"When the surgery center where Maygin Hamilton works closed in March, she was scared. The single mother, who had recently paid off $16,000 in legal fees to win custody of her two daughters, wasn’t able to get into California’s unemployment system for three days," Money reports. 

"On top of the strain of everyday financial pressures, there was another looming worry: How would they pay for her younger daughter’s upcoming first year in the University of Portland’s nursing program?

'I was thinking, ‘How long is this going to happen? How long are we going to have to rely on unemployment? What if unemployment runs out?' Hamilton says. 'There’s a whole new set of worries and you don’t want to worry your children on top of all this.'

Even after unemployment benefits kicked in, and Hamilton and her older daughter, who also lost her job, started driving for Postmates to earn extra cash, Hamilton expected her college-bound daughter would likely need to take out about $20,000 in loans per year.

Surveys of current and college-bound students and their families tell us that Hamilton’s worries are far from unique. About 13 million Americans are still out of work after the coronavirus started spreading through the U.S. in March. That loss of income has made it hard for families to pay for basic necessities, let alone the cost of a college education. And that cost can be huge — the annual sticker price for undergraduate tuition, fees, room and board runs about $20,000 at four-year public institutions and $43,100 at four-year private institutions, according to the National Center for Education Statistics."

..."She’s not alone in asking for more financial aid. A survey by the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NASFAA) in June found that 47% of its member institutions saw an increase this year in the total number of requests for additional aid compared to the same period in 2019. And the overwhelming majority of the 293 institutions surveyed — 90% — said they anticipate an increase in such requests through the beginning of the fall semester."

NASFAA's "Notable Headlines" section highlights media coverage of financial aid to help members stay up to date with the latest news. Articles included under the notable headlines section are not written by NASFAA, but rather by external sources. Inclusion in Today's News does not imply endorsement of the material or guarantee the accuracy of information presented.

Publication Date: 8/26/2020