Public colleges like
Bucks are the smart way to
go if you want to avoid
graduating with excessive
student debt-that’s the
conclusion of a recently
released analysis by Mark
Kantrowitz, a respected
financial aid expert and
publisher of the financial
aid information websites
Fastweb.com and
FinAid.org,
According to Nicole
Young, Assistant Director
of Financial Aid, student
borrowers at Bucks average
only $4,700 a year.
That equates to $9,400
borrowed for two years of
study, far less than the
$25,000 plus excessive student
debt benchmark for
two-year colleges students
used in the study.
Only 3.6 percent of public
college students graduated
with excessive debt. This
was only a fraction of the
percentages at non-profit
and for-profit schools.
The excessive debt figure
is highest at for-profit colleges,
where almost onequarter
of students, 22 percent,
graduate with excessive
debt. Even at other
non-profit colleges, the
percentage of excessive
debt is three times higher
than at public colleges.
Young gives advice to
students on how to manage
their debt level.
Young says that Bucks
helps students keep their
student debt level down in
a variety of ways.
Financial Aid advises students
to borrow only what
they absolutely need. “We
always caution students to
think about how much they
need before borrowing
because they have to pay it
back,” she said.
Young stresses that keeping
borrowing to a minimum
is “more significant
because Bucks is a twoyear
institution and there
may be much more borrowing
down the line”
when students finish their
education at four-year colleges
or graduate school.
Bucks encourages students
to use alternatives to
borrowing wherever possible,
said Young: “We
encourage all students to
apply for financial aid.”
Bucks awards grants before
loans. “We want to make it
most advantageous for students.”
Scholarships also help
keep students out of excessive
debt. Young encourages
students to check out
the many scholarship links
listed on the financial aid
section of the Bucks website.
Young says that these
links are underutilized.
“Some of these scholarships
don’t have applicants.”
Young encouraged students
to explore sources of
scholarships other than
those listed on the Bucks
website. She recommended
the study publisher’s
websites,
www.FastWeb.com and
www.FinAid.org as reputable
free websites that
offer students a wide variety
of information on
financing their education.
She pointed out that students
can even apply for
scholarships through
FastWeb.com. One Bucks
LPN student got an
$11,000 scholarship this
way.
All applicants for financial
aid must fill out
FAFSA, the Free
Application for Federal
Student Aid. Young advises
students to apply for
financial aid as quickly as
possible as demand is high
and it takes some time to
process all of the applications.
Last
year
Bucks
received
almost
8,000
FAFAs
and
there
were
almost
2,200
student
borrowers.
May 1 is the deadline to
file financial aid applications
in order to ensure that
financial aid is processed
and awarded by the beginning
of the 2011-12 school
year. FAFSA’s for 2011-12
can be filled out online
after Jan. 1 at
www.FAFSA.ed.gov.
Financial aid applications
for the current, spring or
summer sessions can still
be filed.
It is taking longer to
process student loan applications
this year because of
major changes in the government’s
student loan program.
Federal law changed
the entire student loan program
to a federal direct
loan.
“This required an entirely
new implementation and an
extensive revision of
process,” said Young.
Bucks received a lot of
new guidance from the federal
government and was
required to process the
loans on a different system.
“It was an entire new way
to process federal loans
and required a whole new
implementation and an
extensive revision of
process,” she continued.
“Students even had to file
new Master Promissory
Notes before they could be
awarded loans.”
Young cautioned students
to make sure that they
check and read their mail:
“We send aid applicants a
letter as soon as we discover
an application is incomplete
or we need more
information.”
Failing to quickly respond
to these requests for information
causes delays in the
financial aid process.
Information about financial
aid can be found at
www.bucks.edu/financial
aid.
The policy analysis,
“Distribution of Debt at
Graduation by Amount of
Debt, College Type and
Degree Program,” was
published on Sept. 29,
2010 and it and other
financial aid policy analyses
can be found at
www.FinAid.com.