WOODBURY – As college commitment season rolls around the corner, high school students await college decisions and financial aid packages in order to make one of the most important decisions of their young lives.
Among the many factors that go into making this decision, one stands out more than others for most students in the country: costs.
Costs can be a huge restriction when it comes to picking a college. Some of the bigger schools in the country can have tuitions of over $50k-$80k+.
Unless your family owns a Fortune 500 company, or just recently won the lottery, this kind of cost will be at least some form of burden for students around the world.
Senior at Nonnewaug James Wolf ran into this issue when one of the schools he was interested in turned out to be too expensive to rationalize.
“I was interested in UVM (University of Vermont) early on in my college exploration experience,” said Wolf. “When they came to our CCRC, I didn’t hesitate to go in and hear what they had to say. But when they said that the tuition could cost students upwards of $50,000 per year, I knew it would be too much to justify.”
This sort of feeling, the feeling when a school you’re interested in costs way too much to defend, can be heartbreaking for many students. Often crushing dreams and replacing them with reality when it comes to choosing a home for the next four years.
Senior at Nonnewaug Brady Herman shares this common struggle of battling the burden of costs when choosing a college.
“I was really interested in High Point University when the college decision process first started,” said Herman. “I know a few people who go there and have gone there so it was definitely up there on my list. But unfortunately, once I got my financial package back and saw it was going to cost me almost $65,000 per year, I had to revert to a different direction.”
This struggle is common, according to Ruffalo Noel Levitz Online, a site dedicated to providing statistics regarding the college application process, 67% of college age families have reported rejecting college offers because of costs that are too high.
But on top of the burden of financial packages being too high, some students are struggling with having to wait such long times to get their package back in the first place.
Some students at Nonnewaug are still awaiting their financial aid packages for schools even after being accepted weeks to even months prior.
Senior at Nonnewaug Scott Viveros has run into this problem while navigating the college application process.
“I got my acceptance letter from Penn State well before Christmas,” Viveros said. “Despite that, I’m still waiting on my financial aid package from them. It’s been really frustrating.”
This struggle for high school families is frustrating when trying to make a decision.
“How can you decide if you’re going somewhere or not if you have no idea how much it’s going to cost to go there?” said Viveros.
