Financial aid
Students may apply for and receive financial aid to help pay tuition and other costs of attending college. The chief sources of financial aid are federal programs, state grant programs, private grants, and institutional sources at the college or university. Aid may be either a grant based on financial need, a merit-based financial award given to the student, or a loan that the student must repay with interest in the future.
In the past, most students received financial aid in the form of a grant. However, the increases in tuition rates since the 1980s have coincided with a decrease in the funds available for public or private grants. More of the financial aid that most students now receive comes in the form of a loan rather than a grant or an award. For example, in the late 1980s the average grant was 46 percent of a typical student’s total aid package, while the average federal loan was 52 percent. By 1998 the grant size had fallen to 40 percent of the typical total, while loan size had increased to 58 percent. In 1997 borrowers who attended public four-year colleges had accumulated an average of $13,000 in debts. Those who went to private colleges averaged $17,500 in debts. Borrowers in graduate school had an average debt of $24,500, and those who went to professional school averaged $48,500.
What do you know about financial aid in our country? How can a student pay for his/her education?
Before you listen to the student speaking about money for education match words and phrases in A with their explanations in B.
|
A |
B |
|
a. challenging |
1. difficult but rewarding
|
|
b. having a career |
2. extra money paid on a loan or bank savings
|
|
c. interest |
3. fight
|
|
d. repayment |
4. getting a better job or salary within a company over time |
|
e. salary |
5. money a student pays to a university
|
|
f. struggle |
6. money borrowed from a bank or finance company
|
|
g. student loan |
7. money paid back on a loan
|
|
h. summer job |
8. money paid for a week’s work
|
|
i. tuition fees |
9. regular monthly or annual pay packet
|
|
j. wage |
10. work between academic years
|
b)
Complete
the sentences using vocabulary from the previous activity. Now listen
to the student speaking about money for education to check your
answer.
1. We will lend you £3,000, which you will need to repay with .................... of 3% after three years.
2. Paying my fees every year has been a constant .....................
3. With such a small loan, I don’t know if I’ll be able to pay the .....................
4. I’ve got a good job, but I just wish the work was more .....................
5. When term ends, I’ll have to get .................... just to make ends meet.
6. The .................... is £140 a week, but it’s cash-in-hand, so you don’t pay tax.
c)
Listen
again and decide if the following statements are true or false.
1. More than three quarters of all university students in England and Wales borrow money to study
2. Students tend to buy a house soon after graduating
3. Paying back a student loan is always voluntary
4. A degree gives people an advantage when applying for white collar jobs
5. Graduates often feel their first job doesn’t live up to their expectations
6. Numbers of British university students began to decline after the credit crunch
7. Students sometimes break the law to finance their studies
8. More international students are coming to Britain because the UK currency is weaker