email you. We will not give or sell your information to a third party.

Blessings,
Bonnie

Excessive College Financial Aid Debt –Part 1

As Christian parents, we are very protective of our kids. Our kids might even say over-protective. (At least mine do.) However, there’s one area where we may be not protective enough – their college loan debt.

I recently read an article in The Houston Chronicle, entitled School Loans Could Spell Trouble, that really upset me. The article, by Marcy Gordon of the Associated Press, begins “The near doubling in the cost of a college degree the past decade has produced an explosion in high-priced student loans that could haunt the U.S. economy for years.” (Italics mine.)

From my standpoint of a mother, that's not the worse news. It goes on to say that college loan debt could haunt our children for years too.

The article cites Kristin Cole, a 30-year-old graduate from Michigan State University’s law school, who owes “$150,000 in private and government-backed student loans.” Kristin is quoted saying “I could never buy a house. I can’t travel; I can’t do anything. I feel like a prisoner.”

She now works as a legal aid worker, but says that she may need to go to work for a law firm, which is “something I’m not real dedicated to, just for the sake of being able to live.” Her payments, currently $660/month are scheduled to increase to $800/month in a year or so!

How can our Christian graduates accept calls to be new pastors or missionaries if they have huge college loan debts? I don't think they can, and that's a situation that's bad news for Christian students and for our community of faith.

The good news is that there are solutions to this problem. There are ways you can maximize scholarships and grants while you minimize loans. Through extensive research and personal experience, I've discovered the secrets about financial aid. I will share financial aid tips in the next and future blogs.

As we advise our children on financial aid, I believe it is our duty to protect them from excessive debt. If we don't, we will have to watch them struggle for many years under the burden.

What do you think? Are you facing this situation? Or do you know someone who is? Share your story with us.