A New Resolution

You get what you deserve...or do you?

As I sit here counting my last few euro coins and trying to decide if I should invest them in my dwindling bottled water supply or my bus tickets to get to school next week, I reflect on the somehow more important issue of funding of schooling back in the states.

You see, I had an enlightening conversation with a fellow study abroad student from Kettering today. He is from Pennsylvania, going to school in Michigan, so he pays out-of-state tuition like I. He also has an EFC of $0 and his parents can't get approved for any loans, just like I.

The difference is that he actually does have private loans. How is this possible? A co-signer? No. He is the only person who signed his loans. When he turned 18 he applied for a Citi credit card and was immediately approved for a $4000 limit. When he got to college, Sallie Mae approved his entire loan on his credit alone (Kettering costing somewhere in the area of $35,000/year). Subsequent credit card offers now put his revolving credit limit somewhere in the area of $8400, even though he is smart and does not spend anywhere near that much.

Now I can only posit two possible scenarios that could have resulted in this:
1) He shares a Social Security number with someone much older and in good credit standing. This is not out of the question since the government does make mistakes, but it is highly, highly unlikely. He has not checked his credit report yet so I can't verify this possibility.
2) Loan corporations like Sallie Mae are playing favorites, either based on state of residence, the school's state, or the school's reputation. This friend thinks it is based on the school reputation because most of the GM execs came from his school, Kettering. He claims that they "just throw money at you" as soon as you arrive there, not the school itself or the federal government, but the private loan and credit card corporations.

Based on these ridiculous differences in the experiences of two college students with similar backgrounds in the same country, you can say I'm a little ticked and disillusioned. I am making a new, more concerted, resolution to solve this nation's serious problems with higher education funding.

In the EU, education is free including undergraduate (not just K-12 like in the US). Certain states (like the one I'm currently in) even have enough money to pay for us poor Americans to come over and study for free. How is this possible? Why can't the US, once a leading nation in public education, achieve the goal of free undergraduate education? Indeed, certain states within the US have came close to this with very low in-state tuition rates and state scholarships to cover that tuition, but if you want to go to a better university outside of your state, you're screwed. In my future political career I plan on working towards fixing these problems preventing many deserving, hard-working American students from getting the education they want.

In the mean time, I call on everyone reading this to petition loan companies to stop favoritism and follow the law under Title VII of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act of the United States of America. If any pro-bono lawyers would like to get involved, please contact me.