Lastest blog entry from Shawn B.

I was checking my bank account online and I saw an ad that worried me. It seems that the bank was offering home equity loans, which is not in the least bit shocking. But I was shocked when the ad suggested using home equity to pay for college This worries me for many reasons. The big one is the fact that it is feasible and makes sense. Alternative loans are decreasing in availability. Student loan and aid limits are too low. Tuition and other costs are rising. Here is a good source of funding. But with the public loan market struggling, what would happen if the equity loan could not be paid? I would feel very guilty if a home were in danger because I needed money.

This is just as bad as paying for school with a credit card, something that I had to do. My aid was low and even maxed loans were not enough to pay the college bill. Once I put the big bills on the card, little stuff was easy. The amount owed became almost impossible to afford, and in the end, I had to file chapter 7.

How do these issues relate? Well, the money has to be paid back now, not later. And the money is probably not all school related, so there is more necessity to pay it. Not everyone can pay it now. I am just glad that, once I reached the age when I was not a dependent, my aid rose enough to pay for all school bills. But I know that this luck is not shared. And a part-time job does not always pay that much and may not be enough to pay credit card or equity debts.

Education lost in hubbub of campaigning

The Dean of the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Kathleen McCartney, wrote a great commentary for CNN recently. Just like all of us here at 'got tuition?', McCartney exhorts politicians to start talking about college affordability and make education a priority in this country. You can read the complete article here.

Loan cost increases pinch students

According to the Detroit News, students in Michigan have been hit especially hard by the student lending crisis. At Michigan State University, 98% of federal student loan borrowers participated in a program called Michigan Students First. This state run program refunded all fees when students applied for loans and offered a zero percent interest rate after graduates made three years of on-time loan payments. Unfortunately, with the recent student loan meltdown, this program has been suspended, and thousands of students have been left to try and make ends meet. You can read the complete article here.

Mandy Plucker, NC

Want to share your story with got tuition? Please e-mail your stories, pictures, and videos to gottuition08@gmail.com.

Are free, online textbooks the answer?

The Los Angeles Times has a nice article about one way professors are helping their students to afford college. R. Preston McAffee (an economics professor at Caltech) has written a free, open-source textbook and made it available online. This book is so highly regarded that it has been adopted by many prestigious universities, including Harvard. Is this a possible answer to the rising costs of textbooks?

Congress recently passed laws that would require textbook publishers to offer "un-bundled" editions of books, so students won't be forced into buying workbooks and DVDs that aren't used in classes. While this is a good first step, people like R. Preston McAffee believe that this doesn't go nearly far enough to help students cope. You can read the complete article here.

Penni Cyr, ID

Want to share your story with got tuition? Please e-mail your stories, pictures, and videos to gottuition08@gmail.com.

Mississippi requests for student aid rise 19% in one year

According to the Hattiesburg American, the number of Mississippi students requesting financial aid has risen by more than 19% over the same time last year. The article goes on to talk about some costs that we normally don't think about when budgeting for university expenses. In Mississippi, state universities are raising meal plan costs by and average of 6.9% while dorm expenses are increasing by 5.7%. You can read the complete article here.

Nicole Hodges-Abbasi, VA

Want to share your story with got tuition? Please e-mail your stories, pictures, and videos to gottuition08@gmail.com.

How much spending money is enough?

The Baltimore Sun has a nice article up about budgeting for living expenses while in college. Many students and parents have trouble coming up with an appropriate amount, and with the current economic cool down, it is even harder than usual to come up with a livable budget. You can read the complete article here.

Lisa Wolf, ND

Want to share your story with got tuition? Please e-mail your stories, pictures, and videos to gottuition08@gmail.com.

Lenders abandoning private student loans

Student loans are getting harder and harder to find this year. With the recent meltdown in the mortgage sector, many companies are slashing student loans programs and throwing the money they save back into the failing housing market. According to a recent article in the Chicago Tribune, 124 landers have dropped all or part of their student loan programs while 28 lenders have completely abandoned private loans. You can read the complete article here.

Larry Taylor, ID

Want to share your story with got tuition? Please e-mail your stories, pictures, and videos to gottuition08@gmail.com.

Students turn to credit cards to make ends meet

According to an article at freep.com, students are relying more and more on credit cards to make up for student loans that don't completely cover living expenses or tuition. 24% of college students are now using credit cards to help pay for tuition and the average college student will graduate with $2,400 in credit card debt if they don't have student loans. That number rises to $3,000 for students who are already taking out loans to help pay for tuition. You can read the complete article here.

Cindy Sheffield, ID

Want to share your story with got tuition? Please e-mail your stories, pictures, and videos to gottuition08@gmail.com.

Student aid requests soar as economy plummets

An article from Monday's San Francisco Chronicle has some interesting statistics about federal student loan requests. 8.9 million students have already filed federal student aid forms this year, a 16.3 percent increase over last year. According to the associate vice provost at Santa Clara University, Richard Toomey, the university has seen a large increase in the number of students requesting aid, more of those students are qualifying, and they are requesting larger sums of money than ever before. Justin Draeger of the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators has made it clear that since many states are facing budget problems they are contributing less to public universities, which is translating to higher tuition costs for students.
You can read the complete article here.

Chad Roggow, IN

Want to share your story with got tuition? Please e-mail your stories, pictures, and videos to gottuition08@gmail.com.

Fewer options open to pay for college

This is a New York Times article from April focusing on some of the "alternative means" that people are now using to pay for college. The reporter interviewed people who are doing everything from dipping into retirement savings to borrowing against their homes to make college a reality for their children. You can read the complete article here.

Sandy Arseneault, South Dakota

Want to share your story with got tuition? Please e-mail your stories, pictures, and videos to gottuition08@gmail.com.

Why college costs are rising

I found a nice article on "The Advocates" website with a pretty in-depth look at the rising costs of higher education. They examine some of the reasons for these increases as well as some of the ways that various institutions are dealing with it. You can read the complete article here.

Sharon Harper, TN

Want to share your story with got tuition? Please e-mail your stories, pictures, and videos to gottuition08@gmail.com.