Drowning in Debt and Stress

Financial Barriers to Collegiate and Professional Accessibility

By Marley Richmond, Sydni Rose, and Jemma Keleher

Between efforts to make college more affordable and debates about how fair it would be to forgive student loan debt, financing higher education has become a political concept more than a lived experience in the eyes of the public. But for college students, who may be juggling full-time course loads, multiple jobs, and other forms of unpaid labor, finances are anything but abstract. 

For in-state students, tuition and fees at the University of Minnesota cost a bit more than $15,000 this academic year. Twenty years ago, that number was under $5,000, and forty-five to fifty years ago—around the time some politicians would have graduated—UMN tuition and fees cost under $1,000. This trend reflects average costs for public universities nationwide.  

While lawmakers may stay up-to-date on tuition costs, they may not have the first-hand experience that today’s students do, and therefore don’t intimately understand the difficulty of paying for one’s own education, even with financial aid. 

Financing the College Experience

Shannon Brault is a second-year student at the University who is financing her own education, and the process has not been easy. To start, the amount of financial aid that a student receives is based on their parents’ income even when, as in Brault’s case, their parents are not contributing to the cost of tuition.

Often, financial aid doesn’t come close to covering the costs. The U Promise Scholarship, which the University claims helps “make a U of M education possible for Minnesota resident students,” is one such underwhelming program. “I thought [it] was going to be so much, but they gave me, like, $153 [per semester]. That'll pay for a textbook,” Brault said. 

Loans are no less confusing, and even after weighing different options and assessing “ridiculously high” interest rates, as Brault said, students are left with debt and, often, remaining out-of pocket costs just to cover tuition. Educating students about types of loans and other options is an important part of making college more accessible, especially for first-generation students or those with additional barriers.

According to Matthew Voigt, also a current student at the University, what he knows about financing a college education was something he had to learn himself. “I wasn't taught 90% of what I know about college financing in any high school or college class... All I know [I learned] because I did the research, read the fine print, or asked the question,” he said. “I'll always remember my personal finance professor trying to explain college financing and struggling because of how weird and convoluted the systems are.”

As important as financial education is, understanding an unfair and overpriced system can only get students so far. Institutional change, especially student loan forgiveness, is necessary to make higher education truly affordable. 

Working to Stay Afloat

Even after financial aid, scholarships, and loans, Brault’s tuition, like that of so many others, is not fully covered. In order to cover those costs, as well as those of living in a large city, many students must work part- or full-time jobs as students. Adding tens of hours of work on top of the education one is actually paying for makes balancing a schedule quite difficult. 

“It's also a little frustrating sometimes because I'm working to try to build up money and to pay for college, but I feel like with the price of college, even living at home, I'm not even making a difference,” said Brault. 

Even when a student is working many hours a week, it isn’t always possible to find a relevant, discipline-specific job to build up experience for the future. Retail positions, food service work, and University jobs are often some of the highest-paying jobs available to students and rarely relate to what they are studying in school. Instead, unpaid internships, volunteer work, and low-wage entry-level positions create a barrier between those who have the privilege to build up that type of experience and those who do not. 

Voigt shares this perspective, saying that most entry-level positions in his field require a background that is unattainable for those working to live. “Having all those [qualifications] is a privilege that many aren't afforded,” he said. “You need a job to get experience, but you need the experience to get a job, and that cycle is really hard to break.”

The cycle can be impossible to break if a person relies on their wages to pay for necessities like groceries or rent, meaning they often must take a job outside of their field in order to survive. 

And even those who are able to make ends meet without wages must sacrifice their time by taking unpaid, low-status internships. “Unless you're willing to do the menial work for no compensation, you're sort of out of luck,” says Voigt.

Overworked and Underpaid

In order for students to support themselves after graduation, good job prospects are a high priority, meaning a paid position that offers relevant experience. Whether it’s an internship, freelance work, or a full-time position, the biggest necessity is being able to sustain, at the very least, a bare minimum lifestyle.

One of the more prevalent obstacles students face today is the well-known concept of unpaid internships. While the sentiment is there—allowing young adults to gain valuable work experience—it doesn’t pay the bills.

Hannah Lundquist, a sophomore studying strategic communication at the University, says she’s already feeling the stress of finding jobs and internships that are relevant to her career path while supporting her financially.

Lundquist not only said she thinks full-time unpaid internships are a privilege to take on, but also that they aren’t sustainable. “If you need money [and] you can’t get it from the internship, then you have to work on the weekends or other odd hours.” She added that needing to have an additional job as a source of income on top of an internship can lead to burnout—something she’s already experiencing.

The financial stress that may come from working an unpaid internship isn’t even the initial stressor; landing the internship in the first place is. As a sophomore, Lundquist has begun the process of applying for internships only to be rejected time after time due to a lack of experience. “A few years ago, applying to a job with just a degree was enough to at least get an interview, and now almost every entry level job needs some type of experience,” she said with frustration.

When Lundquist is scrolling through LinkedIn, she sees other students, many also in their sophomore year, who already have experience from two or three internships. Their resume building only adds to her stress, “I struggle with feeling like I don’t have enough experience, and [that] stems from being turned down from so many internships.”

This struggle is by no means unique, and it’s become an increasingly common problem students face. Brault echoed Lundquist’s thoughts saying, “It feels like a catch 22, you can’t get hired if you don’t have experience but can’t get experience if you don’t get hired.”

In order to make internships more equitable, employers must start paying interns a living wage and consider applicants with varying forms of previous experience. Such changes might require institutional incentives or requirements, whether that be raising the federal minimum wage or limiting types of unpaid labor. Along with forgiving student loan debt and making college more affordable, these changes will make post-secondary education more accessible. In the meantime, students who are making college work despite financial challenges deserve support and commendation.