Citing the Economy, Students Transfer from Private to Public Schools

Student Loan Girl — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 22:29:00 GMT

Public colleges and universities are experiencing a greater influx of transfer applications from private school students as the flagging economy heightens students’ concerns about their ability to pay for college, Bloomberg reports (“Rutgers Sees 50% Jump in Transfers as Economy Sours,” March 5, 2009).

“Students seem to be price shopping,” said Barmak Nassirian, associate executive director of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers. “People are hedging their bets financially. There is a real economic motivation.”

According to the College Board, students at four-year private colleges pay, on average, $34,130 for tuition, room, and board, while students attending a four-year public school generally pay only $14,340 — a price discrepancy prompting more students to switch schools as the recession lingers.

Schools See Sizable Jumps in Transfer Applications

Rutgers University is just one of a growing number of public schools, including state universities in Texas, Indiana, and Florida, that is seeing more transfer requests coming from students attending private institutions; this year it has received 632 transfer student applications, which is a 52-percent increase from the 416 applications it received last year.

At Florida Atlantic University, a public school where state residents pay just $3,662 in tuition for a 30 credit-hour semester and are eligible for state scholarships that cover 75 percent of their college costs as long as they maintain a B average, transfer applications have increased 37 percent for the summer term and 22 percent for the fall semester. For its summer session starting in June, the school has already received 265 transfer applications from students at private colleges, a figure that will easily surpass last year’s total of 277.

“I’d love to take credit for it all, but I know the economy has to have some part,” said Barbara Pletcher, Florida Atlantic’s director of admissions.

While admissions officers have noticed that transfer applications have increased more than in past years and that a greater number of them have come from students at private colleges, they are quick to point out that applications don’t always translate into enrollments. Students often don’t realize they can’t afford to pay for school until they receive their tuition bills, by which time it’s too late to transfer and too late to take out additional student loans to cover the expenses they didn’t account for.

“After they get their tuition bill, you’re going to see a group scrambling and we will be full,” said Jason Langdon, director of admissions at Montclair State University in New Jersey, which has received 22 percent more transfer applications this year. “The earlier in the process they can get everything lined up, the better off they’ll be.”

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Colleges Step Up, Help Students With Extra Financial Aid

Student Loan Girl — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 23:13:00 GMT

If recent data is any indication, families are struggling to come up with the cash they need to send their children to college, and schools across the country are doing something to help those who’ve come up short, reports The Chronicle of Higher Education (“Colleges Offer Extra Aid to Strapped Students,” Jan. 9, 2009).

During the first few days of the new financial aid season that began Jan. 1 — the first day college students could submit their FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid), the application required for students seeking federal aid — 40 percent more families over the previous year had already sought out financial assistance (“Families Face Fierce Competition for Student Aid: Season Starts With Sharp Increase in Demand,” Business Wire, Jan. 6, 2009).

“The demand for student aid has been climbing as the recession batters family budgets, parents’ jobs are eliminated, and self- employed parents experience business downturns,” said Craig Carroll, CEO of Student Financial Aid Services, a financial aid advisory company.

Schools Create New Aid Programs or Beef Up Existing Ones

In response to the growing number of families facing limited options to pay for college, some schools are offering families an extended grace period to pay tuition bills, and other schools are meeting the growing demand for aid by expanding existing financial aid programs or creating new ones.

At Northern Illinois University, for instance, school administrators recently introduced the Huskie Advantage, a new aid program that meets tuition costs not covered by state and federal aid. The program, which the school will subsidize by shifting financial funds away from upperclassmen to underclassmen, who usually don’t qualify for as much federal aid, is only available to freshmen who qualify for Pell Grants and need-based state grants, according to Brent Gage, the school’s assistant vice provost for enrollment services.

Agnes Scott College in Georgia also recently announced a new program, the Agnes Solution, targeted at students who are eligible for the state’s Hope Scholarship. The school hopes that by providing qualified students with a $13,500 Agnes Solution scholarship and a $3,000 grant each year, combined with the $3,000 Hope Scholarship, the program will be able to cut the cost of attendance almost in half.

As part of a Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota plan to lower the cost of attendance for low- and middle-income students to match the average cost of the nation’s Big Ten universities, the school is expanding its Brother James Miller Program for Access. The program originally only covered students who met certain academic qualifications and whose families made less than $75,000, but due to the economic downturn, the institution has raised the income qualification to $100,000, and is currently collecting private funds so that it may provide aid for the school’s most financially needy students.

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Citing the Economy, Students Transfer from Private to Public Schools

Colleges Step Up, Help Students With Extra Financial Aid