Student Loan Blog : College Enrollment

2010 College Enrollment Numbers May Not Be So Bad, Survey Reveals

Student Loan Girl — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 21:51:00 GMT

Although school administrators across the nation are reporting an increase in applications, they’re worried about just how many college students will actually enroll in their institutions this fall as families continue to tighten their budgets amid this recession, reports Inside Higher Ed (“Parents’ View of the Economy,” March 30, 2009).

However, a new survey of parents of college students indicates that while administrators’ concerns are valid, the economy may not have affected parents’ finances as much as educators originally thought, particularly among parents whose children are entering their freshmen year. Eduventures, an organization that tracks higher education trends, surveyed 7,000 parents with college-age children at a mix of 19 public and private colleges and universities.

Eduventures found that a majority of parents with freshmen — about 66 percent — said the downturn won’t affect how they will finance their children’s education this upcoming fall.

Overall, relatively few parents told Eduventures that they would not enroll their children in college due to lack of funding, although some parents indicated that they might choose to enroll their children in less expensive institutions to cut costs.

Of those parents with students at private schools, less than 12 percent indicated that their children were considering transferring to a less expensive school, and nearly 7 percent said they would encourage their children to take some classes at a community college. Of these same private school parents, less than 3 percent indicated that their students wouldn’t be returning to college in the fall, and less than 0.5 percent said that their children were considering dropping out of college permanently.

The numbers were only slightly different for parents whose children attend public colleges, with almost 9 percent saying that their children may have to consider transferring schools and less than 3 percent who believed that their children would need to look at dropping out of college. Nearly 6 percent of these parents thought that their children would need to live at home instead of on campus this fall.

Share this post: email this | del.icio.us | reddit

Nebraska State Colleges Extend Free Tuition Offer to Freshmen

Student Loan Girl — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 23:31:00 GMT

Beginning this fall, incoming first-year students attending any of Nebraska’s three state colleges — Wayne State College, Peru State College, or Chadron State College — may see their dreams of a college education come true with a little help from the state, the Omaha World-Herald reports (“3 Colleges to Waive Tuition for Some Freshmen,” March 8, 2009).

Nearly one-third of all students in the Nebraska State College System receive federal Pell Grant funding, but only Pell-eligible first-year students will have their first year of tuition covered under the new Nebraska State College System Advantage Program. The state college system will pick up the tab for these students’ tuition expenses where their Pell Grant funding leaves off.

“With the recent economic downturn, access to college has become more challenging and this program will assist first-time freshmen in their pursuit of earning a degree,” said Bill Roskens, NSCS board chairman (“Nebraska State Colleges Offer Free Freshman Tuition,” KCUA-TV, March 3, 2009).

Students must meet five criteria to qualify for the NSCS Advantage Program:

They must be a Nebraska resident
They must be a recipient of a federal Pell Grant
They must be a first-time first-year student attending a NSCS school during the 2009–10 school year
They may not be a transfer student
They must be enrolled in at least 12 on-campus credit hours

Students can continue to receive this tuition assistance throughout their college career as long as they remain eligible to receive federal Pell Grant awards and as long as they continue to enroll in at least 12 credit hours.

“We are attempting to remove the financial barriers many [of our students] face,” said NSCS Chancellor Stan Carpenter, by only requiring students to pay for textbooks, supplies, and room and board.

College officials believe the Nebraska initiative also has the potential to increase enrollment and encourage more students to remain in the state.

Lois Brunnert, a first-generation college student who relies on financial aid to attend Wayne State, agrees.

“It’s going to allow [students] to have more time to save up money,” Brunnert said. “And it’s going to probably help students continue with their financial aid.”

Share this post: email this | del.icio.us | reddit

Two-Year Schools Waiving Tuition For Laid-Off Workers

Student Loan Girl — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 23:17:00 GMT

Typically, when the economy is down, enrollment is up at the nation’s community colleges. However, in the current economy, in which the unemployment rate is at a record high, Americans who find themselves recently unemployed can’t afford to further their education even at inexpensive local institutions.

In an effort to help, some community colleges in Pennsylvania are waiving tuition for local residents who were recently laid-off, reports Inside Higher Ed (“The Jobless Discount,” Dec. 5, 2008).

Reading Area Community College in Reading, Pa., extends a waiver to local residents who have been laid off within a year of applying to the school. The waiver, which represents a potential savings of $962, is valid for one semester to qualified students for up to 13 credits.

The tuition waiver benefits both students and the institution, since RACC students will get financial assistance furthering their education in the hopes that they’ll continue their education and become paying students once they’re employed, said David Zimmerman, a career services officer at RACC.

“It’s good will, and it’s good PR,” Zimmerman said. “It helps the community and helps people get back into the work force.”

This year, participation in the tuition waiver program is higher than in previous years, Zimmerman said. He speculates the closing of two local business plants owned by the Hershey Company and Tyco Electronics Corporation may be contributing to the spike in interest.

Tuition Waivers May Cost Pa. School $100,000 in Lost Revenue

Northampton Community College, located in Bethlehem, Pa. announced that starting next semester it would begin waiving tuition for those who were recently laid off due to plant or local business closings.

Under the waiver, qualified students will be able to take a maximum of 12 credits at a reduced cost beginning in January 2009. Students would be required to pay $28 in fees per credit, for a total savings of $900. The number of students allowed to enroll under the waiver program would be limited to the number of empty seats available in each class section.

Northampton President Arthur Scott said offering a tuition waiver may cost his school more than $100,000, because the school isn’t adding sections or other resources to accommodate for students who take advantage of the waiver, meaning the waiver isn’t considered an institutional expense, but rather lost revenue.

Share this post: email this | del.icio.us | reddit

Student Loan Crunch Affected Some Private Schools, But Crisis Largely Avoided

Student Loan Girl — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 20:59:00 GMT

The student loan crunch that began this past spring failed to become the widespread crisis that experts predicted, according to the results of a survey by the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities. Still, the NAICU reports, some of the private colleges surveyed have had to scramble to help their students get the loans they need to pay for school (“Student-Loan Crunch Sets Back Some Private Colleges, but Most Manage,” The Chronicle of Higher Education, Oct. 22, 2008).

More than 500 NAICU member institutions responded to the survey, including 450 private colleges and universities that participate in the Federal Family Education Loan Program, the federal student loan program that relies on private, third-party lenders to provide the majority of federally backed loans to students. Of those schools, 85 percent found that their students were dropped by at least one private lender, and 27 percent of the schools said that their students had struggled to find a replacement lender.

Schools reported that their students who weren’t able to get a private student loan often had to take time off from school, drop down to part-time status, work additional hours, or use a credit card to make up the difference in their college expenses.

Three-quarters of the colleges surveyed saw an increase in demand for student aid, but 67 percent reported no negative impact on their enrollment. This is “a good sign,” said David Warren, president of NAICU, even though he speculates that many families may had not yet felt the full impact of the downturn when they were surveyed on Sept. 10., only days prior to the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy filing.

“On the one hand, we avoided anything we’d call a crisis,” Warren said. On the other, we see some clear signals of what may be in store for families right on the edge.”

Only 18 percent of respondents said they had fewer returning students than anticipated, while 19 percent reported having a smaller freshmen class than expected, which came as a surprise to Sarah Flanagan, NAICU’s vice president for government relations and policy. “I thought our sector was going to be OK.”

Share this post: email this | del.icio.us | reddit

Some Students Could Get Boost in Financial Aid This Summer

Student Loan Girl — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 19:46:00 GMT

This year, college students who are still struggling to get the money they need to pay for school may be able to take advantage of a phenomenon, colleges and universities refer to as the “summer melt” — the phase where students make last-minute decisions not to attend a school because of high tuition costs.

When that happens, schools are under extra pressure to fill their freshmen classes and may offer students more financial aid, according to an Associated Press article (“Students Can Find Aid, Even at Last Minute,” July 6, 2008).

“The later in the year we get, the more valuable each student becomes and the harder they are to replace,” said Lynn Nichelson, director of financial aid at Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington. “The quality student is in demand all over the place.”

Before ruling out a school because of costs, experts recommend that students contact their financial aid office to discuss additional financial aid options. Some evidence suggests that, as more colleges and universities are doing away with their early-decision programs, schools have been more willing to offer students more money in grants, student loans, and scholarships in order to keep their enrollment numbers up.

But parent Debbie Bloss, whose son attends Drury University in Missouri, says you really have to do your homework.

“It’s a lot of work, and it’s painful because there’s a lot of reading, a lot of investigating, a lot of understanding involved,” she said. “And the key is finding someone in the financial aid office who’s willing to take the time to help you get all that you can get.”

Share this post: email this | del.icio.us | reddit

Study Finds Obese Girls Less Likely to Attend College

Student Loan Girl — Sat, 28 Jul 2007 03:21:00 GMT

Obese girls are only half as likely to attend college as non-obese girls, according to findings in a new study out of the University of Texas at Austin. As reported in a university news release, the study also found that obese girls are even less likely to enroll in college if they go to a high school where obesity is “relatively uncommon” (“Obese Girls Less Likely to Attend College, Research Shows,” July 23, 2007).

“Obesity has been identified as a serious public health issue, but these results indicate the harmful effects extend far beyond physical health,” says Robert Crosnoe, associate professor in the Department of Sociology at U.T. Austin and author of the study.

Boys Will Be Boys, Girls Will Stay Home

Crosnoe’s study, which is being published in the July issue of Sociology of Education, used statistics compiled by the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health to analyze data from almost 11,000 adolescents in 128 schools across the United States.

Crosnoe found that the lower rates of college enrollment among obese girls cut across race, ethnicity and socioeconomic lines. “Obesity predicts college enrollment even when I compare girls only to other girls with the same race,” Crosnoe is quoted as saying in an article by Huong Le in the Austin American-Statesman (“UT Study: Obese Girls Less Likely to Attend College,” July 24, 2007). “This effect is slightly stronger for black and Hispanic girls than for whites, but it exists for all three groups.”

While girls were affected across the board, obese boys showed no difference from non-obese boys in their college enrollment numbers. “That girls are far more vulnerable to the non-health risks of obesity reinforces the notion that body image is more important to girls’ self-concept and that social norms have greater effects on the education of girls than boys,” says Crosnoe in the U.T. news release.

“The costs of being obese are just not as great for boys,” Crosnoe asserts in an article by Polly Ross Hughes that appeared in the Houston Chronicle (“For Girls, Obesity a Roadblock to Success,” July 24, 2007). “People care more about girls’ weights and girls care more about girls’ weights,” he argues. “Girls are more penalized for this and they care about it more.”

Findings by other researchers would seem to support Crosnoe’s view. A blog on FindCounseling.com reports that some studies show that parents are “less likely to give college financial support to obese daughters than non-obese girls” (“Big Girls Don’t … Go to College?,” July 23, 2007). The stigma of obesity for females can be so powerful that even parents aren’t immune.

Obesity Breeds Isolation and Exclusion Early On

The effect of obesity on girls’ college attendance is accompanied by a host of other health and behavioral issues. Crosnoe’s study found that obese girls, besides being more likely to skip school, are, according to the university news release, “more likely to consider committing suicide, use alcohol and marijuana and have negative self-images.”

The seeds for these issues are planted in the years long before college. “Children as young as preschool age ascribe negative characteristics to overweight peers and reject them as potential playmates,” writes Jacqueline Weaver in the Yale Bulletin & Calendar (“Bias Against Overweight Youths Can Have Lasting Impact,” July 20, 2007). And according to the FindCounseling blog, even teachers have been found to “harbor a bias” against overweight children, “viewing them as ‘untidy’ and less likely to succeed than their peers.”

“Adults are often unsympathetic to the social plight of high schoolers who don’t fit in,” writes Hughes, “saying students must learn to ‘get over it’ as they grow older.” Crosnoe emphasizes that this kind of response misses the boat. “Even if you do get over it,” he’s quoted as saying in Hughes’ article, “the ball has been set in motion, and that has long-term consequences”—including the lower likelihood of attending college, which, in turn, translates into a trend of lower income over a lifetime.

An At-Risk Population That Needs Help

“How kids perform in school has a lot to do with whether they fit in socially and how they relate to others,” says Crosnoe in Le’s article. School performance also holds implications for health and lifespan. Crosnoe says, quoted this time by Hughes, “One of the biggest predictors of mortality and morbidity is whether you went to college or not. If obesity has an effect on those things, and it has an effect on college enrollment, this is a double whammy.”

Crosnoe argues that parents and educators need to focus on overweight students, particularly girls, who are more likely to skip class or might consider dropping out. “It’s not about changing the popularity structure of high school,” Crosnoe’s quoted as saying in Le’s article. “You are not going to tell kids who they’re going to like. … But we can do things to try to stop the effects of being at the bottom of the popularity structure on student’s academic performance.” Hughes reports that Crosnoe found, for example, that “obese girls are likely to do better if they join a club, form close relationships with parents or teachers, participate in school activities or even have a single good friend they can depend upon.”

Crosnoe’s study “has particular implications for how educators interact with obese girls at risk of stopping their education short,” writes Hughes. “When [educators are] thinking of at-risk students, they’re thinking of English language learners and low-income students and students with disabilities,” says Crosnoe in Hughes’ article. “What I’m saying is: Let’s think a little more outside the box in terms of what those at-risk populations are.”

The student loan advisors at NextStudent are helpful and knowledgeable about student loans. They are a trusted source in getting you the appropriate information about your student loan consolidation, student loan options and in helping students get the college financing they need. Go to www.nextstudent.com for more information.

Be sure to tune in next Thursday for my next blog on student loan advice.

Student Loan Girl

Share this post: email this | del.icio.us | reddit

Women, Minority Enrollment and Computer Degrees Increase

Student Loan Girl — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 23:03:00 GMT

“College-enrollment gains among female and minority students have not slowed and are likely to continue, according to an annual compendium of education statistics released on Thursday by the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics.” This is according to the June 1, 2007 article by Lauren Smith, titled “Enrollment Gains by Women and Minority Students Continue, Federal Data Show,” that appeared in the of The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Enrollment Increases for Women, Minority Students

The article further reported that:

“Since 1970, women's undergraduate enrollment has increased more than three times as fast as men's, according to the report, ‘The Condition of Education 2007,’ and women are projected to continue to outpace men through 2016, at which point women are expected to make up 60 percent of total undergraduate enrollment.

“The report notes even stronger gains in the enrollment of women in graduate and professional education, with a 112-percent increase from 1976 to 2005 in graduate enrollments and a 207-percent increase in enrollments in professional programs, such as law, medicine, and pharmacy.

“From 1976 to 2005, enrollments in postsecondary degree-granting institutions rose by 57 percent over all, and gains in minority-student enrollments accounted for roughly half of that increase, the report says. Minority enrollments increased by 269 percent in graduate programs, it says, and by 331 percent in professional programs.

“While the gains by both women and minority students are expected to continue, the report predicts that the pace at which they grow will slow through 2016.”

Computer, Health-Related Degrees Increase

In addition to higher enrollments for both women and minorities, the article noted increases in degrees earned in specific fields, such as computer/information sciences and the health professions. According to the article, “The findings also show notable changes in students' interest in certain fields of study between 1997 and 2005. The number of college degrees earned in computer and information sciences, for instance, jumped 100 percent at the associate-degree level (compared with a 25-percent rise over all in associate degrees), and rose by 57 percent at the master's-degree level (compared with a 34-percent increase in master's degrees over all). At the doctoral level, the health professions and related clinical sciences saw gains of nearly

200 percent, compared with a 14-percent rise in doctoral degrees over all.”

35 Percent Salary Increases for College Faculty

The article stated that, “With regard to faculty pay, average inflation-adjusted salaries have increased since 1979 for faculty members in all academic ranks. The increase was greatest for instructors, says the report. Their average salary increased by 35 percent. The next-highest gains were for professors, whose average salary increased by 24 percent.”

It is important to keep up to date on all the news regarding student loans and education.

Talk to the education finance advisors at NextStudent. They have all the information and advice you need on student loans. Check out www.nextstudent.com.

Be sure to tune in next Monday for my next blog on student loan issues in the news.

Student Loan Girl

Share this post: email this | del.icio.us | reddit