Tag: debt

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Students Juggle Jobs, Adopt Ways to Tackle Loan Debt

Students Juggle Jobs, Adopt Ways to Tackle Loan Debt

By Abby Zimmardi
The Razorback Reporter

Students are struggling to finance their college education by working two jobs or even changing their residency to manage the cost and stress of escalating student loan debt.

Gabrielle Abbott, a UA junior majoring in electrical engineering, said she is paying for her education by herself with the help of loans and scholarships.

Gabrielle Abbott sits in the Arkansas Union Dec. 4. Photo by Abby Zimmardi

Abbott has collected around $25,000 to $30,000 in student loans because she has taken out loans for five semesters and two summers.  In the end, these loans will equal the cost of a brand new car.

“It’s a very big burden to have as a student and I think it’s crazy that inflation is so much,” Abbott, 20, said. “I work two jobs to pay my bills so I take the money that I make over the summer and I work during the school year too, to pay all my bills.”

Alec Morris sits in front of Old Main Dec. 2. Photo by Abby Zimmardi

Abbott works on campus for the College of Engineering as a peer mentor and she also works an average of 20 hours at Chick-fil-A on the weekends, she said.

In the summer of 2019, Abbott worked a paid internship as a power transmission engineer for Arkansas Electric Cooperatives in Little Rock, she said. She saved the money she earned to pay for living costs during the 2019-20 school year.

“All of the money I have from that is what I’m using to try to ride out all of my rent through May,” Abbott said. “So, from August to May. So, my rent, my water, my electric and Wi-Fi.”

Although on average, females have more student loan debt than males, Alec Morris, a UA senior majoring in chemical engineering, has more loan debt than Abbott.

Morris has around $42,000 in student loans from his first seven semesters at the University of Arkansas, he said. In order to lower the amount borrowed, Morris changed his residency to Arkansas from Tennessee in order to have in-state tuition, he said.

Because Morris has in-state tuition, it will take him 10 years to pay off his student loans if he does the maximum payment of $500 a month.

“I’m just gonna max it out whatever it is,” Morris said. “So, it’ll probably take me like seven to 10 years.”

Morris also has more debt than Ellie Hobbs, a UA sophomore majoring in civil engineering. She has around $4,500 in student loans from her first three semesters at the university, Hobbs said. She is planning on taking out more loans for her remaining years at the UofA.

Hobbs, 19, is also considering taking out loans for a potential study abroad opportunity, she said.

Freshman Ellie Hobbs, majoring in civil engineering. Photo courtesy of Ellie Hobbs

Although Hobbs will be taking out more loans for her education, she is not focusing on paying back her loans while in school, she said. 

In contrast to Hobbs, Abbott is thinking about how she will pay back her loans and she has the aid of scholarships to help her clearly map out a plan, she said.

Abbott has received $18,000 in scholarships in total since her freshman year, she said. She has received the Academic Challenge Scholarship for $4,000, she also received a $2,000 scholarship from the university and a $2,500 scholarship from Chick-fil-A for her junior year.

It will take Abbott five to six years to pay her loans off after she graduates, but she wants to pay as much as she can and try to pay them off in one or two years, Abbott said.

“My current plan is to just take my salary and subtract how much loans I have and then obviously a livable salary as far as rent and bills and everything and try and pay it back in one to two years,” Abbott said. “Just because it’s such a big burden, it’s very overwhelming.”

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Pell Grant Covers Only Part of School Bill for Low-Income Students

Pell Grant Covers Only Part of School Bill for Low-Income Students

With nearly 50% of all UA students needing financial aid, the UA scholarship budget is projected to increase by $5 million in the coming academic year.

By Hanna Ellington, Sophie Neubaum, and Kate Duby

Some in-state Pell Grant recipients graduate with little to no debt from the UofA, while others are not so fortunate. The average debt for UA students receiving Pell Grants is $16,000, compared to the median debt of $12,040 for students not receiving them, according to 2016-17 data from the U.S. Department of Education.



Max McKeown, a senior from Monticello majoring in horticultural science, receives the maximum Pell Grant amount of $6,195, which covers 75% of his tuition, he said. With the grant, McKeown will graduate with low to zero debt.

“The Pell Grant has helped a lot, because I get the full amount of it, so that takes away a big chunk of my tuition,” McKeown said.

UA senior Max McKeown, pictured on-campus. Photo by Kate Duby

Pell Grants are federal grants that students typically do not have to repay, according to the Department of Education. They are awarded to students who demonstrate great financial need. Nearly 20% of undergraduate UA students received Pell Grants in 2017-18, according to College Navigator data.

McKeown, 20, lives off campus, making tuition his only major expense under the grant, he said.

Being a Pell Grant recipient directly influenced McKeown’s decision to attend the UofA, and he thinks attending the flagship university has given him a higher quality education than he would receive at another Arkansas institution, he said.

However, the median debt for UA students receiving Pell Grants is higher than that of students not receiving them, putting into question the measurable impact of the grant.

The maximum grant amount awarded is $6,195 for the 2019-2020 award year, according to the Pell Grant website. Tuition for in-state UA students for 2019-20 is $7,568, according to the UofA’s cost of attendance, with tuition, housing and other fees totaling $26,144.

“[The maximum grant] is a national number, and it’s not enough for a student to come to college,” said Phillip Blevins, director of financial aid.

In addition to Pell Grants, students can take out federal loans, participate in work-study, be awarded a Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant or be entered in the Arkansas Academic Challenge to help pay for college, Blevins said.

Director of Financial Aid Phillip Blevins
Director of Financial Aid Phillip Blevins, pictured in his office in Silas H. Hunt Hall. Photo by Hanna Ellington

The nearly $4,000 discrepancy between the accumulated debts of Pell recipients and non-recipients is not surprising to Suzanne McCray, UA vice provost for enrollment.  Students who have Pell Grants still can have significant personal expenses, and so they will take out loans to cover transportation and other personal items, she said.

For other in-state recipients, debt is unavoidable even with a Pell Grant and the addition of scholarships and other financial aid.

UA junior and Pell Grant recipient Billy Cook expects to accumulate about $15,000 in debt for his undergraduate degree in history and political science.

Cook, 21, from Gravette, said he received other financial aid along with the Pell Grant, including the scholarship lottery, Federal Supplemental Educational Opportunity Grant and other smaller scholarships.

“I think the one that made the most impact was of course the Pell Grant, because it’s a fairly large sum of money in terms of a scholarship or a grant. It’s made a good difference compared to the other ones,” Cook said.

UA junior Billy Cook, pictured in the on-campus Starbucks. Photo by Sophie Neubaum

Nearly 55 percent of all undergraduate UA students are receiving grants or scholarships, according to 2017-18 College Navigator data. For the upcoming academic year, $5 million is being added to the scholarship budget for freshman and other students, Blevins said.

The UofA chancellor’s decision to put $5 million into the scholarship budget shows there is a focus on financial need of students, McCray said.

Arkansas ranks 5th in nationwide poverty, with approximately 17.2% of residents living below the poverty line in 2018, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

“We’re shooting for 85% of our budget going to in-state students. It’s normally a little more than that,” Blevins said. “The motivation was to make college more accessible for Arkansas students.”

In order to receive a Pell Grant, students must fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA. The application opens Oct. 1 for the upcoming academic year, and students should complete the FAFSA by Dec. 1, McCray said. 

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Low & High Income Students Choose UofA Over Community College

Low & High Income Students Choose UofA Over Community College

Some community college students transfer to the UofA despite prospects of heavier student debt.

By Hanna Ellington, Sophie Neubaum, and Kate Duby

Many students across Northwest Arkansas transfer from community colleges to four-year institutions despite higher tuition costs and student debt. The UofA ranks fourth highest in low-income student debt rates across the state, according to College Scorecard data from the 2016-17 academic year.

For many students, getting an undergraduate degree from a four-year institution comes at the cost of taking out student loans. For low-income students, debt from the UofA is almost $15,000, according to College Scorecard. On the opposite end, NWACC results in just over $6,000 in debt for low-income students. 

Savannah Fields, 20, spending time on the UA campus. Photo by Hanna Ellington.

The UofA is working to reduce the financial strain by having transfer students work with advisors before transferring schools, said Denise Burford, the associate director of financial aid.

“Our academic advisors are really good at helping them understand what classes they could continue to take there to save costs before transferring here,”  Burford said. “We’ve got a solid transfer advising program between the two schools, so a student can take as many classes as they can there and not have to take some here.”

Although the UofA takes preventative action to reduce the cost of transferring, it is likely that students who transfer will use other resources to lower costs, Burford said.

“I would say most of the students that transfer from NWACC to here are going to be applying for federal financial aid,” Burford said.

The undergraduate debt disparity among low-income and high-income UA students ranks 27th in the state, according to College Scorecard. Average in-state tuition for the UofA is approximately $7,500, according to UofA financial aid website. In comparison, in-district tuition for NWACC is approximately $1,800, according to NWACC’s financial aid website.

In May, the UofA announced they would be offering a scholarship for students who graduate with an associate’s degree from a two-year institutions in the UA system. The scholarship will reduce the UA tuition rate to the same rate the student paid at the two-year institution, Chancellor Joe Steinmetz said at the commencement of UA Rich Mountain.

Melissa Moznabi, 19, a sophomore from Rogers, will accumulate approximately $10,000 in student debt by the time she graduates from the UofA. Her tuition cost will amount to roughly $2,000 per semester.

The difference in the top 10 schools with the most debt for low-income students in Arkansas.

Moznabi, who is majoring in theater, chose to attend the UofA because the school offered her intended degree plan. Moznabi considered attending community college, “but ultimately it didn’t have what I wanted in higher education,” she said.

Savannah Fields, 20, a UofA sophomore from Fayetteville, began her college career at Northwest Arkansas Community College because of the reduced cost. She said she expects to accumulate over $20,000 in student debt, even with in-state tuition and scholarships.

“I went to NWACC because it’s obviously a lot cheaper, and I also wanted to focus on my classes and not get overwhelmed with the college experience,” Fields said.

While Fields said she understands that transferring is costly, she thinks the extra expense is worth it. She said she thinks the extracurricular opportunities, peer collaboration and freedom go hand-in-hand with her education and will benefit her career.

The various amounts of debt for low-income students in Arkansas by school.

NWACC freshman Felicity Hunt, 18, of Farmington chose to further her education at community college after graduating from Farmington High School.

Hunt thinks NWACC and other community colleges, are good options for students who want to give themselves more time to understand what careers they wish to pursue, she said.

“Honestly, I didn’t really know what I wanted to do, so I didn’t want to commit to going to a four-year without fully understanding what I wanted to pursue a degree in,” Hunt said.