Thread: Higher Anxiety About Higher Education

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http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/12/nyreg ... .html?_r=1

Higher Anxiety About Higher Education

Top row from left: Victoria Scott, Danny Casarella, Helene Chen, Gregory Magill, Zacharie Ryan-Gilliam, Laura Rosenfeld, Jennifer Poole. Bottom row from left: Faithlynn Morris, James Carroll, Devin Cline, Jacqueline Morgan, Georgia Squyres, Sheila Garcia, Matt Fries.


By JACQUES STEINBERG
Published: April 9, 2009

FOR high school seniors applying to college, this has been an April unlike any in recent memory, if ever.

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A blog examining all facets of college and university admissions, now seeking readers' questions about waiting lists, gap years and final decisions.


New Jersey »As families watch their paychecks and college savings accounts shrink, and their household expenses rise, the colleges themselves are scrambling to cut their budgets, too. Which has made the receipt of a so-called fat envelope — brimming with the good news of college acceptance, along with details of scholarships and loans — not necessarily the moment of joy it might have been in years past.

While most universities have strived to cut whatever else they can before winnowing financial aid awards, they are also laboring to meet students’ escalating needs.

Meanwhile, a deadline looms: many colleges require a deposit, and thus a decision, by May 1. On The New York Times’s new college-admissions Web site, The Choice, hundreds of readers — including parents and students — have been posting comments betraying their anxieties.

One reader who identified herself as Sharon wrote that when she filled out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, it indicated that her family should be able to contribute $20,000 a year toward her child’s education.

[b]“We don’t know how we will do that,â€

I am surprised as well, but I guess they are starting to realize that the majority of their income is derived from American citizens, both advertisers and subscribers from all over the country.
As far as higher ed., my goddaughter should graduate FSU this year, and when she started, was determined to go on to her master's in biological science. Her mother cannot afford it, and neither can I. This kid is brilliant, and at the top of her class all the time, but her future studies may have to wait.

I was nicely surprised by this article.