Downturn paring college dreams
As their parents' investments shrink, today's college-bound high school students are scaling back their fantasies of enrolling at prestigious, expensive schools.
This reality is manifesting itself in different ways: tension in guidance counselors' offices when families meet to talk about choices, shock when students discover their parents can no longer afford their open-ended wish list, and guilt when they realize that attending their dream school may come at the cost of a younger sibling's dreams or even their parents' retirement plans.
The realization sometimes dawns when the students pick up unsolicited and coded remarks dropped by worried parents.
"Like, talking about all the costs of my sister's college," said Kellianne King, a Westborough High School junior who has a sister at Smith College and was hoping to go there, too. "Like, 'Oh well, that one is a little pricey.' "
Or, just as scary, silence. Zoe Krauss, a senior at Newton South High School, said her parents "really try to keep finances from my brother and me. The issue of money becomes a quiet neutral zone."
In the blink of a semester, many old assumptions about colleges no longer apply, such as the notion that picking a college is the most important decision one can make. Even before the dramatic downturn in the stock market this fall, more than 40 percent of seniors said economic circumstances were changing the ways they were looking at colleges, according to a national poll of nearly 2,000 seniors conducted in August by the College Board, which administers the SAT, and the Art and Science Group Inc., an educational consultancy. One-fifth of them said they will consider a community college, and one-third said they will look at colleges closer to home.
This group includes Chloe Thomas, 17, a senior at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School.
"I've never been into going to UMass. I just didn't see myself there; it didn't feel like me," said Thomas, who has visited 17 schools, including Barnard College and Emory University. Then she used an online financial aid tool to calculate how much assistance she is likely to get, and the news was not good. She quickly recalibrated.
Some students already in college are having to adjust, too. Until this fall, Marea Ross of Amherst was at Northeastern University, a school she had picked over the objections of her parents who thought that, at $40,000 a year, it was too expensive.
"All I could think about was what [college] name would show up on my resume," said Ross, 21, a sociology major. "I thought that going to a state school wouldn't look as good."
A few months ago, her father informed her he had lost his sales job, which meant he couldn't help out as much with her expenses. She transferred to UMass-Boston, which costs about one-quarter of what Northeastern did. She was surprised to discover she likes it. "I find I'm getting as good an education as I did at Northeastern," said Ross, who works up to 20 hours a week at a
Many colleges and universities are responding to these concerns by increasing their financial aid packages. Other initiatives are being offered, too, according to the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities. Some schools are replacing need-based loans with grants, offering free tuition to students from low-income families, and offering free or discounted housing.
Still, Angie Wilcox, a guidance counselor at Hudson High School, said she has seen a lot more students apply to "financial safety" schools this year, though she thinks many students don't expect to actually go to one. "To be honest with you, I don't know if they get it," she said. "They rattle off the Colbys and the Skidmores, and the parents say, 'I think we have to look at UMass,' and the kids say, 'I'm not going there.' I don't think they understand the severity of things."
Many do, however. Leah Bird, mother of Newton South student Zoe Krauss, admits that she and her husband, who are self-employed, have tried not to burden Zoe with their financial concerns. But her daughter has figured it out anyway, and it is factoring into her plans.
"Money is an issue," said Krauss, who wants to study fashion design. She says she is starting to think about the Massachusetts College of Art and Design but would be disappointed if she couldn't leave Boston.
"It's hard for me, because for a long time I've had this fun fantasy about what I would do for college. New York has been my dream, if not Paris."
Andrew Milne, a 16-year-old junior at Westborough High School, had no trouble pinpointing where he wanted to go: Ithaca College. He hopes to become a music teacher and has been to Ithaca twice, to sing in competitions. He scrutinized Ithaca's website and started mapping out a strategy for getting admitted.
With the economy in a nosedive, Milne has been worrying about getting a scholarship, worrying that he might not get a loan, and worrying about how he would pay it back if he did, given Ithaca's $41,000-a-year price. He is now thinking about colleges closer to home. "UMass-Amherst is definitely at the top of the list now," he said.
It's not only students who are relinquishing college dreams. Sometimes, it is parents, too.
Lawrence and Meredith Pensack of Newton lost a chunk of their college savings a few years ago when a mutual fund tanked, and their retirement accounts have been badly hit in the latest downturn. They have one daughter at Elon University in North Carolina and a second, Dani, who is a senior at Newton South. Meredith Pensack met recently with Dani's college adviser and had a conversation she never expected.
"She asked me where Dani wanted to go," said Meredith, a long-term care insurance planner. "And I caught myself saying: 'Wherever we can afford to send her.' "
Linda Matchan can be reached at l_matchan@globe.com. 