Thursday, February 16, 2017

Student Financial Aid: Who Deserves it?

Rachel Rosencrans
Mr.Reuter
Economics
14 February 2017
Student Financial Aid: Who Deserves It?
Let’s face it; college is expensive. Students walk away with a degree and a large debt. They are not even guaranteed a job to pay off that debt.  This video explains the impact of student debt. People say college is an investment.  But who should we invest in?  Government aid has typically been given to students from low income families. However, in more recent years, a debate has begun about whether financial aid should be given based on need, like in the past, or based on merit.  What makes one hard working student more deserving of financial aid than another hard working student?
Merit based aid would help middle class families with above average students to pay for the rising price of college.  As of 2012, the cost of college “has more than doubled nationally over the past 10 years at four-year public colleges” (Levits). These students who received high grades and SAT/ACT scores are being rewarded for their hard work.  It is expected that these students will also be more successful during college due to their previous work ethic and dedication to academics. Investing government money in the education of these individuals is investing in our future leaders.
The counterargument to merit based aid is, of course, need based aid. The argument is that need based aid will help young adults to break from the poverty in which they were raised. Without this aid, these students would not be able to attend a university.  Also, the reason that these students may not have the same high level of academics as other students could be due to the fact that they have to help support their family. Students who have to work full time, go to school, do their homework, and God forbid, sleep, won’t do as well in school as other students who have more time to relax their minds and still complete all of their homework. By allocating more money to students who succeed in school, "’The money is being slowly taken away from the students who need it most,’ says Shannon McGhee, the associate director of financial planning at Mercer University, in Macon, Ga. She says African-American and Hispanic students are most likely to benefit from need-based plans because ‘they have not necessarily had the same educational opportunities as their white peers’” (Levits).  These students could have worked just as hard or even harder than the high achieving students had they been in a different economical situation at home during their high school years. Need based aid attempts to eliminate this problem by breaking the cycle of poverty so that these students can eventually raise children who don’t have to wonder where their next meal is coming from, but can focus on their studies.
As the cost of college continues to climb, it is difficult to decide who should get financial aid when it seems like everyone could use it.  However, everyone has to make trade offs.  The opportunity cost of giving one student money for college is that another deserving student cannot use that money for college. The more need based aid given, the less merit based aid that can be given.  This concept can be demonstrated by a production possibilities curve as shown in the picture below.  Overall, it is hard to decide who gets to leave college with less debt when there are a lot of different types of people in different financial situations that deserve the aid for different reasons.  Please leave a comment with your thoughts about the issue and which group of people you believe should get more aid financially and why.

Works Cited
Levitz, Jennifer, and Scott Thurm. "Shift to Merit Scholarships Stirs Debate." The Wall Street Journal. Dow Jones & Company, 19 Dec. 2012. Web. 13 Feb. 2017.

21 comments:

  1. Although I do agree with the argument that college is expensive and leaves many in debt, I also believe that financial aid should continue to be for those who are need based. Many colleges offer scholarships to students who meet those high GPA and ACT/SAT requirements in high school, and those students don't have to pay back scholarships. So, if we were to start giving more aid to merit-based students, then those students would have both financial aid and their merit scholarships while need-based students would not have the GPA and ACT/SAT requirements to receive those scholarships and would receive less financial aid then they do now, causing need-based students to have less money to help them than they do now.

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  2. I have to agree with you on who gets finacal aid or not as it can be very hard to pick from applicants. I felt that we could also lower tution in someway to save college students money.Overall the price of college truly is a hard hurldle to jump over.

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  3. I agree with the fact that financial aid should mostly be given to the students that truly need it. Although I think that there also should be financial aid given to students who work hard and are well deserving of getting economic help. Since these students have shown in the past due to their high school grades or ACT/SAT scores they should have the opportunity to financial aid. Since many of these students without financial aid would be left with lots of student loans when they are done with college. At the same time for students that do need financial aid and students that may not there is always the opportunity for scholarships within the school that they are going to or other scholarships that they can find online.

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  4. I agree with this article since its true who says that person A should get the financial aid and person B shouldn't. We should give financial aid to people that work hard for what they want not by how much money they have. But tuition could be a lot cheaper too.

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  5. Personally I think that when applying for financial aid both merit and need should be considered. While it is true that students who come from lower class families may have to work more often than not and thus would have to save school work for either before or after, many kids who are financially stable are also doing the same thing so that they can gain real world experience. Without a doubt scholarships should be awarded to those who show that they are strong academically and have a good work ethic because they will benefit from the money and most likely be the most successful from it. But children who have to work more often to support themselves can still be dedicated and set aside time to study and do all school work to their best ability, it just depends on how badly they want a successful future for themselves, and what they consider successful. Overall I think that financial aid should look at both merit and need and find students who show strong merit, but greatly need the support and grant them the financial aid.

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  6. It is incredible to see how much college is these days, and I can't wait til I have to face that hurdle of how it will be paid for (ha). But I do believe that people that need the money should be the ones to have more financial aid. Like was said the in a previous comment, the kids who have higher ACT/SAT scores and also have a good GPA will get scholarships and won't need that financial aid as much as the others. I also liked your point on why we would give financial aid to those who need it. Being able to get those people to college is crucial in my opinion because like you said, there is a high probability that they will be able to break out of poverty. So paying attention to these type of students now will help to decrease the amount of people in poverty over time and also strengthen our nations intelligence as a whole, since the people who don't have a advanced level of academic strength will still be able to study what they want and become more intelligent. In conclusion, I think that giving more financial aid to the people who need it is more important than giving aid based on merit.

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  7. I feel as though everyone should be able to get finacial aid but the people who don't have a lot of money should get more. No matter what their grades are. People who are more wealthy are able to pay for their children to go to college. If the government were to give out more money to the wealthy people they would have a chance at a better life. People with less money should get more money because then they have a chance at bettering their life and turning it around. People who have college degrees get paid more money and have more opportunities. It is more likely that a student without a lot of money will only finish high school, get their diploma then be done. By giving them more money this will give them a nudge to continue with their education.

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  8. I agree with you that college is beginning to become very expensive but I can relate that too the epi pens that there are no substitutes for the products so they can charge how much they want and people will still need it or want it. But it is becoming easier and easier now a days for people to get financial aid you just have put in a lot of work for it and there is so many different opportunists to get it there is so many reasons you could get it and if you look into each one of them for your college and you could have most of your college paid for.

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  9. I think the biggest problem with merit based financial aid is that many schools and organizations give schools to students that do well, so there is plenty of opportunity for them to reduce their cost of college. However, students in low income families or communities are going into college with less money and usually have a much lower chance of receiving scholarships. For a lot of students in low-income families, the opportunity cost of college is not worth it for them, so they go into the work force. These students are taking away tuition costs for the US which will (very minimally) decrease the GDP of the US.

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  10. It seems clear that a kid who gets stellar grades should get an appropriate merit scholarship. If the kid comes from wealth, he or she should be rewarded, and if the kid comes from a lack of wealth then he or she should be rewarded. If a student from a background of poverty receives the same stellar grades, as a student from wealth, then maybe he or she should be rewarded a little extra, since they persevered in the face of greater odds. However, it should be wrong to reward poorer kids no matter their grades. No one would respect a grocery store that charges its customers on the basis of their income. That is discriminatory. Yet, it seems that is the ideal many set out to apply to college finances. The cost should be based off achievement in context, and not the context alone.

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  11. I think that the financial aid should be given out based on need. The middle class have the ability to take some loans out and pay them back, but if someone is very poor they might not be able to take a loan out because of credit and the parents might not be able to help at all. For people in the middle class families, they will be able to pay the debt off faster because most likely parents will help and students will have started to put money towards their college funds, whereas poorer people cannot afford to give their children money for college and the money being made from the kids are probably going towards things like food instead of college. In conclusion, the poorer kids are already working extremely hard and making them pay for education too is another hurdle. If we can educate more of the poorer people in the world, we can get them jobs and bring more people out of poverty.

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  12. It is expensive to go to college now a days and it is harder for students to get money for college it still will run into problems buy giving out money. Sure it will help millions across the nation helping them get education for what america needs but eventually that money will run out. My point is there must be a better way to help these students out than draining the money and being left with nothing

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  13. It is unfortunate that many students aren’t able to attend college because of the rising prices but I do believe this problem is somewhat controllable. Although you may not be able to afford the prestigious universities like Harvard or Yale, by putting hard work in the classroom and doing well on the standard tests (ACT), you could earn the money off to be able to attend college. There is always a way to do better and I feel that poverty should not be an excuse if the person does not put in genuine hard work to their craft. No matter rich or poor, I feel that the hard working dedicated students should get the go ahead because they are usually the ones who perform to standards. Although the obstacle of having to work and always having to help out financially is there for less fortunate families, I feel that there are ways that you can come to a compromise within the job, family, and schooling. I doubt that a teacher would not be understanding of the situation if you requested for more time on an assignment if you need to work more. In general I feel that hard work and dedication to school breeds success. Although it may be a difficult road for some I truly believe there is always some sort of solution that can both cater to your needs and towards the help of college aid by getting good grades.

    Jaeger Hoang

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  14. With the ridiculous cost of college comes a wide range of scholarships and financial aid. Both need and merit are taken into consideration for scholarships, and there are many scholarships which are solely need-based. Even with the FAFSA, sometimes families are still not able to afford college. I think we should increase the amount of financial aid for those who need it, but also reward students for their efforts and achievements. A student's financial situation should not affect the scholarships they get from merit. Obviously, all this money won't just appear out of thin air, but I'm curious about what all the money we pay for college even goes towards - surely there's no need for a single textbook to cost $400. If colleges can find a way to lower their tuition, they will be able to provide more financial aid to their hopeful applicants.

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  15. While I wish that financial aid could be given in high quantities on the basis of both merit and need, I know that's an unrealistic dream. I've found that many colleges do a little of both, although top end colleges tend to strictly offer need-based aid, given that their entire applicant pool is more than qualified and would all receive merit-based scholarships. Personally, I believe that sticking to small amounts in both is the optimal way to go. While I understand that low-income families need the extra support, it doesn't mean that students who work insanely hard shouldn't be rewarded. Reducing merit-based scholarships might even end up discouraging the work-ethic many highschoolers exhibit now.

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  16. With the rising costs of colleges, it makes it harder and harder to want to go to these elite schools and walk away with not too much debt. It's impossible. Colleges should lower the cost of tuition, and all the other things that go into paying for college. In the long run they walk away earning more money than what's actually going into the school. Then again, they have to make a profit. As you had said about financial aid being harder for student to receive; some students may choose to not go to college, because they are worried that they are going to walk away spending more money than it's actually worth. I've seen this first hand. My dad has two masters degrees, and is over $140,000 in debt because of the student loans. Not to mention when you do receive a job, and continue to not pay it off, the government garnishes your checks. College prices should be lowered, or financial aid should be given more for students, so that they don't have to worry about debt for possibly the rest of their lives. Everyone especially those who can't really afford college have the right to receive a least a little bit of financial aid.

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  17. I believe it is important for all students interested in going to college to have the opportunity to do so. As your post has indicated, it is difficult to pay for college in general. When it comes to financial aid I believe everyone deserves a fair chance at receiving aid. If one wants to go to college, they deserve the opportunity to go, regardless of their grades in high school. In my opinion, many factors play into how much financial aid a student should receive including cost of the college they wish to attend and their family income. I agree 100% with your statement that "investing government money in the education of these individuals is investing in our future leaders" which is why I believe every student should be given equal opportunities to earn financial aid if they wish to continue onto college.

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  18. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  19. We have reached a point in our society where college/higher education is a necessity for every person. Our society needs high skilled labourers. Whether you go to a technical college or university, it doesn't matter you are needed. Therefore, it is my belief that we should make all public educational facilities free like high school. While this will require tax increases, the bonuses are numerous. For example, entrepreneurs will not be brought down by enormous amount of debt, but will be able to invest in themselves and in their inventions. In addition, immediate graduates who land jobs will find that they have more disposable income to buy these entrepreneur's products. They'll have more money to buy homes and cars and other products.

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  20. I think that if the government is going to hand out money to students for for college expenses the value of that handout should be negatively weighted by the student's family's income (lower income, more aid), as well as positively weighted by that students academic performance (higher scores, more aid). This way, money is being given to those that will most likely succeed in a post-secondary educational setting while taking into consideration any hindrance due to a lack of affluence.

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  21. Financial Aid should be based on the families income because students that cannot afford college should not be missing out on that opportunity based on their family. After all they are trying to be better. Academic performance should go along but mainly focus on the family then if to decide further look at academic performance.

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