The life of a Biola student is one filled with exams, homework, careers choices, and the building of life-long relationships. Add to that weighty equation the high cost of education and you have the recipe for high stress in students’ lives.
Money concerns weigh heavily on students, Freshman Connor Cress said, “It’s a struggle, I know God will provide,” but added that he was still worried about his family’s finances.
Freshman twins Allie and Jessica Albruna face this burden doubly, for they must cover the cost of two Biola educations. Allie said, “I always go to my parents and pray about what will happen in the future,” adding that they parents always help them with prayer first and then often follow that up with money.
Nick F., a graduating senior, is almost at the end of his struggle with finding ways to pay for Biola each semester, but the prospect of having to start paying back his loans looms ever closer. This is a huge stress, but he says, “I am trusting God to provide all the scholarships and loans.”
Financial aid has played a huge part in ease student’s money worries and keeping many students here. Sophomore Rebecca A is very grateful, “I am only here because of financial aid.”
Still, despite all that financial aid does, some students still find themselves wondering if they will be coming back. Freshman Karen C is still unsure of what her next semester looks like, “Something got mixed up… And Biola’s not helping me at all right now… I’m going to talk to financial aid again… if it’s still not cleared up… I can’t come back next semester” Karen C. Freshman
In the end, all Biola students can do is trust in God to provide for his children to be where he wants them. As freshman Sue reminds us, “I knew God wanted me to be here so I knew he would provide and he did.”
Bureau Reporting Follow-Up [Thursday, November 19, 2009]
After taking into account the different students we were able to talk to on Tuesday and the stories we heard, our group went about scouring the internet for anything we could find concerning the current economic crisis. Bryan Murley, in a column for PBS.org, decided that he was going to conduct a search on how college media is covering and reporting on the economy and his results were discouraging, "Over the past week, I've surfed a ton of college media websites looking for innovative ways these journalists were telling the biggest story of their generation. And I've mostly come up empty." Although students are, well, students, there is still a ton of great journalism that they can do!
Back to our team and finding more information about the effect of the economy on students...
New York Times online posted an article about how, although the "sticker price" of college appears more expensive, in the end the net amount turns out to be cheaper than it was five years ago! Yet there are still many students that face financial struggles while in college.
As journalism students, we are gaining the skills and abilities to make light of these issues and possibly enact change! We would do well to head the advice of Bryan Murley when he encourages students involved with college media to think outside of the box and get in on the action of what is going on around us, "The most frustrating thing in my tour of college websites is the "sameness" of much of the coverage of the economic situation. We get it, students are having a problem getting jobs. Really, we get it. With over 5 million people unemployed, we get it. So dig deeper. There are ways to show your fellow students how this economic downturn is affecting them in other ways than employment. Really.
Check out our comments below for many more links to helpful information on college, stress, finances and hope.
http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/19/costs/?scp=2&sq=college%20finance&st=cse
ReplyDeletehttp://www.collegefundingassociates.com/
ReplyDeletehttp://www.financialaidsupersite.com/
ReplyDeletehttp://www.biola.edu/undergrad/financialaid/tuition_costs/
ReplyDeletehttp://www.fafsa.com/Forms/Ajax/FAFSA/fafsa.aspx
ReplyDeletehttp://edu.fastweb.com/v/degree-finder/index/?utm_medium=ppc&utm_source=fw_google&utm_campaign=grants_exact&utm_content=college%20grants&gclid=CJSi-Pjfl54CFYdd5Qod3iPYog
http://www.biola.edu/undergrad/financialaid/scholarships.cfm
ReplyDeletehttp://life.familyeducation.com/college-fund/money-and-kids/40199.html
ReplyDeletehttp://fatherhood.about.com/cs/fatherhood/a/collegemoney.htm
http://www.fastweb.com/
http://www.biola.edu/undergrad/financialaid/loans.cfm
ReplyDeleteImagine being a graduating college student looking for a job with these statistics...
ReplyDeletehttp://www.mint.com/blog/finance-core/a-visual-guide-to-the-financial-crisis-unemployment-rates/
at least they have really cool visuals!
http://www.meritaid.com/meritScholarships/Biola-University-110097
ReplyDeleteHere is what some students graduating from college in China are dealing with:
ReplyDelete"A national scandal involving the faking of statistics for college graduate employment was exposed last month through the Internet. In order to show high employment rates for their graduates, a number of universities forced students to provide “proof” of employment before they left the campuses. Some students signed contracts with companies that did not exist, but were counted as employed.
The Ministry of Labor and Social Security claimed that the scandal involved only small numbers of students and campuses and that 68 percent of the college graduates so far had found a job. However, in July the official Beijing Youth Daily pointed out that even if the official statistics were accurate, the number of unemployed graduates from this year and last totalled nearly three million. “As the Ministry of Labor and Social Security has not given detailed statistics and facts to support [its argument], doubts in the public’s mind are hard to eradicate.”
read the rest of the article here
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/aug2009/chin-a10.shtml
Money is such a huge cause for stress! I found a helpful website about ways to manage it:
ReplyDeletewww.uhs.uga.edu/stress/wellnesslifestyle.html
Here is a support for college students dealing with stress:
www.dailystrength.org/c/college_stress/forum/8452972-money/lastpage
Also, maybe the stress can be eliminated with better money management. Check out this article:
www.smartaboutmoney.org/portals/1/resourcecenter/40moneytips07.pdf
And here's a call to action for college Journalism/Media students everywhere! Like Dr. Longinow said, stop whining, get involved and make change!
ReplyDeleteFrom Bryan Murley @ PBS.org:
"Over the past week, I've surfed a ton of college media websites looking for innovative ways these journalists were telling the biggest story of their generation. And I've mostly come up empty."
read the rest here:
http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2009/04/college-media-miss-opportunities-covering-the-economic-crisis100.html
and a kicker for the road..
ReplyDeletehere are some faces and places to put on the current economic crisis that spans every generation and nation
(p.s. the third picture is from my hometown, Rancho Cucamonga!)
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/03/scenes_from_the_recession.html