How America Pays For College

Despite tightening budgets and a dearth of jobs, students and their families are not cutting back on education, according to a Gallup/Sallie Mae study.

The authors of How America Pays For College 2010 (PDF) asked a nationally representative sample of 801 students and 823 parents a variety of questions on financing a college education. Although 73 percent of respondents said they had to reduce spending in order to meet tuition costs -- a figure that rose 17 percent from 2008-2009 in 2009-2010 -- 82 percent reported strongly believing that college is an investment in the future.

To finance higher education in light of such financial restraints, students and families continued to use payment methods they had in the past, including drawing from savings and turning to friends and family. Of some concern, however, is the number of people who reported paying tuition on credit. Credit.com, a site that provides information on credit cards, credit scorings and credit reporting, notes that Sallie Mae updated their study to find that 6 percent of families use credit cards to pay tuition.

Below, check out the six main ways students and their families funded their education in 2009-2010. How do you pay for college? Weigh in below.

1 of 6

Parent income & savings: 37 percent

1 of 7

First Slide

Previous Slide

@

Student Loan Debt Collector Gets Paid $454,000 In Taxpayer Money

10 People From High School To Avoid This Summer: Slideshow

College Commencement: The Drinking Game

2012 College Grads Enter Improving Job Market

Glee's Jane Lynch Gets Personal In Smith's Commencement Address

gadgets/slideshows/27592/slide_27592_286066_small.jpg

Robert Fisher's Musical Commencement Speech To Belmont University

comments(85)

Total comments: 85 | Post a Comment

1 of 7

Rate This Slide

Rank #2  |  Average: 4

People do that? Looks familiar

• 
  1
• 
  2
• 
  3
• 
  4
• 
  5
• 
  6
• 
  7
• 
  8
• 
  9
• 
  10

Current Top 5 Slides

loading...

Choose your Top 5 Slides

UserName

 | Become a fan

Picked These as the Top 5 Slides in the Slideshow

loading...

Top User Slides

← Prev|Next →

 | Become a fan

Picked These as the Top 5 Slides in the Slideshow

loading...

Users who voted on this slide

← Prev|Next →

loading...

Comments

[Leslie Fox]

04:13 PM on 04/13/2011

If one looks at what funds college almost 50% comes from parents in one form or another. Now that the costs of college have far surpassed the inflation rate, one would have to be very rich to find college expeses easy to bear. And if the student gets no grant/scholarship help, fully 75 % of the costs fall to the individual and his or her family. Any family that is struggling must use the public educational system(s) which are doubling and tripling tuition because of the amount of money that is finding it's way into the financial markets and therefore the pockets of the rich.

[LaurieLee]

10:24 AM on 03/24/2011

I paid for an Ivy League college myself. No student loans, no financial aid, and only help from my parents the first year (then major family feud). I worked several jobs, everything from catalogue and bridal gown modeling, bartending at the faculty club, working at a ski resort during breaks, cocktail waitressing, working at the school coop shop. It was hard work and I took an extra year to graduate.
But the costs were much, much lower when I was an undergrad (in the 1980s). I don't know that it would be possible to do at a private university now with those types of jobs.

[methodman]

11:45 AM on 03/02/2011

As a disable student who has had an opportunity to work with a variety of teachers and textbooks. The truth is Most textbooks are written pretty well. Unfortunately students have to be honest to themselves when they need to back up. When you are not following something; be honest. Like I was assigned a really abstract worded textbook and I went out and found the dummy's equivalent covering the same material and passed all my tests. I think college is supposed to make you more rounded but thankfully many kinds of people are given an opportunity I was trying to learn electronic equation component writing from a person who English was a second language and I kept falling asleep. Are they the problem or am I my own enemy there? I am the disrespectful person and I just have to deal with it. Stop blaming grad students or teachers or textbooks

[Bci Kasa]

09:19 AM on 03/01/2011

Colleges are in the business of selling degrees, not educating. In most cases the government owns and runs the college. Most colleges are public not private. How surprising that our colleges have the same problem as our government such as spending too much money and wasteful spending. From time to time the government comes out and says, the cost of tuition must be controlled. I say to them, you own and run the colleges so find ways to lower tuition, but the don't. Instead they offer more lending (debt) and lower interest rates.

One thing that would help student out, regulate college text books. That whole thing is a scam. Seriously, a new Algebra, Calculus, or English text book is printed every other semester. Has ALGEBRA changed that much? I am guessing NO. $150 a book, they buy it back for $7 buck, resell it for $110 than they stick you with it.

My point, if they were serious about fixing the problems they would offer real tangible solutions and not just talking points.

[hypnotoad72]

08:20 PM on 03/01/2011

I did a search but could not find any proper stats showing the number of private colleges vs number of public colleges. Do you have a link or two to read up on? (Not to mention, I attend a private (for-profit) college and there are LOTS of problems in that venue as well. For-profit entities are definitely not a panacea for public colleges.)

[moldndecay]

08:37 PM on 03/01/2011

"Public 4-year institutions 615
Public 2-year institutions 1,092
Private 4-year institutions, non-profit 1,536
Private 4-year institutions, for-profit 169
Private 2-year institutions, non-profit 184
Private 2-year institutions, for-profit 500
Total 4,096 "

http://chronicle.com/free/almanac/1999/nation/nation.htm

Thats the only reference I could find.

[kingbarry]

08:43 PM on 02/28/2011

When you look at the degrees that colleges offer they should be investigated by the dept of education. Degrees in sociology, psychology, black and women studies, art history and a myriad of others should be ineligible for pell grants and taxpayer subsidized loans. They are tickets to minimum wage jobs

[anafreeka]

07:38 AM on 03/01/2011

I'm a sociology major..it is not necessarily a ticket to a minimum wage jobs. You don't know what you are talking about. I think we should limit the schools that offer generic business degrees. Get a life!!

[Pavane]

01:02 AM on 03/02/2011

Essentially, you are saying cultural studies are useless.

Yet, can you imagine a world without culture ... without artists or writers or musicians or historians or psycologists and anything relating to the better understanding of complex humanity?

The only thing that soothes the beast in man is culture and its Beauty.

What remains beyond culture is merely our horrific abilility to feed upon each other. Which is precisely what we humans would do left unrestrained ... especially if the only Degree(s) allowed to be subsidized were those that taught us how to feed even better.

How depressing.

Just saying.

[Thomas Ledford]

08:10 PM on 02/28/2011

Tex, if you have been teaching in "university's" (sic) and still think that you can form a plural with an apostrophe + s, then you are like typhoid Mary in the kitchen.

[few77]

05:57 PM on 02/28/2011

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVoP5SvqJVo&feature=player_embedded#at=155

[annersbananers]

05:01 PM on 02/28/2011

I propose something new: How about we cut out, financial aid, parents, scholarships, and put the students under work-contracts with the colleges? It would be like a loan- you attend school, receive your degree, and use your cash to pay off said degree.

[moldndecay]

08:38 PM on 03/01/2011

So the students are indentured servants of the college?

[wagne549]

03:28 PM on 02/28/2011

I've paid for college almost entirely through financial aid and scholarships, both from my college and from outside organizations. I was Pell Grant eligible and the University of Minnesota has a program for Pell Grant eligible students called "U Promise" that covers all tuition for those students. The rest of my fees were covered by state grants and the actual Pell Grant, as well as a few scholarships primarily my first two years. The few thousand total over 3 years that aid and scholarships didn't cover I have paid for out of my savings that I earned from working part-time. I was able to study abroad last May through a scholarship from the Honors program and a small check from my parents. I'm also graduating in 3 years rather than 4 and that is saving a lot of money. I'm incredibly lucky to be graduating debt free in May, but I wouldn't have been able to do so without financial aid.

[JBS]

02:33 PM on 02/28/2011

The real problem is that for too many Americans there is NO WAY to pay for college. They have simply been priced out of the higher education system.

[SAdams1987]

03:31 PM on 02/28/2011

Government aid leads to further increasing costs. It's a positive feedback loop.

[SLOMO66]

05:23 PM on 02/28/2011

Can you explain please?

[matandch]

08:34 PM on 02/28/2011

Government aid leads to better paying jobs for graduates which leads to better paying TAXPAYERS!

[lakefront liberal]

02:25 PM on 02/28/2011

One almost HAS to have a college degree to make a good living these days and the colleges know this. Tuition has been going up and up and most people's salaries have remained flat over the past 30 years. I know I will be spending many years to pay off student loans, but it was necessary to be able to do what I wanted AND to remain employed in this economy.

It's terrible that students graduate from college and grad school five steps behind because they have to climb out of the debt hole before they can establish themselves.

[Matt Herren]

06:20 PM on 02/28/2011

It is absolutely terrible, however this is a result of too many people going to college and the educational system taking account the governmental interest in sending people to get an 'education ... creating a system whereby employers are setting unreasonable expectations upon potential applicants based on a glut in the pool of individuals with less than admirable degrees.

The result of the last 20 years is... there are too many 'schools' (although when the government is acting as guarantor of payment and states are giving thousands in subsidies per student it is tough to blame them for wanting to expand to account for as many individuals as possible) and too many individuals attending these schools for what amounts to little more than a piece of paper.

This goes for both 'satellite' institutions and the even worse for-profit schools (which are effectively private groups exploiting a state run protected market).

[hypnotoad72]

08:25 PM on 03/01/2011

Is the government interested for its own reasons? Or are they being convinced by some lobbying influence? We do have the best government that money can buy and it's no secret that corporate lobbying has influenced a lot of what government has done...

[Bat Wrangler]

02:21 PM on 02/28/2011

Since most of the problem with higher education financing can be laid at the feet of the federal government, for providing too much money and not enough oversight over colleges, universities and for-profit schools to maintain affordable tuition, the government should realize that it created a bad situation, even thought it had the best of intentions. The best investment the U.S. government can make is to forgive student loans, at least up to $50,000 for citizens not covered by the G.I. Bill, or being reimbursed by other goevernment/private tuition repayment programs. The forgiveness would allow many citizens to escape crushing financial burdens in a time of high unemploymen and would increase personal spending to help sustain or spur the economy. Where do we get the money to forgive these loans, you say? The same way we pay for the G.I. Bill, TARP, the Stimulus, the foreign bank bailouts of the 1990's and the bailout of the Savings and Loans (the taxpayer-funded Bush family financial rescue fund)...we borrow it.

[hypnotoad72]

08:27 PM on 03/01/2011

Agreed. Forgiveness of debt, especially given how many fields a worker has to re-train for over time. Costs are out of this planet's orbit for one thing... but should the forgiven debt be deemed "taxable income"? (either way it's a massive improvement over the amounts of debt so many people have, which they incurred in good faith and by going back for schooling to make themselves more valuable to companies (who seem to refuse to hire or train on their own (with noteworthy exceptions that transcend the scope of my response, of course...))

[moonwatcher]

01:57 PM on 02/28/2011

We sent our son with the Federal Plus loan and he also a federal loan. He graduated from college in 2000. Both loans are almost paid off. We now have a granddaughter that will be entering college in 2013. College will be more expensive for her and she will have less assets. We have set aside some money for her but not near enough. We are retired and she will have to rely on scholarships or grants and anything we can scrape up.

[wackylady]

01:45 PM on 02/28/2011

Think the textbook thing is a rip off too. Half of the time they don't even go to the books more than so, and why do you need a new edition each year?
Agree with the point of kids making the most of the opportunity, yes have fun on occassion, but this is about working hard to achieve success. not boozing and hanging out.
Education and innovation - keys to the country's success