Local colleges increase financial aid, help students cope with recession

The recession is not making it any easier to afford college’s tuition prices. But colleges and universities in the northern suburbs have been doing their part to quell the effects of the ailing economy.

Northwestern University in Evanston, where the 2009-10 cost will be $49,791, has attempted to lighten the burden of tuition. The university increased its undergraduate financial aid fund this year by 10 percent in anticipation of more students qualifying for need-based financial aid, according to Michael Mills, associate provost for university enrollment. The funds were taken from other, less pressing university projects.

“President [Henry] Bienen made it very clear that undergraduate financial aid was [a top] priority while some other items, like capital projects, were postponed,” Mills said.

Lake Forest College, a private liberal arts institution in Lake Forest, anticipated the same need and ensured that Illinois students would begin their education with a $12,000 scholarship, an increase that comes from Lake Forest’s own internal budget.

The school enrolls students from across the country, but 37 percent of students hail from Illinois. Out of those, most are from within a 50-mile radius, said Bill Motzer, vice president for admissions and career services.

“We wanted to make sure of the affordability and access to a great education to Illinois residents first,” Motzer said.

A greater need

Lake Forest and Northwestern soon discovered that their predictions of increased need were correct. Northwestern’s incoming freshman class has twice as many low-income students—that is, students qualifying for federal Pell Grants—as last year, making up about 13 percent of the entering class. The university also awarded 33 more of their no-loan scholarships, which are given to the freshmen most in need.

At Lake Forest, which costs $42,212 annually, the average award was $33,200, up 20 percent from 2008. Eighty percent of newly enrolled students are receiving this amount of financial aid.

Even less pricey institutions are scrambling to take the edge off the recession. It hasn’t been easy this year for colleges such as Oakton Community College in Des Plaines because the spring portion of monetary awards has been cut from the state budget, according to Cheryl Warmann, director of student financial assistance at Oakton.

But the federal government has a program that will provide for families who have suffered loss of employment or income reduction, and the number of applications to this program is growing.

“We’ve seen a big increase in families contacting us about their concern about financial aid after something’s changed with their employment,” Warmann said. “But this Federal Aid application takes into account what’s been happening in their lives,” and adjusts the amount they get, Warmann said.

Oakton’s financial aid office has received 60 of these applications, up from 30 the previous year.

At National-Louis University in Skokie, Wheeling and other locations around Chicagoland, the typical course costs $4,000. This year, the university is giving $2,000 to students graduating from community colleges such as Oakton.

The numbers of how many students have taken advantage of National-Louis’s program are not in yet, given the university’s rolling enrollment, but “so far, it seems like the interest is there,” said Director of Student Finance Steve Di Benedetto.

Creating alternatives

Colleges are also stepping up in ways beyond financial aid, especially for nontraditional students. National-Louis University, where the average student is 37 years old, has long been a college attended by those wanting to change careers or finish degrees later in life.

But Di Benedetto said that lately, many of National-Louis’ students have enrolled out of necessity, in order to revamp their skill sets or prepare for a career in an industry with more job opportunities. Particularly popular is the 12-month teaching program at the Skokie and Wheeling campuses.

“It’s a great program for students who have been laid off or [are] experiencing income reductions,” Di Benedetto said. “It’s only a year, and the student is right back at it in the job market.”

Harper College in Palatine has been hosting Career Stimulus seminars, designed to help people who have been hurt by the economic downturn, since November. The program includes monthly meetings, networking exercises and other career workshops, and it has already assisted nearly 1,000 people.

“We’re trying to tell people that sitting in front of the computer and tapping away trying to find a job isn’t enough,” said Nancy Wajler, who heads the program. “You have to network, volunteer, do some soul-searching to go beyond what you did before.”

Wajler said that while the Career Services office is solely for students, the Career Stimulus program welcomes both current students and district residents. The majority of the participants are over the age of 40, Wajler said.

Lake Forest has also been advocating programs like its new communications major that allows students to graduate in three years, saving them an extra year of tuition. The college is in the process of crafting a three-year business program and has a partnership with Loyola School of Law that allows students to get their undergraduate and law degree after three years at each institution.

“These tuition savings are alternatives that seem to be very financially attractive to some students,” Motzer said. “It’s all about developing strategies so that students can do what’s necessary to get through the recession.”
 

—by Nona Willis Aronowitz, Triblocal.com reporter