Denise Wick, a UA senior kinesiology major, pays for all of her tuition out-of-pocket, with no financial aid assistance. Wick, whose family owns a dairy farm in Oklahoma, goes home each weekend to work on the farm, about 10 hours each day. She also works in the UA Student Support Services in the basement of Gregson Hall.- Brittany Nims Asst. News Editor
Editor’s Note: The New Normal is a series highlighting new norms for college students in this day and age.
In a nation where student loan debt exceeds credit card debt, according to finaid.org, some UA students have turned to other ways to pay for college, avoiding student loans completely.
The average UA student is in $21,000 of student debt when they graduate from their undergraduate program, said Kattie Wing, UA director of financial aid.
“If you have to take out debt in order to get an education, I think it’s a good thing. It’s an investment. It makes a difference in your life, your entire life, not just in the short-term,” she said.
For students like Denise Wick, a senior kinesiology major, loans are not an option.
Wick, a first generation college student, will graduate debt-free with her undergraduate degree in May, she said, after paying for her tuition almost entirely out-of-pocket for three years.
“It’s been really hard. Everything I have I’ve paid for. Most [student’s] parents might pay for their car or their phone or will buy them groceries, but I have to do that all on my own,” she said.
About 1.7 million undergraduates graduated debt-free between 2007 and 2008, according to a report on finaid.org,“Characteristics of College Students Who Graduate with No Debt.”
Additionally, students who graduate from a public college are more likely to graduate with no debt, according to the report.
Wick has no financial aid or scholarships this year, she said, but manages to pay her tuition in addition to her apartment, utilities, phone, groceries and transportation.
“I’ve had a job since I was about nine,” she said. “Part of the only reason I’ve been able to do this is because I’ve been saving this whole time. My parents instilled in me at an early age that I need to work for everything that I want.”
Wick’s family moved to the U.S. from Switzerland in 1996 when she was in grade school, she said. They now own a dairy farm in Oklahoma, where she goes to work on the weekends, 10 hours each day.
During the week, Wick works every day with the UA Student Support Services, roughly 20 hours each week.
UA students work more hours than students enrolled “in the comparison group of the benchmark institutions,” which include Louisiana State University, Vanderbilt University, Auburn University, University of Florida and University of Mississippi, among several others, according to a UA report called Destination Graduation 2010.
Additionally, UA students are less likely to apply for federal aid programs compared to students from those institutions.
The ideal way to go to school, Wing said, would be not working.
“But sometimes life is not ideal,” she said.
Students who pay their way through college work several hours each week and take fewer credit hours than most, according to an Associated Press article, “The other student loan problem: too little debt.”
They’re also more likely to live at home, be part-time students and are less likely to graduate, according to the article.
Wick is an exception.
She is taking 17 credit hours this fall, she said, and has maintained a cumulative 3.6 GPA.
“I feel like it’s an accomplishment and a reflection on yourself of what you can achieve,” she said.
Working while going to school can help students, if they work on campus, said Karen Hodges, co-chair of the UA Retention Council.
“If you can get a job like this [on campus], it’s going to increase your success,” she said. “If you work too many hours and it’s not connected [to your degree], I think it can be detrimental.”
Some UA students, however, view loans as a springboard to other tuition payment options.
Kate Chapman, a UA graduate student studying higher education in student affairs, received her undergraduate degree in community health promotion from the UA in May. As an undergraduate student, Chapman had scholarships, but she did not have enough to cover full tuition, she said.
“Whatever I didn’t have to cover it, I would take out a loan because I could pay on the loan, but I couldn’t pay all the tuition that was left all at one time,” she said. “I would take out a loan and then pay on it, so I don’t owe any interest on my loans.
“I don’t owe as much in student loans anymore, just because I’ve paid on it for so long,” she said.
As a graduate student, she owes about $7,000 on the loans she took out as an undergrad, she said.
Chapman was offered an assistantship within her graduate program that covers her full cost of tuition, she said, and she receives a stipend that she uses for rent, utilities and other expenses.
“I don’t have to have an extra job, I don’t have to do a lot of the things I used to,” she said.
During her undergrad years, Chapman worked anywhere from 20 to 50 hours each week. She worked several different jobs during that time, both on and off campus, she said.
Students that left the UA cited financial issues as their main reason for leaving, according to the Destination Graduation 2010 report.
If loans are the only way a student can get the education they want, then a loan should be considered, Wing said.
“It’s important to have funding for your education and loans are part of that funding,” she said. “It pays for itself in the long run.”
If it was necessary for her to complete her degree, Wick said she would take out a loan, but would be conservative about it.