Riverside college advisor, Tori Harris, graduated in May of 2022 from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. Though she only began her position at Riverside this August, Harris has already seen the stress the cost of college has on students.
“I think that it’s becoming outrageously expensive. And I think it’s unfortunate for those who feel discouraged because they can’t afford school,” said Harris. “They just don’t think college is even an option. Which is why in my position, I try to do a good job of getting exposure and access to those resources to give students that hope that you know, even if it isn’t a full ride scholarship, there’s still some out there. We just have to find which one works for us.”
According to a report from the Education Data Initiative, the average annual college tuition inflation rate was 12 percent from 2010 to 2022. According to the same report, college tuition has increased 747.8 percent since 1963 (with inflation considered).
The aggressive inflation has pushed some schools to find new ways to drive down costs.
Shortly after the Supreme Court ended affirmative action in higher education, Duke University announced that they would offer free tuition to admitted NC and SC students whose families make less than $150,000 per year. Admitted NC and SC students whose families make less than $65,000 per year will receive full tuition and financial assistance for other costs.
By offering free/reduced tuition, universities like Duke hope to ease the financial burden of higher education.
Universities also offer scholarships to their admitted students to reduce total cost of attendance. Some universities offer full-ride scholarships, a type of scholarship that covers the entire cost of attendance.
“You know, you’ve got the Cheatham White Scholarship at NCCU and NC A&T, the Morehead-Cain scholarship at UNC Chapel-HIll, the Levine scholarship at UNC Charlotte,” said Harris. “So there are options for full ride scholarships.”
However, these scholarships are extremely selective. Not all students can expect to receive such a large amount of “free” money. According to another report from the Education Data Initiative, only seven percent of college students will receive a scholarship.
Because of this gap, schools also offer financial aid. Financial aid is the funding available to students at post-secondary institutions. Students must pay the money back though, most of the time with accrued interest. The Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) is a free application prospective college students can fill out to determine eligibility for financial aid.
In the past, the FAFSA opened October first, allowing students to complete it before early action/decision deadlines. For the 2024-2025 academic year, the FAFSA opened December 31. The FAFSA also underwent some drastic changes.
According to the Federal Student Aid, an office of the U.S Department of Education, the FAFSA is streamlined and more user friendly than previous versions. Certain questions have been removed and data received from the IRS will automatically update a student’s eligibility for aid.
Not all of the changes are good though. The FAFSA no longer considers siblings who are applying or attending college. This means that students who have siblings who are enrolled in college will not be given more or less financial aid. This could be troubling for some families.
In addition to these modifications, the FAFSA first went through what the Department of Education is calling a “soft launch.” The form will only be open for certain periods of time.
If a student is not lucky enough to receive a substantial scholarship, it is likely that paying for college will only become more difficult. For some students, the only option is to sign up for financial aid and student loans that will drown them in debt in the future.
