When states cut funding for higher education, public institutions often raise their tuition. But many try their best to offer more grants to offset that burden, particularly for lower-income students.
Iowa State University, for one, held a fundraising campaign and dedicated more than a quarter of the $867 million in gifts to scholarships. The university increased annual scholarship dollars from $9 million in 2004 to $21 million in 2011, said ISU President Steven Leath on Thursday.
But loans will still be a big part of most students’ approach to financing college, and Iowa State is also trying to help them better manage that process, since surveys have shown that many students don’t understand the implications of the debt they’ve taken on.
“Our financial-award notice letters to students now include – very prominently – their current indebtedness and how much their payments will be after graduation based upon their borrowing trends. The notice also emphasizes that the loans are optional and encourages the use of other methods to pay for their education,” Mr. Leath said.
Moreover, Iowa State is one of only five major universities with a full-service counseling clinic that offers financial-literacy courses and individualized financial advice.
