Mark GarlitThis past week I received a letter from Cabrini informing me that our tuition has been raised (yet again) to $21,450. I’m sure I’m not the only student who needs help paying this bill. But lately it seems that when my family and I turn to financial aid, the aid simply isn’t there.
Numerous papers that I have sent in to the office magically disappear. I’m not comfortable with the idea that documents with mine and my families information are floating around somewhere. Also, it seems as though I never speak with the same person twice whenever I call. And if I leave a message, I rarely receive a call back. So it’s a vicious cycle where I then have to call again and speak with yet another person. Earlier this year my mom was speaking with someone from financial aid and that person informed her that I couldn’t expect things to be handed to me. I considered that to be a slap in the face. As I mentioned before, I feel that I do my part by remaining a good student and applying for outside assistance. I think it is tasteless for a person to say that when they have my file in front of them and see the effort that I have put forth.
Please don’t feel that I am using my space in the paper to simply complain about financial aid. Instead I propose a solution.
I know of other colleges that when you enter as a freshman, you are assigned to one person in the financial aid department. It’s like having a financial adviser. You then keep the same adviser for the entire four years. I think that this would eliminate a lot of confusion. This way, students always talk with the same person and that person is more familiar with the student. Cabrini embarks on the fact that we are a small school and that students can receive one-on-one attention. But then they go ahead and turn a couple thousands of students over to one department and expect everything to run smoothly. I think that making things more individualized would really make a difference.
I feel that an expensive college needs to offer a strong support system through their financial aid department. It’s a shame to hear people talking about transferring next year because they can’t afford the tuition. I’m not even saying that Cabrini itself has to put out more money for aid, but it would be nice if financial aid could point students in the right direction for outside assistance. I hope that over my next two years at Cabrini I can come to depend on financial aid for assistance.
Posted to the Web by:Mark Garlit
