quoted for truth. but also want to add this to the general discussion: Obama is cutting access to Pell Grants pretty drastically.
"WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama's budget plan would cut $100 billion from Pell Grants and other higher education programs over a decade through belt-tightening and use the savings to keep the maximum college financial aid award at $5,550, an administration official said.
The first proposal would end the "year-round Pell" policy that let students collect two grants in a calendar year, with the second grant used for summer school. The official said the costs exceeded expectations and there was little evidence that students earn their degrees any faster.
The change would save $8 billion next year and $60 billion over a decade, the official said.
A second proposal would reduce loan subsidies for graduate and professional students. That would free $2 billion next year and save $29 billion over 10 years, according to the official."
Source
That's really not too terrible. The cost of tuition for graduate students are typically inexpensive and/or covered by additional funding depending on the subject (although I'm mainly experienced in science field for this.) As for professionals, the idea for those schools would be that the few thousand extra in cash could be paid for either by loan forgiveness or the money made as the professional.
As for the summer aid for pell grant, that's not super serious either IMO. A lot of people who do that are one of the following:
-behind on classes they didn't pass the first time
- are trying to graduate a semester early (which isn't many people)
-are trying to get another major at the same time so 2 degrees for the price of one
-Taking classes irrelevant to the major or aren't necessary to graduate (a language, some business classes, communication, photography, study abroad, etc.)
With some slight exception in a few of the above mentioned, careful planning and doing what you need to do shouldn't affect your Pell. I'll be the first to say that I failed a semester's worth of classes because of family health circumstances but I'm not going to be upset that the government isn't going to pay for me to take those classes a second time. I either have to take an extra class each semester or pay for them myself (which isn't bad if I go to a community college.)
The Pell was still increased to 5500 which allows students to not have to pay money for the spring and fall (or less) and still provides it for 4 years. The government is wanting to make sure everyone can get at least a 4 year degree, and that the education afterwards you have hopefully done well enough (and did enough educated homework) to fund it yourself in some other way. Not only that but many places will help pay for your degree after a bachelors, particularly MS or MBA, but the bachelors helps get you into the door.
I like the idea of people being able to get at least a Bachelors from the help of the government. I feel that should be as common as a high school diploma and you should be paying about as much to do it. Undergrad typically doesn't matter where you go anyway, with a few exceptions depending on some programs you might want; usually the graduate/professional is where it matters more. But many places that didn't require a degree before are able to be more selective in the economy right now (I've seen some call centers require a BS/BA to go work there) so the bachelors is quickly starting to become the new GED/diploma.
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