You Didn't Expect You Could Get Out of Here With Your Wallet, Did You?

Here comes more bad news for folks who want to go to college. It's getting more expensive from a new and exciting angle. The New York Times is reporting that the amount a family must contribute to a child's tuition in order to qualify for financial aid is going up:

“Though the effects of the formula changes vary from state to state, The Times found that families with the same earnings and assets as in 2000 would typically have to pay an extra $1,749 before clearing the eligibility bar for financial aid in 2005, after adjusting for inflation.”

Some parents will have to contribute an extra $6000 before financial aid will kick in. Go ahead and check your own state with the little Javascript chart on the lefthand side of the article.

It gets better:

“Without exception, single parents experienced larger increases - typically $549 larger - in the amount they would have to pay before reaching the eligibility mark for financial aid. The reason is that the rules shield less of their savings from college expenses, on the theory that they will need less for retirement.”

It makes sense, you see, because single parents don’t need to save as much money for retirement. If you think about it, all the single parents you know are probably saving too much money anyway. Surely none of them have massive credit card bills, mortgages or car payments.

I guess I should feel lucky that by the time I went back to school, I was technically ‘financially independent’ (read: old), and so I could convince them that my family wasn’t able to contribute anything to my education. That kind of luck at least leads to being able to go to school. Anyway, as long as I stay in school, I don’t even have to look at those student loans, right?

According to the article, there are universities (notably Emory University among others with presumably deeper pockets than most) that are trying to make up the gap and keep students in school.

Luckily, the financial aid folks are sympathetic:

“‘I would not deny that this has impacted some people seriously," said Joe Russo, director of student financial services at the University of Notre Dame. "But nationally, has this caused enrollment to drop? It doesn't appear to have.’”