[quote=Scarlett]Then how about limiting the loan amount strictly to tuition+books – something that’s clearly quantifiable and justfied by receipts etc.? Let the students figure out how to pay for the living expenses. Maybe that would force reconsidering saving for living expenses, and also housing and location of the college.[/quote]
I’m in favor of that. The student-loan lenders should pay for these items directly or from a show of reciepts the student sends in.
My kids’ aid (scholarship and grant) is paid directly to whom it is owed. It used to cover everything except living expenses but doesn’t anymore and hasn’t in a couple of years.
There is a wide variation in the way college students live, dress and transport themselves. I think the students from poorer families see what more affluent students wear, are driving, where they live and what they do for entertainment and then take out student loans to live more like them with no regard for the consequences.
I don’t think this phenomenon is such a problem in the interior campuses such a Merced and Fresno. Housing is cheaper around there, entertainment choices are not on the same scale as coastal cities and MANY students from these areas are from less affluent backgrounds and are living at home attending university.
