Even students who end up at a four-year institution rather than a community college often choose a lower-cost school over the one they really want to attend to avoid or minimize loans. Roxanne Godding turned down the chance to go to prestigious Tufts University in Massachusetts because it would have meant borrowing more than $10,000 a year. Even though Tufts offered her a large grant, it wasn’t large enough to offset the total cost of attendance, which is more than $37,000 annually. Roxanne’s father is deceased, and her mother lives on Social Security survivor payments, so the family was in no position to provide financial support.
Roxanne, who attended West Roxbury (Mass.) High School and wants to be a clinical scientist, says that “all kinds of people at my high school advised me to go to Tufts and told me not to worry about the loans.” But after agonizing over the prospect of more than $40,000 in undergraduate debt, Roxanne opted to enroll at Bridgewater State College in Massachusetts, where she will be a sophomore this fall. The college offered her a tuition waiver and gave her a scholarship. She didn’t need to take out any loans. “All I have to do is pay for my books,” she says.
Educators who work closely with low-income students and their families say that this reluctance to borrow is common. The National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education reports that “prospective students from low-income families, and those who would be first in their families to attend college, may be inhibited from enrolling by fear of high debt.”
Deanna Yameen, associate executive director of the Higher Education Information Center in Boston, puts it simply: “Loans are frightening to people.”
While financial aid experts understand this fear, they point out that college costs — including student loans — aren’t simply another debt; they’re an investment in a student’s future. The lifetime earnings of college graduates are nearly double those of high school graduates — $2.1 million vs. $1.2 million, according to the latest Census Bureau data.
Although it’s difficult for many low-income families to look beyond the immediate financial burden of college costs, the long-term payoff makes the investment worthwhile. Ohio State’s Tally Hart believes there is a need to educate families about the value of a college education and to see to it that they receive loans at the most reasonable interest rates. Hart says that, though aversion to loans is certainly real, she has found that less affluent families “will accept loans if they are on the best terms” — and that typically means loans that are federally subsidized. “Families are aware that some loans have more expensive interest terms and should be avoided,” she explains.
