Wednesday, April 19, 2017
Beware he who doth prostesteth too much, or...
Much ado about (mostly) nothing...
My prior post was not my finest work, such was the shock and existential dismay I felt after the creation of this policy. After rereading the post, I should be more aghast at the quality of writing, but sometimes you need to just slap something together and see what happens. I'm happy to say it worked; my creative juices are flowing again, and ideas for posts are popping into my head like dandelions on a lawn. That may not be the best simile I could have come up with, actually.
Thus, it is with unusual prescience (especially for me, who normally stumbles from one situation to the next like a drunken wildebeest) that I find myself in Corning, NY attending the 2017 State University of New York Financial Aid Professionals (SUNYFAP) annual conference. I asked to attend this shindig months ago, and was told yes, but the college said no a few weeks later due to budgetary constraints. Nevertheless, I offered to pay for the event myself; I just needed the time off. That was acceptable, so $260 and a few airline miles later, here I am. In between my registering and the start of the conference, the bomb was dropped on all of us, and I'm sure it will be the only thing we discuss. Blathering on about work life balance can wait.
Speaking of work life balance, and the implication we don't have it, the effect this new policy will have on me (and oh boy will it ever, to almost ridiculous levels) is certainly a valid topic for exploration, but for this essay, let's examine the Excelsior scholarship in greater detail, now that my head has cleared somewhat.
First, it needs to be stated that the effect is being oversold, but any new government program would be. As a last dollar form of aid, if a student qualifies for enough TAP and Pell to pay the tuition, then no extra money is available, even though there are plenty of other bills that need to be paid: fees, books, dorms, transportation, etc. As such, the notion that the SUNY, CUNY, and Community Colleges systems are suddenly free is nothing more than a fantasy There was also the intimation that a whole new group of student was going to be able to attend college where before they could not. This is utter nonsense; it is not going send a stampede of new students to college. There was always money available to pay for school; it was just in a form that people didn't want: loans. The access was always there, and anyone saying otherwise is either ill-informed, or outright lying.
Nevertheless, there are those that will benefit, but not quite in the way its being presented. Those families who make, say $90,000 a year, will get free tuition at a public institution, where before they got nothing. Aside from the other unpaid costs, this is a huge benefit. What the new money does (if the grades are there) is give the student and family the option of choice. If this was three years ago, no matter what the grades, if there wasn't enough savings for college, or insufficient borrowing capacity on behalf of the parents (not the student, who could always borrow some money, just not enough to pay for going away to college) this student was not going to whatever SUNY accepted him or her. Instead, our example was probably trundling over to my office in the middle of August, desperately trying to get a Stafford loan processed in time to pay for classes. Hopefully the paperwork was in order. If there is some savings, or the ability to borrow, in addition to the Excelsior scholarship, then going away to Binghamton, Buffalo, etc. is an option. Otherwise, you're coming into my office anyway, You might leave with less debt, but how much less debt is unknown.
The other aspect that has be more or less confirmed is that the academic requirements are very stringent, requiring the completion of 30 credits in one year, and if this isn't met, the aid is lost. Moreover, the GPA requirements are higher than other forms of state aid. Of course, I don't know how much higher. Could it be 2.0, checked every semester? Probably, but I don't know that either. The next three days will hopefully have the answers. I do know we'll be asking the questions, but are we asking the right ones? I don't know.
My prior post was not my finest work, such was the shock and existential dismay I felt after the creation of this policy. After rereading the post, I should be more aghast at the quality of writing, but sometimes you need to just slap something together and see what happens. I'm happy to say it worked; my creative juices are flowing again, and ideas for posts are popping into my head like dandelions on a lawn. That may not be the best simile I could have come up with, actually.
Thus, it is with unusual prescience (especially for me, who normally stumbles from one situation to the next like a drunken wildebeest) that I find myself in Corning, NY attending the 2017 State University of New York Financial Aid Professionals (SUNYFAP) annual conference. I asked to attend this shindig months ago, and was told yes, but the college said no a few weeks later due to budgetary constraints. Nevertheless, I offered to pay for the event myself; I just needed the time off. That was acceptable, so $260 and a few airline miles later, here I am. In between my registering and the start of the conference, the bomb was dropped on all of us, and I'm sure it will be the only thing we discuss. Blathering on about work life balance can wait.
Speaking of work life balance, and the implication we don't have it, the effect this new policy will have on me (and oh boy will it ever, to almost ridiculous levels) is certainly a valid topic for exploration, but for this essay, let's examine the Excelsior scholarship in greater detail, now that my head has cleared somewhat.
First, it needs to be stated that the effect is being oversold, but any new government program would be. As a last dollar form of aid, if a student qualifies for enough TAP and Pell to pay the tuition, then no extra money is available, even though there are plenty of other bills that need to be paid: fees, books, dorms, transportation, etc. As such, the notion that the SUNY, CUNY, and Community Colleges systems are suddenly free is nothing more than a fantasy There was also the intimation that a whole new group of student was going to be able to attend college where before they could not. This is utter nonsense; it is not going send a stampede of new students to college. There was always money available to pay for school; it was just in a form that people didn't want: loans. The access was always there, and anyone saying otherwise is either ill-informed, or outright lying.
Nevertheless, there are those that will benefit, but not quite in the way its being presented. Those families who make, say $90,000 a year, will get free tuition at a public institution, where before they got nothing. Aside from the other unpaid costs, this is a huge benefit. What the new money does (if the grades are there) is give the student and family the option of choice. If this was three years ago, no matter what the grades, if there wasn't enough savings for college, or insufficient borrowing capacity on behalf of the parents (not the student, who could always borrow some money, just not enough to pay for going away to college) this student was not going to whatever SUNY accepted him or her. Instead, our example was probably trundling over to my office in the middle of August, desperately trying to get a Stafford loan processed in time to pay for classes. Hopefully the paperwork was in order. If there is some savings, or the ability to borrow, in addition to the Excelsior scholarship, then going away to Binghamton, Buffalo, etc. is an option. Otherwise, you're coming into my office anyway, You might leave with less debt, but how much less debt is unknown.
The other aspect that has be more or less confirmed is that the academic requirements are very stringent, requiring the completion of 30 credits in one year, and if this isn't met, the aid is lost. Moreover, the GPA requirements are higher than other forms of state aid. Of course, I don't know how much higher. Could it be 2.0, checked every semester? Probably, but I don't know that either. The next three days will hopefully have the answers. I do know we'll be asking the questions, but are we asking the right ones? I don't know.
