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.
A domestic exchange student from Indiana, Ross, 19, came to UMass to experience a new school. She lives with her mother and stepfather at home, where she also worked a full-time job in addition to being a student. She said her parents are supportive morally, but not financially, because they just can’t afford to help her out.
Joseph O’Dea, a senior, said his parents will rarely pay for anything for him, and as a result, he has to pay for college on his own at a huge expense. He says his parents felt that anything he wanted that wasn't a basic necessity was all up to him to buy on his own, including higher education., leaving all the bills up to him.
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My school work has absolutely suffered as a result and when it comes down to it work has to be my first priority because I have to eat and pay bills,” he said.
O'Dea has worked since he was 13 and said that his father was reluctant to even sign the forms for his school loans, and that every day is a struggle to make ends meet.
Despite having little free time, he doesn‘t want to give up this far into college.
“I intend to fight this situation until the end because I desperately want to graduate,” he said
Ross' and O'Dea's financial aid simply doesn't support them, and there's little they can do to change that.
Jean Berg, counselor at UMass Financial Aid Offices, helps students obtain the most financial aid they can get, but, she said because of certain students’ situations, they just won’t receive the aid they may need.
“For someone to say I don't want to pay and I'm not paying, that's not a valid reason to get independence,” said Berg.
“I don't want to give a Pell grant to someone who's parents just don't want to pay because that takes away funds from those who really need it,” she added.
The Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) application, which helps the government determine the amount of financial aid a students receives, restricts students from declaring independence from their parents until they are 24, or have met the criteria for specific guidelines, which have recently increased from six to twelve options.
Students who are financially independent are likely to receive more generous financial aid packages.
Resource Economics professor M.J. Alhabeeb of UMass Amherst finds financial aid to be continuously getting worse and says that without a complete change to the process and system, it will remain in this downward cycle.
“Students' financial aid is not enough at all. It is under-performing, in my view, especially at a time of economic downturn like now,” he said.
The National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education reported, “In 1981, loans accounted for 45 percent and grants for 52 percent of federal student financial aid. In 2000, loans represented 58 percent of federal student financial aid, and grants represented 41 percent.”
Berg said that funding for financial aid has been decreasing with the falling economy, and this will drop the amount that all students get, especially if they have parents.
“The government can't fund every single 21 year-old who is a junior, and that’s why the independence age is set at 24,” she continued.
Berg recommended that students who are in truly tight situations speak with the Financial Aid offices.
Depending on the situation, students may be able to obtain professional letters and prove independence from their parents in case they don’t meet the criteria on the FAFSA, but simply cannot provide parental information because of circumstances.
University Health Services and the Dean of Students Office will also meet with students and provide letters if there are no other options.
Saera Hanlon, a senior, 25, finally got the financial aid she needed because she passed the age requirement,
but admits she had a difficult time before that.
“I moved out when I was 17, and my dad wouldn’t even sign the FAFSA,” she said.
“I would get up at 7:00 a.m., be back from work and school at 11:00 p.m. at night, and still have homework,” she added.
Alhabeeb says that a faltering economy will have dire effects on students supporting themselves, and that these trends will continue to rise.
“The outcome is clear and multifaceted, such as a sharp drop in the percentage of students to have a college education and a higher pressure on those who manage to get into college to work hard in the labor market.”
He added that there's also psychological problems, that stress from trying to make ends meet can have significant effects on students as well as their parents.
Despite the problems they have encountered, the students are accepting of what they have gone through, or what they are unable to change, and are ready to move on to the next steps of their lives.
O‘Dea said,“I guess I just have to back up for a second sometimes and realize that higher education is not necessarily a God given right and I have already been more fortunate than other people by getting this far.”
Hanlon added, “I think that it means a lot to be my own person. I’m grateful for the way my life turned out.”
Ross finished, “I have to go back home and get my own apartment and job, and I'd rather not have to give this up...but I'm a positive person...I'll make the best of it. ”
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