USA TODAY
College
During the month of April, Alex Shultz has learned more about money—specifically loans, debt, interest rates, salaries, credit cards, the cost of rent, food, insurance and more—than in all the other months he's been on this Earth combined.
In November of last year, he applied to nine colleges. By the end of March, he was accepted to four schools and wait-listed at one. To make himself feel better, he chose to look at that ratio through the eyes of a baseball player. Hitting .444 with a walk is pretty darn good. By April 1, he narrowed his choices down to two schools, which he will respectfully refer to as School X (his dream school) and School Y. Both have stellar journalism programs and great campuses, but school X has location, big name professors and great internships.
The only barrier preventing him from making the choice was money. School X would cost around $57,000 annually and offered a total of around $800 in grants. School Y would cost about $25,000 per year.
Needless to say, the $800 from School X was less than expected. He was offered $30,000 in aid from another school with a very similar overall cost of attendance, so something didn’t seem right. While his mom spoke to financial aid officers from School X, he trudged through my high school classes, unable to think of anything other than the evaporating chances of attending his dream college. For three days, he waited for news— he checked his cell phone at every opportunity, waiting for his mother to relay something, anything, in her broken text language lingo. Eventually, he got just that—“appeals process started,” is all she said, but that was all he needed to renew his hopes. Read More
I'm Ron Denaro and thanks for joining College Campus Chatter today!
Ron Denaro is the president of College Campus Trips, a tour company providing high school students with tours of college campuses, nationwide. For more information, call (954) 567-5751 or e-mail: ron@collegecampustrips.com
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