College Applications

by Evelyn Vanegas, highlights, Insight, Nov. 12

FSU application fee: $30. UM application fee: $45. Application fees for Harvard, Princeton and MIT: $65, $65, and a whopping $70. Getting into the university of your dreams: Pricey.

 In times of recession, if monthly expenses alone weren’t enough to send your bank account into shock, try sending your kids to college. With tuition alone averaging $36,000 for out-of-state universities, there’s little doubt that a son or daughter in the class of 09 should be cause for concern. But surprisingly, few seniors feel the same.

“I’m not worried about tuition that much, because I have an account to pay for college. I’ve got money in the bank,” Mario Santos, senior, said.

Such is the attitude that many students are taking towards the financial aspect of their college career. Not even the immediate costs of college, application fees, are discouraging students. Students applying to 10+ colleges with fees of $65 and up have not considered being more selective. But the economic crisis has had a say on exactly what kinds of colleges they apply to. Rather than cutting back on the number of schools applied to, many students are taking the opportunity to explore other options.

“Now instead of looking for schools that I would like to attend fully, I’m trying to find schools that will give me enough money to avoid debt out of college,” Rockford Dias, senior, said.

Between scholarships, grants, and savings accounts, there seems to be little if any pressure on pocketbooks.

“I’m applying for colleges in state, so the only thing I [am relying on] is Bright Futures, if that gets affected then I would have to get a loan. And that’s not what I plan on doing,” Christopher Mederos, senior, said.

But state and federal aid has been dwindling since before the economies decline. What some students may fear is such funding becoming scarcer. But CAP Counselor Gail Payne assures that this would not be the case. Between grant money, on campus jobs/work study programs, and loans, the only possibility would be a greater number of loans than before.

What Payne does warn against is certain “for-profit” schools, such as Keiser, ITT, and Phoenix University, that will promise financial aid to prospective students and then fail to come through once they have accepted and given admission deposits.

“Students should not be taken advantage of by for-profit schools. Schools like these will promise students wonderful things that they will not be able to pay for. . [The schools] are wonderful sales people. And in times like these, those universities really need to sell themselves,” Payne said.

Payne advises that schools that truly desire you as a student will pay for you to come, and the trick is the find that right school. And for families seeking financial aid, she advises filing income taxes early on so that they might apply for financial aid sooner. Much of that money is on a first-come, first-serve basis, and it will give families who qualify greater chances.

As for the seniors who remain unconcerned, it could not hurt to splurge a little less.

                “[Now that I’m applying to college] I have to save money for all these senior events so I have to be more mindful of what money I use,” Mederos said.