Should students´ college decision base on support
How could the low-income students succeed in college and pursue their dreams if without many supports, especially financially support?
I will be the first-generation students in my family. I started in sophomore in high school when I just came here. My family is a low-income family and my parents are recent immigrants. They could not earn money as much as people who live here for a long time. When my parents knew that I want to apply University of California, they were worried about how could them able to afford me to attend a public university, total tuition and cost of attendance is $34,700 per year.
This is an astronomical figure for my family. I believe this is a large expense for most of the low-income family which want to attend UC. College fee is too expensive for low-income students. They may not be able to afford all the expenses without help. Fortunately, colleges in California provide aids to support students. But colleges in other states should provide more financial support for students with high financial need and good performance.
Why is supporting low-income college students so important? Firstly, let’s compare the graduation rate between UC and colleges in other states. According to the UC website, there are “78 percent of low-income UC students earn a degree” in 2014. But in other state, like Michigan, “only about 16 percent of low-income college students graduate” in 2017, according to the Pete Musto, a news reporter in VOA News, mentions that the reason for the big gap between UC and Michigan’s colleges because UC has abundance of resources to help low-income students, and other states still struggle with it.
There have different education systems and policies in different states. The lack of policies cause universities in different states have different financial support. According to Danielle Douglas-Gabriel, a reporter for The Washington Post, explains that, “State aid programs, much like Pell grants, have not kept pace with the rising cost of college. Tuition at many public four-year universities has soared to offset the loss of state funding, a trend that has undermined the purchasing power of state grants for the neediest students. Meager grant aid in the face of steep tuition often forces students with limited means to borrow more than they want.” Base on Douglas-Gabriel’s argument, she means state governments cannot follow the the tuition of colleges. That cause low-income students need to borrow money to go to college. Bursaries appear meager before expensive tuition fees. Students drop out college or decided don’t go to college eventually. The lack of policies cause some states provide more financial support than others. Douglas-Gabriel explains that, “More than 30 states spend less than 25 percent of what the federal government spends per student through the Pell grant program. But California and the other two (Wyoming and New Jersey) all spend more than $4,000 a year per Pell recipient, exceeding the average federal grant in each of those states.” The central idea here is California, Wyoming and New Jersey provide the most financial support than other states. Other 30 states only could provide ¼ of the federal government spend on education. But, these 3 states provide financial support more than federal government.
Colleges should enroll students depend on the skills that they have, but not the money that they could afford. Need-Blind Admission is a college admission show the idea above. According to the Farran Powell, an education reporter for U.S. News and World Report, describes that “Colleges that are need-blind — an admissions policy that judges applicants on their merits and not on their ability to pay — often provide a significant amount of financial aid to needy students.” In other word, colleges can not judge the affordability of the applicants. They should consider student’s specialties.
Beside the enrollment policy, college programs for low-income students are important as well. One college program for low-income students is calls Pell Grant. Pell Grant definitely plays an important role in college. According to Danielle Douglas-Gabriel’s report, “The Pell program, typically helping families that earn less than $60,000 a year, is crucial for students from modest backgrounds.” It was so difficult for low-income families earn salary around $50,000 and upper. This is the significance factor that low-income students can continue to accept education. According to Farran Powell’s report, “Students who are Pell often come from low-income households that typically earn less than $50,000 a year.” For example, there are 4 people in my family. My parents are hard to earn $30,000 a year. It emphasizes that for low-income families need to limit other expenses in order to pay the tuition if colleges don’t provide programs like Pell Grant. “The Pell program provides need-based grants to low-income undergraduates. According to the Department of Education, more than $28 billion is disbursed annually to around 7.2 million students through the Pell Grant.” Pell Grant provides financial support to high need students because it covers with most of the tuition. Low-income families can’t afford too much expense.
The researchers think that colleges providing support plays an important role. In my view, college providing more support is really helpful for high needy college students, not only financial aid, but also academic support. Yvonne McBarnett who is a manager in charge the program to help students with high financial need says that “… the program ensures that low-income students have a community as well as access to a textbook lending program, laptops and grocery money.” Financial support is not the only way to help students succeed in college. McBarnett mentions that provide school supplies and materials to students who need also could help them do well in colleges.
Colleges should provide more financial and academic support for students with high need and good performance in college. Financial aid could cover most of the tuition and provide school materials support low-income students academically. These two ways play important roles in college and help students succeed in colleges.
