Financial issues are a common barrier to all college students. Finding ways to pay for college with a budget that may already be tight can be frustrating. Many students do not know about or understand the financial aid process or know how to get scholarships and campus jobs.
College Tuition and Fees
(Quotes by students: M=Male F= Female)
Going to college is expensive, no matter where a student decides to enroll. Finding the best way to pay for college is not an easy process. Many decisions have to be made and usually these decisions involve other family members. Students shared examples of the challenges created by the difficulty of finding the means to finance college fees.
- “It’s like a financial burden on my mom because we’re so limited on money now that I’m actually paying my classes with a credit card to actually continue on (F).
- “I had to actually quit school and go work for a semester just to pay bills” (M).
- “Yeah, like with me I couldn’t work and go to school, so I ended up quitting my job… and so I still need income, so here I go. I [had] to go apply for welfare” (F).
- “… you try to get some help to get a job on campus and most of the time you can’t get a job if you’re not getting financial aid” (M).
Financial aid
(Quotes by students: M=Male F= Female)
Most college students are not familiar with the financial aid process. Many do not know financial aid is available, and others find the long, complex forms impossible to fill out. Some students shared some of their feelings about the financial aid process.
· “I knew about [financial aid], but I thought it was impossible for anybody to get it” (M).
· “I really didn’t [know about financial aid]. I didn’t know to apply for anything. You know, I didn’t know what scholarships was. I mean I had heard of it” (M).
· “Financial aid, I tried that, but because of my mom and dad’s situation, like when I first graduated high school, it took me literally a whole semester for [financial aid] just to pay my classes” (F).
· “I didn’t know they were giving scholarships when I first started college” (F).
· “Sometimes they don’t give you all the information” (F).
Overcoming Barrier 2: Overcoming Financial Issues
(Quotes by students: M=Male F= Female)
Luckily, there are many ways students can find out more information about financial aid and get the help they need to help pay for college. The BC financial aid office is the best place to learn all of the information a student needs to know about how to get financial aid, and the staff in the office will help students fill out the forms individually. Some BC students also offered strategies that were helpful in alleviating financial issues and persisting at BC. They shared two common strategies that helped them to ease the financial burdens of paying for college fees and to find ways to learn about and receive financial aid: (a) make financial sacrifices and (b) be proactive to obtain financial aid.
Students discussed the importance of being willing to make personal monetary sacrifices in order to afford school and achieve academic success at BC.
- “I might as well come to school, be broke, and be closer to getting my education” (F). “Suffer financially for the greater good” (M).
- “I don’t even go out shopping places because I know I’ll want stuff, so I just don’t go anywhere (F).
- “I just get simple cars that get me here and there. It’s nothing big to me” (M)
Students who had little or no background information about financial opportunities or how to navigate the application process said it was important to be proactive and to seek out financial aid information on their own.
- “I did some investigating and found out about financial aid (by) searching for it, going on the internet, finding out the grants, scholarships that are offered (F).
- “I started talking to my counselor, and she helped me fill out the [Free Application for Federal Student Aid] FAFSA on the web (F).
- “I applied for financial aid the following semester, and I got financial aid so that was able to help me from not having to work eight hour a day minimum wage jobs” (M).
- “I just walked into admission and said, “I want to come to college, what do I need to do?” (F).
