Paying the Price for Getting In to College

April 30, 2005 — -- "You've been accepted."

Those are three of the most exciting words for a high school senior this time of year … until reality sets in -- in the form of the price tag.

Rhonda Stevens of Newport News, Va., who makes $18,000 a year as a social worker's aide, doesn't know how to make ends meet with her second daughter on her way to college.

Her daughter Whitney is an honors student at Heritage High School who will be getting a federal loan of $1,500 a semester. The cheapest college she got into costs more than double that.

"I wasn't reluctant she was going to get accepted because I knew her grades were great, but the whole thing was, 'Can I afford to send her to school?' " Stevens said. "Every time I turn around, something else comes up. I didn't know I'd have to come out of pocket for book money. … When I was thinking about tuition and other fees, I thought the other fees were books."

It's a huge burden for millions of parents across the country. The average cost of tuition at a public college has gone up 178 percent since 1980, according to a recent study of consumer price increases by The Christian Science Monitor.

Even with loans and government assistance, the average low-income student faces a $4,000 gap between their student aid and the cost of college, according to the National Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance.

Lee Vreeland, the guidance counselor at the Achievable Dream program for low-income students in Newport News, said over the years she's seen the problem get worse.

"Because tuition is rising, and the financial aid packages [aren't enough] -- there's a gap, and the gap is growing," she said.

Since 1973, the Pell grant has become the cornerstone of the federal government's student aid. Each year, millions of low-income Americans apply for assistance through the program, which provides a maximum of $4,050 per year -- just a fraction of the cost of most colleges.