NEW YORK — Octavio Brindis thought he had it made when he won a scholarship funded by Microsoft founder Bill Gates to help him go to college tuition-free.
The second of five children of Mexican immigrants, Brindis has a father who works in a wine company warehouse and makes less than $40,000 a year. His mother is unemployed. Yet, financial-aid officials at Boston College, where it costs about $60,000 to attend, told Brindis he needed to pay about $2,500 a year — part of a mandated student contribution. Lacking the cash, he took out $5,000 in loans over two years, he said.
Comments
Nearly every financial aid couselor I have talked with is flexible. It is unreasonable for BC to have stringent rules requiring a family or student to pay a specific dollar amount of cash but deny a specicfic source to get it from. Note - it is OK with BC if the student takes out a LOAN or gets it from Grandma, or works a summer job, but not if the student is awarded the funds in a National scholarship competition. One way to prevent the school from reducing aid is to pay a portion of the scholarship directly to the student, rather than to the school. It would require the scholarship board to be more involved in the life of the student, and to understand the full finanical aid picture. Some colleges use the excuse that a student must pay to have "skin in the game," however, a student who has overcome disadvantages in life to win the pretigious Gates award and gain acceptance into BC, clearly is dedicated and involved. BC is a willing victim of its own rigid rules.
Imagine, having to take out a tiny loan or work a summer job! The horror! A quarter of a million dollar education for ten grand! He could have picked a college that would have been completely paid for with his scholarship. But just because he is poor doesn't mean he shouldn't have the best. Not everyone can get that much free and still complain...greedy...this kid was the worst example...so entitled.
Unfortunately, this is not a new phenomenon, although this sounds worse. Thirty years ago when I starting college, the school reduced the financial aid I received by exactly the amount of the local scholarships I had won, thus changing them from individual awards to a contribution to the schools general scholarship fund.
Can't say if financial aid processes are fair or not...
But 2,500 a year to go to BC is a bargain. Kid should be estatic and grateful. Kids mom should be out collecting can's like that MIT family did.
I'm less worried about the student who will have $10,000 in student loans and a degree from BC, than the student who will have $60,000 in student loans from a less prestigious school.
Let's check the math here...this kid got $57,500 in scholarships per year...he has to take out a loan for $2500 per year and ends up with a $240,000 education for $10k...wanna trade? My daughter's state college education will cost more. Greedy! Yet another example of just because I am poor doesn't mean I don't deserve the best...and I want it free. The reality of college is that there are loans and you pay them back from the CAREER that you get for having attended an ivy league school for less thsn the cost of a community college.
I disagree with a number of the comments. The problem is when the scholarship is paid to the school and not the student. When the scholarship is paid to the student, he can then pay the school. When the scholarship is paid to the school, the school says "Oh, I will reduce or eliminate the aid or loans that I promised you", which is wrong. Winning a scholarship is work, it's not making pizza's, its getting good grades & performing community service. The corporations should stop sending the money to the school and send it to the student.
And I have a beef with the colleges, if the tuition is really $60,000 a year, why do they let someone go for $2500 a year? If I go buy a car, can I claim I am poor, so I should get the $60,000 BMW for $2500 instead? This whole college tuition thing is a giant bubble, and I hope it bursts soon. With online schools, and US educated PhDs returning to the third world, we should start sending our kids abroad to get an education.
The kids I talk to from India tell me that the ones that are not smart enough to get into the India Institute of Technology come to Boston, as they then automatically get into MIT. And the IIT does not charge nearly as much as MIT for an education, and the cost of living is much lower.
There are too many private colleges that are country clubs. I have read their advertising "no grades", "no tests", "classes start at 8 pm and go late", "we have a 5-star chef to make your meals", "you can travel and get credit" ... there is no learning going on, it's a scam, you trade $250,000 and get a degree. We don't need 10 students per teacher, there is nothing wrong with 500 kids in a lecture hall to control costs. And let's get more plumbers, carpenters, landscapers, auto technicians, and other trades people who can earn a decent living without a university degree. If everyone wasn't clammering to go to the best party school in the state, the tuition rates would go down. You can almost live at the Ritz for what some colleges are charging for a few months room and board.