Paying for College

 

Some years ago, during a cross country flight, Anil Jethmal struck up an interesting conversation with a passenger seated next to him. With two sets of twins in high school, the man and his wife were stressed over the impending cost of college for their four children. By his own “conservative” estimates, it would cost over one million dollars (non-tax deductible) for the four children’s four-year college tuitions. Furthermore, he insisted that he did not want his children to take out student loans and thus be saddled with debt upon graduation.
Anil Jethmal recalled that, only a year after graduating from Bowdoin College, he received a coupon booklet requiring him to pay back tens of thousands of dollars in student loans in monthly installments. And while in his early years following graduation, it was a strain to pay back the loan, he never once regretted the investment of furthering his own education.
A proponent of higher education, Anil Jethmal extolled for his new friend the many benefits of attending college. Financially, it was and is one of the best investments that there is. Studies on the subject show, on average, that a student loan used to obtain an education at a top-rated college or university yields an enormous return on capital investment.
But, potentially, there was even better news. Anil Jethmal told the man that he recalled reading in his college’s monthly newsletter, that Bowdoin College had recently replaced student loans with outright grants. The college’s goal was that a family’s ability to pay should never be a bar from attending, nor be a factor in determining admission (need blind admission policy). Anil Jethmal suggested that his friend explore if there were any other colleges that had a similar policy.
It turned out, Anil later learned, that many top colleges and universities in the country, due to burgeoning endowments, aided by large alumni donations and a rapidly rising stock market, had adopted similar policies.
Anil Jethmal never did keep in touch with the passenger on that cross-country flight. His hope, though, is that he and his family did at least investigate the wonderful financial opportunities that so many institutions of higher learning are now affording their potential students.