Economy Podcast

You can check out my new podcast, a reflection of the past two months, here.

Lack of parental support cripple students financially

Kari Ross, a sophomore at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, will not graduate with her friends. She will never watch a basketball game at the Mullins Center. And she will never experience spring in New England.

That’s because she cannot afford to stay another semester at UMass, and must return home.

“I really want to stay here. I’ve made so many friends and I love living in the dorms, but I just can’t afford it,” said Ross.

Ross is among the many UMass students today who are supporting themselves through college without parental support. Financial aid is out of their grasp, because their parents refuse to sign for documentation or loans or prevent them from qualifying for substantial financial aid packages.

With increasing tuition and interest rates for loans, students are most likely to find a more difficult time successfully getting through college without financial aid, and signs show that there are few solutions to this problem.

Middle-Aged worker struggles into the future

In her mind, Margaret DesRochers, 56, of Ware shouldn't have to be working this hard anymore, not at her age. Well past middle-age, she has to work like she's in high school again just to make ends meet.

            In fact, with all of the drama she deals with on a daily basis, she says she might as well be back in high school.

            It's been a long five years for DesRochers, working a minimum-wage position at Dunkin' Donuts and quite frankly, she's has enough. Supporting herself and her daughter, DesRochers has been making coffee, working a cash register and assembling sandwiches for too long, and says that she has almost nothing to show of it.                 

            “I feel like an expandability, like they can toss me away whenever,” said DesRochers. “I haven't gotten a single raise over all this time and it's just wrong how they treat us.”