Financial aid guide for students and parents

It seems that the subprime crisis, job losses, high volatility and uncertainties, rising bankruptcies were not sufficient to raise the anxiety among parents, so another reason was added. To increase the burden of the parents and convert their tension into hypertension, a new reason has come up - the consistent hike in tuition fees. Parents are in a dilemma and a no-win situation involving emotions and money. They do not wish that their child does not go for college education due to the high tuition fees but at the same time the hike has crashed their financial planning and made paying high fees difficult.

Many parents are feeling completely helpless as they know that a degree is the base of building a career and even if the fees are sky high they have to accept it. What irritates them more is the rate of tuition inflation which tends to be higher than the general inflation. Their basic question is though the level and quality of education has remained the same, some say deteriorated, what has caused a rise in fees.

Candle light marches, protests, boycotts may not help in reducing tuition fees but they are surely going to help in complicating the matter further. The students are drowning in debt as they are borrowing higher amounts of money to pay these fees. It is important to find alternatives ways to face the situation and restrict the madness of fee hike which includes –

• Instead of cutting down on academic programs, colleges can keep costs in check by trying options like outsourcing dining, reducing the cost per student, trying to make some services online etc.

• Another way can be asking the professors to take more than one class per year and boost the number of hours a professor teaches.

• Use of high technology has been termed as the prime reason for the increasing costs, but now as the advantages of technology are becoming evident it should be used as a way of cutting down costs.

• Using open source free eBooks, low cost books that can be printed on demand can reduce the textbook costs up to 97% which would also reduce the tuition fees significantly.

For most students a high paying job is a motivating factor for attending college and not knowledge. These students are the future leaders of the country and if they are not molded in the right shape, the country’s future would become even more uncertain.

Education which is seen as an expense and colleges as a job making factory needs to be reformed to a level where education will appear as an investment and college as an institution of learning.