Photo credit: Sydne Vigille
It has been an ongoing debate, whether or not your parents should financially support you through your college years. The answer to that could depend on your background and your personal beliefs, however, I will never reject money from my parents.
As college students, we have to focus on one hundred things at once, multitasking is key to surviving college. With academics, social lives, clubs and organizations, and jobs keeping us occupied, why include having to stress over money?
If my parents are willing and able to provide me with monetary support every now-and-again, then at least my finances can be one less thing to worry about.
Some feel as if parents are supposed to support students until they graduate and are able to secure a well-paying job and take care of themselves. Others feel as if living away from home and being in college means you need to be independent and only rely on yourself, or else you could be doomed to be that 40-year-old still living with mommy and daddy and not living up to your full potential.
Honestly, it’s not that deep. Using parents as a crutch doesn’t make someone any less of an adult, that’s what parents are there for.
Most undergraduate students rely on their parents to help with at least some of their college costs, but those who don’t, find themselves in a sticky financial aid situation. This is because the federal government uses parental income and assets to calculate how much they believe the family can contribute.
Most federal grants, loans, and work-study positions are all doled out based on these calculations, as are many need-based institutional and private awards.
Not only is tuition pricey, but add on housing, a meal plan or groceries, gas, school supplies, textbooks and amenities, and you can guarantee your pockets will be hurting without that little chunk of change your parents might be able to send you every once in a while.
“My parents made it very clear to me that they wanted me to focus on school and nothing else. Now, that doesn’t mean that I just get to spend my money loosely. Trust me, I have to budget a certain amount a month. They see it as me working to get good grades and being awarded for it, I don’t see anything wrong with that,” said sophomore biology student Tyiese Candidate.
Ereka Reddick, a mother of two, made it very clear that she believes in financially supporting her college students.
“It is my full responsibility to take care of my kids until they are able to take care of themselves. For those kids’ parents who can’t afford to do that, they should be applying for scholarships to try and make school as cheap as possible, or get a J-O-B. We all have to grow up and college is the place to do it.”