Feeling The Squeeze
CBS
Transcript
for 19-year-old Jennifer Lawrence these are depressing times I'm very scared um I don't know if my loans are going to be able to go through for next year Lawrence is a junior at the University of Connecticut good afternoon you where she also works in The Visitor Center to help pay her school bills how much is it uh right now it's about 35,000 36,000 Lawrence is worried that money might dry up if the economy gets any worse and student loan companies like Sally May stop lending what if Sally May is one of the companies that ends up you know going anr what am I supposed to do Yukon is a state school 81% of the students are from Connecticut they pay nearly $19,000 for room tuition and meals but Jennifer is from Florida she has to come up with nearly twice that amount every year as the recession deepens more parents and students are finding it difficult to pay for college many kids who might have chosen higher priced private universities are now looking at State schools in state applications those are up quite dramatically about 15% uh for US 60 M away students at the privately run Boston University are also worried tuition room and board there tops $50,000 a year I am concerned about my parents ability to be able to fund my schooling two of my friends dropped out this year because they couldn't afford to pay housing and tuition administrators at Buu have recently put a freeze on hiring and new construction to have more money available to help students when there are are more layoffs when the unemployment rate goes up and our students and our parents are affected by it we want to be able to assist them immediately Joseph mcua who runs the University's finances wants to maintain its policy of accepting qualified students regardless of need having a needed blind policy does not necessarily mean that you can meet the full need of a student once he or she is admitted last week the federal government stepped in to help student loan companies continue lending money back in Connecticut Jennifer Lawrence knows she'll need it I've worked so hard to get here to get accepted into such a good University as Yukon has become that losing all of this would just be heartbreaking she hopes the government's backing will keep her from having to pack her bags and go home Michelle Miller CBS News stores Connecticut