UI Financial Aid Office implements programs to minimize student debt
University of Idaho President Chuck Staben said UI undergraduate students are likely to have less debt than other U.S. college students.
Staben reported to Idaho lawmakers in January the average undergraduate debt at UI is about $25,637, less than the national average of around $28,400.
Corrin Bond | Argonaut
Financial aid counselor Michael Placke talks to junior Brenna Tume about submitting the FAFSA. The priority deadline is Feb. 15.
Director of Financial Aid Dan Davenport said there are several reasons the gap exists, including the low cost of attendance relative to universities across the country.
“The specific number the president gave is the average debt of undergraduates who completed their degrees in the spring of 2014,” Davenport said. “The national average includes both public and private schools, so the biggest factor in our students leaving with less debt is likely that we have a lower cost of attendance than other schools across the country.”
Davenport said regardless of why UI student debt is lower than the national average, it is ultimately a beneficial occurrence.
“This is a positive thing,” Davenport said. “We want our students leaving with as little debt as possible.”
He said while UI’s cost of attendance is slightly lower than neighboring institutions, he feels the financial aid types provided by UI also keep students from accumulating excessive debt.
“Our cost of attendance is similar to other institutions in the state of Idaho, and slightly less than some neighboring schools like WSU,” Davenport said. “But I think what makes the most difference is we have a number of measures in effect that enable students to control the amount of money they take out in loans.”
Davenport said students can choose to partially accept any loan they qualify for and his office encourages students to estimate the funds they will need for the school year before taking out loans because it makes it easier to borrow only what is absolutely necessary.
Keith Ickes, UI director for planning and budget, said the university also works to provide financial aid for a variety of students from different backgrounds.
“We have a lot of different financial aid types,” Ickes said. “For example, we can provide out-of-state tuition waivers for non-residents, and we can set aside some money from our budget to create scholarships for residents.”
Davenport said while debt is never a desirable thing at the end of the day, having student debt is better than having no higher education at all.
“I see student debt as an investment,” he said. “Students pursue a higher education to gain value in themselves. They are a stock that we are all investing in — students, parents and the university are all investing time and money in this stock with the idea that it will be successful in the future.”
Davenport said students who hold undergraduate degrees are less likely to be unemployed, and on average individuals with a Bachelor’s degree will earn about $900,000 more in their lifetimes than those without an undergraduate education.
Davenport said the completion of higher education increases a person’s value, and it’s important to make the right borrowing decisions.
Future goals of the Financial Aid Office, he said, are to equip students with financial knowledge and increase financial literacy on campus to help students make smart borrowing decisions to minimize their debt.
Ickes said among the initiatives to minimize UI’s undergraduate student debt even further is an emerging program within the Planning and Budget Office called “Fifteen to Finish” — a program that encourages students to take 15 credit hours a semester to graduate within the smallest possible time frame.
One of the biggest financial aid packages a student can get, Ickes said, is graduating in four years.
“We cannot stress enough the importance of graduating in four years,” Ickes said. “You save all of the cost of that fifth year, which means saving anywhere from $15,000 to $16,000, and that’s no small chunk of change.”
UI junior Sargon Hamad said he feels fortunate to know he is attending a university that works hard to minimize the debt of its students.
He said although he has had no trouble taking out loans, one of the biggest obstacles he’s had when it comes to financing his education is a lack of knowledge about loans and the borrowing process.
“I really only know the basics about my loans, that I’ll have to pay them off one day,” Hamad said. “The loan process is convenient … You click to accept and that’s that, but I don’t feel informed about my debt at all, which concerns me.”
Davenport said during the upcoming academic year, the Financial Aid Office will increase measures to reduce debt by informing students about topics such as debt management and default prevention.
“We are building new programs and starting to use social media as a tool to provide students with more information,” Davenport said. “They’ve made the decision to get a higher education and are putting in the hard work. It’s only right that we’re there to aid them financially every step of the way.”
Corrin Bond can be reached at [email protected]