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PAGE 2 Wednesday, March 30, 2011 THE POST-STANDARD / SPECIAL SECTION

College Tuition 101

College costs can be a burden for you and your student — plan ahead to save more money
By Lorenzo Arguello
Contributing writer
Going to college doesn’t re-
quire having a lot of money or
accumulating a ton of debt.
Adam Houck, an application
software development major at
Morrisville State College, has
found numerous ways to pay
for his education.
Houck, a junior from Ver-
non, first enrolled in a two-
year program at Morrisville
before transferring to his four-
year program.
To promote its four-year de-
grees, the college offered
transfers within the college
$3,000 scholarships over a
two-year period.
At first, the college balked
at giving him the scholarship
because he hadn’t completed
his associate degree. He said
he appealed, arguing the schol-
arship’s rules were unclear; the
ADAM HOUCK, a Morrisville State College student, is a resident adviser and tutor who has
found multiple ways to pay for his college education.
college gave him the schol- Houck is also a resident ad-
viser on campus, a job that
arship.
gives him free housing, which
saves him close to $4,000 a se-
mester.
‘‘It’s a busy job, but it’s
worth it,’’ he said.
As the costs for higher edu-
cation continue to go up, many
high school students and their
families find paying for col-
lege very difficult.
The College Board, a not-
for-profit association of col-
leges, reports the annual aver-
age prices are all going up:
4 Private university:
$36,993 in 2010, up 4.3 per-
cent from 2009
4 Public universities, in-
state: $16,140, up 6.1percent;
out-of-state, $28,130, up 5.6
percent from 2009.
Ryan MacCammon / The Post-Standard
4 Community colleges,
$2,713, up 6 percent from
2009.
But experts say there are
ways to cut the cost of going
to college and limit the money
a student needs to borrow.
Here are some tips from local
colleges and financial aid ex-
perts:
National, local scholarships
Many students get schol-
arships from their college, but
plenty of other scholarship op-
portunities are available. High
schools, local clubs, not-for-
profit organizations or family
members’ workplaces often
offer scholarships.
Websites like fastweb.com,
princetonreview.com, and
collegeboard.org are useful to
find both local and national
scholarships, along with im-
portant information regarding
eligibility and deadlines.
A resource that’s often over-
looked is the financial aid of-
fice at a local college, said
Youlanda Copeland-Morgan,
Syracuse University’s director
of scholarships and student
aid. Even if your students is
not interested in attending that
school, familiarizing yourself
with the entire process can be
very helpful, she said.
‘‘One of the keys is to em-
phasize that they really
shouldn’t pay if they don’t
have to,’’ said William Chee-
tham, director of financial aid
at Le Moyne College.
Students need to make sure
they don’t miss out on the nu-
merous local scholarships out
there, Cheetham said.
‘‘It really is true that you
have to make sure no stone is
left unturned,’’ he said.
Students who go to Syra-
cuse city schools, for example,
could be eligible for the Say
Yes to Education program,
which offers free tuition to cer-
tain colleges and universities.
Try accelerated or
professional programs
For students with specific
career interests — nursing,
criminal justice, respiratory
care — some professional or
accelerated-degree programs
can offer quick ways to save
time and money.
MANY, PAGE 3

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The college brochures are piling up in the
mail box.
The e-mails keep coming from colleges,
some you may never have heard of before the
message arrived.
For the high school student headed for col-
lege (and their families), it is a daunting task to
of OPPORTUNITY ]
find the right college and to figure out how
they are going to pay for it.
Today, we offer you our annual College
Choices, a special section for high school stu-
dents and their parents. It’s published in time
for the 2011 Syracuse National College Fair on
Sunday and Monday at the Empire Expo Cen-
ter at the state Fairgrounds in Geddes. That’s a
new location.
We hope College Choices helps students and
their families sort through this process and find
the right college.