College sticker shock sobers high school juniors

The true cost of higher education was made painfully clear to more than 50 juniors from Yuma area high schools at Arizona Western College's "Show Me the Money" forum Tuesday.

"The purpose is to get a snapshot of all the expenses that go into college for one semester," Terry Shove, AWC Upward Bound director, said.

Upward Bound is a program for ninth- through 12-grade students who are tutored in college and career exploration and spend a six-week summer residency at AWC.

Tuesday's mock enrollment and scholarship application process, held at the school's Student Union, provided a step-by-step guide to negotiate what can be for some turbulent financial navigation. The six schools represented were Yuma, Kofa, Cibola, Parker, San Luis and Antelope high schools.

The first thing students learned to do was properly complete the FAFSA form (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) needed for any federal assistance.

Students then visited an AWC financial aid specialist to bargain for the best possible award for acceptance at one of the schools among AWC, NAU, Arizona State, University of Arizona, Mesa Community College or San Diego State, which are historically most popular with Yuma students.

"The important thing we discovered is that kids have almost no conception of what's expected of them when they go to college," Shove said.

What they need to start to prepare for is choosing a major, setting a class schedule, going to school and doing homework every day, because they will not have parents to watch over them at college, she noted.

"That's why we force them to live on campus or an apartment (as part of 'Show Me the Money') so they know the cost of living expense," Shove said. "Then there's school and personal supplies to take care of daily needs and many of them don't figure that into their budget."

These students have nearly two years of high school to complete. This allows them a grace period in which to prepare by getting involved with extracurricular activities and boost their grades so they will know what to expect at college.

They will also fill out a mock admissions application that is kept "short and sweet" so it will be more understandable.

"The bottom line can be pretty scary," Shove said. "But once they see what total tuition is, students will see how important it is to get a scholarship."

Yanira Lopez, 16, a Kofa junior with a 4.0 grade-point average, aspires to be an automotive engineer and is considering applying to NAU-Flagstaff or Massachusetts Institute of Technology. But Yanira, who lives with her mother, must depend on a scholarship if she attends college.

"This was good so we could learn how to fill out the application (FAFSA) completely so it won't be discarded for some little mistake," Yanira said.

For her mock grant, she was awarded $4,566 to attended NAU-Flagstaff but once she visited the college registration booth, she suffered a bout of sticker shock when she learned she needed $6,156 for one semester.

"They said I needed to do work study or apply for a loan," Yanira said. "I thought I had enough but now I'm going back to financial aid. I have to find the total cost because it sounds like there's surprises at the end."

At the close of registration, Shove meets with her students and reviews what they could have done better had they been in an actual application process.

"This helps them to grow up, but the actual application process is a lot more complicated," Shove said. "At the end of the day, we discuss what they need to do to accomplish their dreams."

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William Roller can be reached at
wroller@yumasun.com or 539-6858.