USC graduation

Shadows cast by students standing during a USC commencement ceremony are seen in 2011. Research shows that college students from middle-income families take on more debt than their lower- or higher-income peers. (Los Angeles Times)


I'm betting the government sent out a lot of those letters to people like me: college graduates from middle-class families who didn't qualify for much in the way of scholarship aid and had parents who couldn't afford to pay for their schooling.





"The greatest irresponsibility is on the part of government and schools," said Anthony Carnevale, director of Georgetown University's Center on Education and the Workforce. "Most people, if offered money, will take it. But in most other cases, when large sums of money are involved, there are controls in place."


"For a market to work well, it needs information. There's virtually none in this market," Carnevale said. "In a lot of ways, it's entrapment."


But the most interesting finding concerns "gapping" — the practice of admitting students to college without providing enough aid for them to enroll. Private colleges are 27% more likely to practice gapping than public colleges, but both do it. Troublingly, 53% of public college directors said gapping was ethical, along with 74% of private college directors.

Clearly, a significant chunk of the higher education community is conflicted about financial aid practices — but not conflicted enough to communicate the ethical gray area to students. As a result, many students new to managing finances are left alone to decide whether to take out loans, and later, with the consequences of being stuck in deep financial holes.



Sarah Amandolare is a freelance journalist living in Los Angeles.