Advice for Families of Pierre Laclede Honors College Students
The Costs of Higher Education
First it is important to note that being in the Honors College does not cost most money. Your student has been admitted to the Honors College, and will be in receipt of scholarship support if not admitted “on probation.” While we might all wish that the amount of the award was greater than it is, it is important for you to know that your student has earned that support. You may thank us for it, but it is more to the point to thank your student. We award scholarships for good academic records and because we want your student to join us, not out of the goodness of our hearts.
Scholarships are also offered to help sustain your student in his or her full-time studies. We are buying some of your student’s time, to enable more time to be spent at what will be her or his most important job over the next few years: reading in the library, experimenting in the lab, talking to professors and fellow students, and just “being a student.” Our scholarship aim is to help your student achieve her or his academic, personal, and career goals. We are making an award, but we are also making an investment.
Whether that investment will earn its best returns depends mostly on us and on your student, but also partly on you. It’s that last issue I address here. Your support and encouragement will be essential to your student’s success. How you provide both, and how much of either, are of course matters for you to decide, and I recognize that different families have different priorities, different practices, and differing resources when it comes to encouragement and support. Even so, there are some rules of the road which will assist families and their student in negotiating the costs of a college education.
- Part-time work. Increasingly, employers regard some part-time work
as an asset, as proof that the student can meet and surmount challenges.
They are particularly interested, however, in the type of work done,
not the amount of money earned, and graduate and professional schools,
if they are interested at all in a student’s part-time work, are
not at all interested in the amount of money earned. Employers and graduate
schools all recognize that a part-time job adds to the difficulty of
achieving academic success, and families should recognize this too. To
achieve academic success at a full-time course load is itself a full-time
job. Decisions about taking part-time jobs, and what sort of jobs to
take, and how many hours to work in them, should be made in this light.
- The loan alternative. Many students are reluctant to incur debt obligations
for a college education. Loan obligations are serious matters, and do
require serious consideration. But your student’s academic success
is also a serious matter, and it requires investment. If your family’s
financial situation obliges your student to work significantly more than
15 hours per week during the school year, then investing in a loan may
be the best sort of good business. In this, remember that academic success
will make your student an appreciating asset. The greater the investment,
the better the chances of academic success, the faster the appreciation.
And your student will appreciate it as well.
- The family or parental contribution. It is not our place to say “you
should contribute $xxxx or $yyyy” to your student’s educational
costs. But the question of financial support is important, and you certainly
should discuss the issue frankly and openly with your student, exploring
the alternatives, weighing them up fully. Going through this process
is in itself an important form of support, the value of which cannot
be overestimated. Achieving a clear and mutual understanding of the financial
challenges you face now will help you to solve problems which arise later.
- Experience shows . . . A miscellany of advice.
A good part-time job may be of more educational value than a high-paying part-time job.
It is not easy to earn late at night and learn the next morning.
Overtime is a better proposition at summertime.
As you grow as a student you can grow into more part-time work.
Academic success makes career success more likely.
Straight talk and clear advice can be as valuable as cash.
Low wages and high tips make Jack and Jill dull and anxious.
“ It all comes out of the same pocket” is a sound principle of family finances.
Our advice is free and we give it freely; when in doubt, ask for help.
Dean Robert M. Bliss
Pierre Laclede Honors College