NEWS
Students request more aid
Looking for a print version?
Simply choose ‘Print’ on your computer and a printer-friendly document will be generated.
Also by Lee Lowenthal:
- Libraries to digitize historic newspapers (April 11, 2005)
- Activist group claims Air Force Academy violated Constitution (April 28, 2005)
- Students request more aid (March 30, 2005)
- Reilly defends proposed budget's affect on tuition (March 8, 2005)
- Universities look to increase admission (February 21, 2005)
Related Stories:
- U.S. tuition rates go up 6.6 percent (October 23, 2007)
- UNC providing students with extensive financial aid (October 8, 2003)
- Overestimating college costs (October 28, 2003)
- Study challenges financial aid practices (February 16, 2005)
- Grant aid increases with tuition (October 28, 2003)
by Lee Lowenthal
Wednesday, March 30, 2005
As tuition rates at universities across the country continue to swell, financial aid continues to play an increasingly significant role in the lives of a large portion of college students. In a study released by the National Center for Education Statistics, there has been a 16 percent increase of students requesting financial aid between the 1992-93 and 1999-2000 academic years.
The University of Wisconsin, however, has seen an increase of more than 100 percent from 1993-94 to 2003-04. The amount UW now spends on financial aid has gone from $114 million annually to $246 million in that same time period, while the number of students receiving aid has jumped from 17,000 to nearly 22,000 per year.
“There are a handful of factors that must be considered [when looking at such data],” Director of Student Financial Services Steven Van Ess said. “More students are applying for financial aid. It used to be 40 percent. Now it is up to 58 percent.”
Van Ess noted that a 1 percent increase each year may not seem drastic, but such numbers add up to an approximately 50 percent increase in demand.
“Costs have gone up, particularly in tuition, and earnings have not kept up with that,” Van Ess said.
Also, the increased desire for financial aid has not been matched by a greater number of financial-aid programs, despite an increase in the number of federal Pell Grants in recent years.
UW sophomore Scotty Anderson said he worked three jobs during the past two summers and one school-time job to help support four semesters of tuition.
“I wanted to do a five-years master’s program, but tuition for the last year would have been too much,” Anderson said.
Because of lagging federal financial-aid programs, a student now graduates college with an average debt of $17,000, a number that has swelled from $10,000 since the early ’90s.
This tuition debt burden is the only factor taken into account by UW and other academic institutions when establishing the amount of debt per student — credit-card records, cable bills and other expenditures are left out of the equation, creating a somewhat murky picture of how much a graduating student may truly owe.
However, facing such economic problems has not deterred students nationwide from matriculating to graduate and professional programs. The study reported graduates in 2000 were more likely to attend a post-collegiate educational institution than 1993 graduates.
“When the economy is not so good and people cannot find jobs, school is a great alternative,” Van Ess said.
Within the next year, the UW System Board of Regents will be making many important decisions concerning financial-aid programs, and “they are surprised by the little feedback from students [in terms of financial aid],” Van Ess added.
Van Ess urged students to talk to legislators about the most pressing issues surrounding financial aid.
“It is a good time to contact [legislators] and say [financial aid] is a priority,” Van Ess said.
