So how does this work...

[Atty]

Ever since I started college, the majority of kids I know have gotten money back each semester from financial aid. One kid I know used it to afford to not work all semester, another one on brand new furniture for his apartment and a macbook air, and now my girlfriend is getting $1,300 a semester. None of them have ever really paid anything into their college, my girlfriend for instance paid $200 in tuition and $78 for books, she has 4 classes this semester, all of which are prerequisite nursing classes (not cheap.) Next semester will be a similar expense.

I know for a fact all of them have parents who make more than mine (my mother is disabled and makes $12,000 a year in disability, only income in the house hold besides mine) and get help from them financially throughout the year.

Now, I make a decent salary (for a 21 year old without a degree) and work hard for it each year, as well as working part time on odd jobs to make ends meet. I've never qualified for any sort of financial aid or any free handouts from the Government and could care less about not getting it.

My one confusion is how in this economy, where our country is losing money faster than a severed artery loses blood, are these people (college students) getting this much money back? No one I know has ever used it for anything education related. A $1,500 MBA isn't needed for class, nor was the down payment on a car others have used it for, so what the hell gives? Who set up his obviously broken system?

/mini rant.

 

[Cerpin Taxt]

The surplus funds are likely from loans, not scholarships/grants. I don't think a school will supply "free" money in excess of the cost of tuition and housing.

That's just my best guess.

 

[Born2bwire]

Do you know where the money is coming from?

The way it works at my university is that they calculate the estimated amount of money you need for each semester including tuition, fees, books, room and board, etc. Then they use your FASFA to estimate the expected contribution from the parents. The difference the financial aid department tries to fill up using a variety of grants, scholarships and loans. So a lot of that money may just be money from student loans. If you live frugally, you can have a good chunk of change to spend on stuff like that. Personally, between scholarships, grants and loans I always was fully funded every semester. In addition, I only came out with $15K of loans due to the number of scholarships I qualified for and won.

 

[96Firebird]

Did you apply for financial aid? Did you apply for federal loans?

You don't just magically get it...

 

[Ns1]

easy, paying it back in 5 years at XX% interest rate.

 

[Atty]

Did you apply for financial aid? Did you apply for federal loans?

You don't just magically get it...

I'm not sure about them but I applied for everything under the sun when I started school with a 15 credit hour semester and a $6k a year salary and was denied. At this point I don't need it anymore, I make ends meet with my college expenses, but still. I know for sure my girlfriend is getting this through financial aid, not loans.

easy, paying it back in 5 years at XX% interest rate.

I hope that is true. Personally, I think its setting this kids up for failure when they get out of school and have gotten used to thousand dollar hands outs throughout their college life.

 

[Alienwho]

If they apply for $10,000 dollars of financial aid and tuition costs $7,000 and books cost $1000 and there is nothing else to cover they then receive a $2,000 check.

Don't be jealous This is not free money.

 

[Spikesoldier]

much like food stamps, what the students spend their federal student loans on is not policed.

 

[TuxDave]

What about scholarships for being a smartie?

 

[dullard]

I personally see most people like you setting themselves up for failure. Why? College is for studying - not for working at odd jobs or crappy wage positions. They need to focus on studying to do well. Sure, you might be an exception. But at least 85% of people that I saw like you nearly flunked out of school (or actually did flunk out).

Loans and aid let students be students. We gain nothing personally or as a society by having college students spend 20, 30, 40+ hours a week working crap jobs at near minimum wage just to make ends meet (and then needing 5 or 6 years to graduate with crappy grades). We gain a lot more personally and as a society by letting them learn well, graduate quickly, and have a successful career.

Apply for FAFSA. You get cheap loans, more scholarships, grants, and/or handouts that way. For most students, it is the only application they need to worry about. Then apply to a couple specific scholarships if needed.

By the way, any handout/scholarship/grant after what is required for school expenses is a taxable event. I paid taxes on my scholarship.



Take me, for an example of government aid working well. Sure, the government paid me a few thousand dollars in scholarships and a few more thousand in loans. But I paid off my loans (with interest). Last year paid more federal taxes than the average American makes in a year (and far, far more than the government ever gave me). I think it was a good investment on the government's part. Aid "to afford to not work all semester" is EXACTLY what we should be doing for college students.

 

[Born2bwire]

I'm not sure about them but I applied for everything under the sun when I started school with a 15 credit hour semester and a $6k a year salary and was denied. At this point I don't need it anymore, I make ends meet with my college expenses, but still. I know for sure my girlfriend is getting this through financial aid, not loans.

Financial aid includes loans.

 

[Ns1]

I personally see most people like you setting themselves up for failure. Why? College is for studying - not for working at odd jobs or crappy wage positions. They need to focus on studying to do well.

if you're talented you can do both well at the same time.

 

[dullard]

if you're talented you can do both well at the same time.

A few people can. I know one who did quite well at both (4.0 GPA working salaried in a company that went on strike so he had to work 60 hours a week to make up for it). But the vast majority of people fail at one or both when doing so. I know one person for example who did so poorly juggling both, he finally graduated after going to school full time for 25 years (with just one single BS degree). He was so proud to never borrow a penny and to pay his entire way through. But, then, no one would hire a 45 year old fresh out of college with only lawn-mowing experience and who needed to take each class 4 times just to pass. This idea didn't work out very well for him.

College is a full time job. Adding on another full time job (or even part time job) is just too much for most youth to handle. And we still get almost no benefit from it. The typical person who tries it graduates about a year later (if they graduate at all). That lost year is far more costly than the meager amounts that most college students earn in a job.

 

[Ns1]

A few people can. I know one who did quite well at both (4.0 GPA working salaried in a company that went on strike so he had to work 60 hours a week to make up for it). But the vast majority of people fail at one or both when doing so. I know one person for example who did so poorly juggling both, he finally graduated after going to school full time for 25 years (with just one single BS degree).

College is a full time job. Adding on another full time job (or even part time job) is just too much for most youth to handle. And we still get almost no benefit from it. The typical person who tries it graduates about a year later (if they graduate at all). That lost year is far more costly than the meager amounts that most college students earn in a job.

I think the failure in this assumption is assuming kids will study if they don't have to work, which from my college experience is not true.

 

[Capt Caveman]

A few people can. I know one who did quite well at both (4.0 GPA working salaried in a company that went on strike so he had to work 60 hours a week to make up for it). But the vast majority of people fail at one or both when doing so. I know one person for example who did so poorly juggling both, he finally graduated after going to school full time for 25 years (with just one single BS degree). He was so proud to never borrow a penny and to pay his entire way through. But, then, no one would hire a 45 year old fresh out of college with only lawn-mowing experience and who needed to take each class 4 times just to pass. This idea didn't work out very well for him.

College is a full time job. Adding on another full time job (or even part time job) is just too much for most youth to handle. And we still get almost no benefit from it. The typical person who tries it graduates about a year later (if they graduate at all). That lost year is far more costly than the meager amounts that most college students earn in a job.

Speak for yourself.

I went to school, graduated early, recruited and hired before graduating, worked part-time, tutored, played sports, socialized and on the board of directors for a student run credit union. I owe everything to my experiences outside of the classroom for my success.

 

[Texashiker]

and now my girlfriend is getting $1,300 a semester.

Everyone over 18 years old should know where college girls get their money from.

 

[SKORPI0]

And this eventually happens...

More college graduates are filing for bankruptcy, according to the Institute for Financial Literacy

While those who didn't graduate from college make up 70% of debtors, the study found that the rate of college graduates filing for bankruptcy increased by 20%.
"While less educated, low-income individuals continue to represent the typical bankruptcy filer, this report underscores a sophisticated evolution of the profile of the American debtor that now extends to disparate age, income and ethnic groups," Linfield said.
The study involved more than 50,000 respondents and ran from 2006 to 2010, tracking the financial status of debtors since the passage of the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act.
Not surprisingly, the rate of unemployed Americans filing for bankruptcy increased by 21% since 2006. But since the study was first conducted in 2006, there has been a gradual shift in bankruptcy filings toward higher income earners.

 

[dullard]

I think the failure in this assumption is assuming kids will study if they don't have to work, which from my college experience is not true.

Rather than argue, lets just look up the date. I just now skimmed through this article: http://www.brockport.edu/career01/upromise.htm



It mentions a lot of different studies. It looks like uniformly, working full time harms drop-out rates (but part-time work, if on-campus may be beneficial):

• working 20 hours per week increases the likelihood that a student drops out after his first year by 3.2 percentage points for four-year college students and 6.6 percentage points for two-year college students
• After four years, college students who had worked 20 hours per week at an off-campus job were 8.7 percentage points less likely to have graduated than non-workers.
• A never-employed student has a 37.5 percent chance of dropping out before graduating, and an always-employed student has a 45.5 percent probability of dropping out.

As for graduation time:

• Student workers took an average of 9.2 semesters to graduate, compared to 8.9 semesters for those who have at least one non-working semester.

As for grades:

• It also found that those who work 10 hours or less per week had slightly higher GPAs than other students, even after controlling for other attributes of the student, while those who work 30 or more hours per week had slightly lower GPAs

So, maybe grades weren't really affected, but full time work was determental to the student (and to society since they now pay far less tax over their lifetime). But, the same studies did show some on-campus part-time work was beneficial. The benefits helped those who had no connection to school otherwise or who's job related directly to their desired career.

So, a job at a gas station is probably bad. An internship in your career is possibly good.

 

[Ns1]

I just want to point out that working a full time job while going to college was not the norm in my experience.

most of the college kids I knew who worked did about 20 hours/week.

interesting study, don't have time to analyze or refute.

 

[Matthiasa]

Most financial aid is loans as already mentioned. That said its dumb to end up to much more then you need since interest is charged on those loans, with some of them starting that right away.

 

[Texashiker]

And this eventually happens...

More college graduates are filing for bankruptcy, according to the Institute for Financial Literacy

If college educated people are supposed to be so smart, why dont they have a higher rate of bankruptcy claims?

Buy a couple of cars, buy a boat, buy a home, file for bankruptcy, get the majority of the interest dropped.

It seems to me that lower educated people know how to work the system better then college graduates.

 

[Atomic Playboy]

It's not free money, it's usually loans. I was lucky enough to qualify for a number of grants that allowed me to pursue higher education; I still had to take out loans, but I never had any loans for "cost of living" expenses (which is basically what you're talking about). Some of my friends did; now they're paying back tens of thousands of dollars more than me for all these loans that they took to buy food and clothes and whatnot (and they were the responsible ones; I know people who used that money to buy PlayStation 2s and TVs and other meaningless stuff).

So, ultimately, it's just like a credit card. These people are buying things on borrowed money. When the bill comes five years down the road, they're going to realize that buying a new TV at 5+% interest wasn't the best idea.

 

[Theb]

I'm not sure about them but I applied for everything under the sun when I started school with a 15 credit hour semester and a $6k a year salary and was denied. At this point I don't need it anymore, I make ends meet with my college expenses, but still. I know for sure my girlfriend is getting this through financial aid, not loans.

Why don't you go into the financial aid office and ask them? There'll be someone at the front desk who can probably look you up and give you definite answers to your questions.

You probably don't even have to go in, they might let you do it over the phone.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

If college educated people are supposed to be so smart, why dont they have a higher rate of bankruptcy claims?

Buy a couple of cars, buy a boat, buy a home, file for bankruptcy, get the majority of the interest dropped.

It seems to me that lower educated people know how to work the system better then college graduates.

http://www.filingforbankruptcyonline.com/interest/who-is-filing-bankruptcy.html

Just sayin'.

 

[Texashiker]

http://www.filingforbankruptcyonline.com/interest/who-is-filing-bankruptcy.html

Just sayin'.

Why do the younger groups have such a low rate of bankruptcy? And the 30s - 40s have such a high rate?

It seems to me that those numbers should be reversed. As a person grows older, they should learn how to manage their money better.

Unless, the 30s - 40s knows something the younger generation does not?