While travelling around Connecticut visiting high schools and attending college fairs, I have noticed that the first question out of the mouths of parents and students is frequently "How much does it cost to attend UNH?" I find this disturbing.
I completely understand that in these tough economic times, when it is hard to fill your gas tank and pay your heating bill how a family sending their son or daughter off the college may be concerned about how much they pay. My piece of advice to those parents is to keep cost in your mind, but concentrate on the value of the investment.
By their nature, most private universities have higher costs associated with providing an education to their students. That education comes in the form of smaller classroom sizes, one-on-one academic advising, and oftentimes access to more experienced faculty who are committed to helping a student succeed.
The other thing to consider is, oftentimes schools with higher COSTS have more RESOURCES to give in the form of financial aid. I am not talking about student loans (which I will get to in a minute) ... I am talking about academic scholarships and grants, which is the FREE money that you don't have to pay back. During the early process of your college search, you should never let the price tag deter you from exploring the university and even applying ... You never know what you are going to get!
The final note I am going to touch on is that dirty word no one likes to talk about ... LOANS. Loans are not a bad thing. The lesson we have learned with today's economy is knowing what your limits are, and not taking out more debt than you can actually manage. You would take out a loan to buy a new car. You would take out a mortgage to buy a house ... The challenge is looking at a student loan as an investment in yourself ... So you can AFFORD to take out that loan for the car and the house.
If you are concerned about costs, we have some resources for you:
Good luck!
