It's All About the Benjamins

The New York Times Magazine published their College Issue yesterday; click to see the online version.

Of particular interest to many of you will be the article about their poll of college graduates.

What D.W. finds interesting in the full results (which you can download as a PDF) is that while the majority of students feel they had to pay too much for college, most graduated owing nothing in loans. Zero. Zip. Nada.

So, you owe nothing in loans, your parents foot most of the bill (also in the results), yet you feel college is too expensive?

Granted, they did survey students who graduated from the Us of Michigan and Pennsylvania, Reed College, and various other schools. This may have reduced responses from kids who do borrow tons to attend nationally un-ranked state and community colleges.

But still, what gives? We market so much in higher ed about what we're doing about affordability and to help students pay their way. And then there are all the news stories about the thousands of dollars the average student owes in loans when graduating, and the scare stories right before the government raises interest rates on student loans — it would make you think everyone owes thousands.

But yet, these students don't.

Another nugget here: parents are giving students the most aid. Despite the students being in the driver's seat during the admissions process, it's the parents paying for the car and gas. We cannot leave them out of the equation. In fact, I would tend to say they can be the navigators during the search process and the decisions makers when it's time for the rubber to meet the road.