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Opinion

Financial aid fails this middle class student

Ursula Hawkins
Opinion Columnist

Dear financial aid officials,

Every year it's the same. I apply for money to help pay for school and you don't come through. So far, every single semester I have been struggling to pay the ridiculously high cost of all of my college expenses with my measly job and high interest loans (which are destined to suck all the money that I plan on making after I graduate out of my bank account -- which currently sits at $2.50) because you stingy people have decided through your flawed system that I'm not qualified to receive your help. 

I want to say loud and clear that you are mistaken. The financial aid system is a great way to help college students out, but I am afraid it has a big flaw. You are forgetting about the many students who happen to be stuck in the middle when it comes to paying for college. 

Some families are by no means capable of paying for education, regardless of how much money it looks like they make on paper; there are other bills to pay and some cannot afford to pay for tuition and books without financial help.

Financial aid is a no-win situation for middle class college students, who either receive little or no money and are without the help of a financial adviser to figure out all the loopholes in the financial aid system. 

A lack of money to give does not seem to be an issue, however. For some students, you not only pay for their entire tuition and other college expenses, but you also issue them a refund check, which many times is for thousands of dollars. Good for them, but not for other middle class students. 

Now, there isn't a problem with refund checks, but it's frustrating when some students get thousands of dollars back and others can't even get a check for $5. 

Many students who receive refund checks that are more than $2,000 or $3,000 do not even use them for school expenses. Although this is not always the case, there is a considerable amount of students who go and spend the money on clothes and cars. It makes no sense for you to offer some students so much money and not even give others one penny.

Besides this, the Texas Legislature passed the tuition deregulation law in 2003, which gave universities the freedom to set their own tuition rates. As a result, tuition in Texas increased more than 39 percent, the Houston Chronicle reported. And you have yet to extend financial aid to more middle class students.

I would just like you to know you will be receiving an application from me this year once again, but this time there will be another letter attached. It will list all other expenses that the application cannot tell you, such as the amount I spend on gas per week driving back and forth to school, the cost of parking permits and last, but not least, the cost of the mental anguish I have suffered as a result of the continual rejection letters you have sent me. I hope you will make the right decision this time around. 

Sincerely,

A financial aid reject

Hawkins, a communication/Spanish sophomore, 
can be reached via dccampus@mail.uh.edu