Recession Offers Hard Lessons In Paying For College
Photo Gallery: Marlo and Emmanuel One Year Later
Emmanuel Garcia sometimes shakes his head in amazement: He made it to college and just finished his first year at Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania.
It wasn't easy navigating his way through student loans amid a worldwide financial crisis — as well as a private family crisis.
Emmanuel's classmate Marlo Johnson wasn't quite so lucky. Despite having a scholarship to a private university, she couldn't come up with the money to pay for tuition, housing and books. She spent the year working for minimum wage and took a few courses at a community college.
Emmanuel and Marlo were among the thousands of graduating seniors who were broadsided by the economic crisis. The two Harrisburg, Pa., teenagers with big dreams and no money both say they learned a lot about the real world in the past year.
A Universal Crisis And A Personal Crisis
Paying for school seemed like an insurmountable problem to Emmanuel last summer. "My parents said, 'We're here for you,' but I knew how much they're in debt," he said. He scraped together the scholarships, loans and donations to pay for school without needing his parents' help.
(Dianna Douglas/NPR)
He says his first semester at a small private college was a big adjustment from his neighborhood in Harrisburg. He's the first in his family of immigrants to go to college, and he felt a little out of place. But he settled into college life, made some friends and got high grades. Then, he came home for Christmas break and discovered that his father was on his way to jail.
"It was like the worst time in the world," Emmanuel said. He worried about how his mom would survive without him. "It was sad to see everybody crying in my family. At that point, I actually thought about leaving college." His mother's sister moved in with the family, and Emmanuel felt like she could help out enough to allow him to go back to school at Shippensburg.
His grades took a dramatic turn for the worse over the next few months. "It hit me really hard: Everything is on you," Emmanuel said. When all the dust was cleared, he had pulled a B average for the year. He gets to keep his scholarship.
A Year In Limbo
Marlo Johnson couldn't go to the college that she'd dreamed of, despite her stellar high school transcript. Her family barely made enough money to pay all the bills every month — yet it was too much for her to qualify for Pell Grants. "In order for you to qualify, you might as well be dirt poor," she said.
Marlo spent most of the year working at McDonald's. A few weeks ago, she got fed up with the job and walked out. "I was coming home greasy every single night, later than 1 o'clock in the morning." She lamented that one of her co-workers with less seniority got promoted before her. The hours were long and the pay lousy.
Marlo soon got a job in the call center at the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency. It's the state's biggest provider and guarantor of student loans. She now spends most of the day talking to anxious students about their financial situation. She says she's become a student loan "expert."
Marlo plans to enroll in Shippensburg University this fall. It wasn't her first-choice college, but she likes what she's heard about their nursing program. Even though she'll be a year behind, she says not going to college was never an option. "I see my dad struggling, and he never finished college," she says.
Looking back at her senior year in high school, Marlo feels like she was under a "protective shelter" that didn't actually help her. She wishes her school had warned her about how bad the economy really was, and had prepared her for the roadblocks she would face trying to get to college. "You need more than that checklist. You need a reality check," she says.
A Shrinking Pool Of Money
At SciTech High School in Harrisburg, from which Marlo and Emmanuel graduated last year, Principal Mike Reed says he learned a few things through the economic crisis, too. He's trying to get his students ready for the worst.
"Last year, towards the end of the year, when the banks were pulling out and our students were left with lots of questions that couldn't be answered, we developed a plan to better educate our students and parents," he says.
Reed introduced a course for ninth-graders called Financial Planning for College. He says getting student loans isn't nearly as big of a crisis for graduating seniors this year, although it's still a problem. This year's valedictorian, Alizah Thornton, is a perfect example. She is thousands of dollars short of what she needs to pay for college.
"I worked hard throughout my high school career," in the hopes of going away to college, she said. She took three advanced placement classes and three classes at the community college before graduating.
"It doesn't seem like I have anything to show for it," she said. At the same starting point Emmanuel and Marlo were at a year ago, she worries that all the talk about rewards for hard work is just talk.
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This is the last in a yearlong series of stories tracking Emmanuel Garcia and Marlo Johnson's post-high school journey amid the college loan crisis. The series won the 2008 radio award from the Education Writers Association.
MELISSA BLOCK, host:
From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Melissa Block.
ROBERT SIEGEL, host:
And I'm Robert Siegel.
A year ago, Marlo Johnson(ph) and Emmanuel Garcia(ph) had big plans for college. Marlo and Emmanuel are teenagers from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. We've been following them as they tried to get into college and find the money to pay for it.
The financial crisis meant that paying for college got a whole lot harder in the past year. Marlo shelved her dreams and attended community college part time. At the last minute, Emmanuel got the money he needed for college but nearly dropped out.
NPR's Claudio Sanchez met up with both of them to hear how the year has gone.
CLAUDIO SANCHEZ: Emmanuel Garcia is home for the summer, and not a day goes by that he doesn't pinch himself. He made it. He's in college, and money is not the insurmountable problem it was just 10 months ago.
Mr. EMMANUEL GARCIA: It seemed impossible. My parents said, you know, oh, we're here for you, but like, I really knew, like, how much they're in debt. So, it hit me hard, like, knowing everything's on you. Luckily, I was able to go through it.
SANCHEZ: Go through it he did. It's hard to believe Emmanuel just completed his freshman year at Shippensburg University. I wanted to know all about it, so we meet where we first met, SciTech High School in downtown Harrisburg.
So, do you know what your grades were?
Mr. GARCIA: Overall, it was a high B.
(Soundbite of laughter)
My second semester, I didn't do that good in the beginning, but I…
SANCHEZ: With a B average, Emmanuel can keep the scholarship that covers most of his tuition and fees, so he's happy. He's also grown a moustache and lost lots of weight, which is the first thing Marlo Johnson notices as she walks to join us.
Mr. GARCIA: What's up, Marlo?
Ms. MARLO JOHNSON: Oh, my, gosh, you lost so much weight. I feel old seeing you again.
(Soundbite of laughter)
SANCHEZ: A year ago, the first time I sat down with Marlo and Emmanuel, they were anxious, about to graduate and waiting to hear about the financial aid applications. Back then, Marlo was sitting on a $16,000 scholarship from a private college, but she needed another $17,000 to cover tuition, room and board. Marlo didn't qualify for grants, and her parents couldn't borrow the money. So, after graduating from SciTech, ranked third in her class, Marlo left home, enrolled in community college, and ended up flipping burgers full time until a few weeks ago.
Ms. JOHNSON: I walked out of McDonald's. I got really sick of that job, coming home greasy every single night, maybe even later after 1 o'clock in the morning.
SANCHEZ: So, you walked out, and then what happened?
Ms. JOHNSON: Two days later, I got another job.
SANCHEZ: Marlo now works at the Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency, the state's biggest provider and guarantor of student loans. She spends most of the day on the phone, fielding questions from anxious students.
Ms. JOHNSON: And their main question is: why am I delinquent? How am I delinquent? I'm still enrolled full time in school. Well, private loans, they have these things called intern options…
SANCHEZ: Who better than Marlo, now an expert on student loans, to counsel stressed out students? She's been there. These days, though, she sounds like the confident, tenacious young woman I met a year ago, intent on pursuing her dream of becoming a registered nurse no matter what. She's dumped a couple of boyfriends, moved back in with her parents, and is headed to Shippensburg University in the fall.
Ms. JOHNSON: I don't think I've ever said that to myself, like ever, that I wouldn't want to go to college. That's something that's, like, a must. I mean, I see my dad struggling, and he never finished college.
SANCHEZ: It's time to dream again, says Marlo. As for Emmanuel, he says he's trying to stay focused, but family problems have become a big distraction.
Mr. GARCIA: The big one was recently, like, with my dad, like, you know, going to jail. He went to jail, like, the Friday after Christmas, and you know, it was just sad to see, like, everybody crying in my family. At that point, I actually thought about, like, leaving college.
SANCHEZ: When Emmanuel's dad went to jail, the family's finances hit rock bottom. He's out of jail now, but Emmanuel worries about how all this has affected his family.
Mr. GARCIA: I don't see my family the same as before. I don't know, my dad, he's just acting like a little shady lately because he also hasn't, like, told nobody like really what happened. I don't even know.
SANCHEZ: But how could he not know? I ask Emmanuel if I can talk to his father, but it's clear that he doesn't want me to. The whole thing bothers him.
Mr. GARCIA: It bothers me to the point where I just don't care about it anymore. I have my life right now.
SANCHEZ: Emmanuel loves his dad, but he says he can't let anything get in the way of his education.
Mr. GARCIA: How are you doing, Mr. Reed?
Mr. MIKE REED (Principal, SciTech High School): You look great, man.
SANCHEZ: At SciTech High, the principal, Mike Reed, is thrilled to see Emmanuel and Marlo again. He marvels at their resilience. After all, Reed says, they've not only overcome the turmoil in their personal lives, they survived the worst student loan crisis to date.
Mr. REED: After last year, towards the end of the year, when the banks were pulling out from lending, and a lot of our students were left with a lot of questions that could not be answered, our guidance counselor and administration developed a plan of how we could better educate our students and our parents on how to confront the realities of - that lending was going to be more difficult.
SANCHEZ: This year, Reed introduced a course for ninth graders called financial planning for college. And even though money for college is not nearly the problem it was a year ago, students this year are still hurting, says Reed, and he points to Alizah Thornton(ph), this year's valedictorian.
Ms. ALIZAH THORNTON: I worked hard throughout my high school career. I got -took three AP classes this year. I took three classes at community college and ended up with As in two of them, and it doesn't seem like I'm getting anything to show for it.
SANCHEZ: She's still short thousands of dollars for college. So, Alizah is exactly in the same situation Marlo and Emmanuel were a year ago. She's worked hard and done really well academically, but it's not enough.
Claudio Sanchez, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright National Public Radio.
