Money for All-- Somewhere

The cost of a college education continues to rise and, with the possible ex ception of high medical costs, is the greatest source of financial worry for millions of U.S. families. Costs are so high at private colleges, in fact, that students often find it impossible to earn enough to cover them by working at summer and part-time jobs. Paradoxically, though, it is now true that practically no high school graduate of intelligence need forsake a college education solely for lack of funds.

The reason is that the various forms of financial assistance to college students--scholarships, loans, jobs and combinations of all three--have finally caught up with rising costs, at least for now. A student may not always find the exact help he needs at the college he wishes to attend, and he may even have to scramble to put together his own "package" of aid. But, says Elwood C. Kastner, dean of financial aid at New York University, "where there's a will, there's a way to get through college."

Too Poor. The increase in aid has been dramatic. The College Scholarship Service, a private, Princeton-based coordinator of aid programs, estimated that $440 million was available three years aso in all types of aid; this year some $710 million is being offered. Much of the increase has come from fed eral funds in five main programs:

sb STUDENT OPPORTUNITY GRANTS. These are outright gifts, ranging from $200 to $800 per student per year, given by colleges as they see fit to needy students. The money--$58 million this year--is helping 133,000 students this fall.

sb COLLEGE WORK-STUDY PROGRAM. Started last year, it permits college students to work full time summers and up to 15 hours a week while in school on jobs for nonprofit organizations. The employing agency pays 10% of the student's salary, the Federal Government the other 90%. This fall, some 190,000 students are drawing from the $147 million fund.

sbNATIONAL DEFENSE LOANS. They permit students to borrow up to $1,000 a year and to delay making any repayments until nine months after leaving school. Students then get up to ten years to repay--at a low 3% interest. This year, some 500,000 students are borrowing $225 million.

sbGUARANTEED LOANS. Designed to make commercial loans more attractive, this program requires students to find their own private lender. The Government then pays the lender 6% interest while the student is in school and, except for high-income families, splits the 6% with the student when he repays the loan after graduation. Only about 200,000 students have drawn such loans, far short of estimates because higher interest rates now make the loans less attractive to banks.

sbTHE NEW G.I. BILL. It provides a modest $150 a month maximum for veterans who have put in more than 180 days' active service since Feb. 1, 1955, is now helping 260,000 students and expects to serve twice that number by next fall.

Other federal programs, including 43 in the Department of Health, Education and Welfare alone, provide help to students preparing for such vocations as nursing, social work and the sciences. In all, the federal programs roughly match the money available from all private sources. The colleges this year are offering $170 million in scholarships, $40 million in loans and $140 million in part-time jobs. State scholarship aid amounts to another $90 million, and some states also guarantee student loans at low interest rates. Direct loans from private agencies generally are more expensive; college officials warn that some special private funds charge "exorbitant interest" on college loans.

Nearly every college employs advisers to help students finance their schooling. It takes about $2,000 a year for a commuting student to attend New York University, for example, and N.Y.U.'s Kastner suggests that a kid from a New York slum could more than cover the cost in this way: $800 from a federal Educational Opportunity Grant; $1,000 in an NDSL loan; $500 from New York State's Scholar Incentive program: $400 in earnings from a part-time job; $300 earned in work during the summer.

Merit Alone. Some of the nation's best colleges offer the most help. Yale's Dean of Admissions Russell Inslee Clark boasts that Yale found money this fall for every student who had passed its admissions screening and needed it. Half of the freshman class is sharing in $960,000 of financial aid--$715,000 of that in direct scholarships. One third of Harvard undergraduates draw from the $2,300,000 given yearly in scholarships, and outside scholarships total another $500,000. Harvard also arranges for $750,000 a year in 3% loans, which are repayable after graduation at $10 a month.

At M.I.T., a student can borrow at only 1% interest while in school and at 2% once he lands a postgraduate job, then pay back only $300 a year on the principal. The school offered $346,000 in loans this year, plus another $714,000 in direct scholarships. About 40% of Princeton's students are on scholarships as part of a $2,650,000 aid program. Huge Ohio State (enrollment 34,000) spends nearly $12 million a year on student work salaries alone. Even California's small Pomona College has 80% of its students on jobs and has been able to meet the $3,085 annual need of every student who sought help.

Financial need rather than scholarly brilliance is the primary guide in granting aid these days--though the applicant obviously must have the marks. Thousands of private scholarships still provide for the bright student regardless of need and, in some instances, serve the donor's particular interests. Freshmen at Emory, for example, can compete for one $500 scholarship by writing an essay on the topic: "We Georgians are often our own worst enemies when we intentionally use colloquialisms in preference to standard English." Dozens of colleges have set up special scholarships or loan funds aimed at helping Negro students.

The families most likely to have difficulty in getting help, in fact, are those with middle-class incomes. They do not rate as needy, yet the high cost of sending a youngster to college--as more and more are doing once, twice or even three times in a working lifetime--is enough to strain their budgets to breaking.

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