The only constant is change in the COVID-19 era, and college students and their families are dealing with near-daily upheaval as they look to the fall. Colleges are increasingly releasing updates to their instructional plans that shift most, if not all, of students’ coursework online. But not all colleges have reduced their costs as a result of these changes.
To address some of the most pressing and common questions families are facing right now, Forbes Advisor and Savingforcollege.com co-hosted a webinar, “Paying for College During a Pandemic,” on Friday, July 31. It featured an expert panel: Jean Chatzky, CEO of HerMoney.com; Mark Kantrowitz, publisher and vice president of research at Savingforcollege.com; and Michelle Singletary, personal finance columnist at The Washington Post. The discussion was moderated by Brianna McGurran, student loans analyst at Forbes Advisor.
Here are three of the group’s top takeaways from the event, which you can watch on Facebook.
1. Speak Up
Right now, many people’s incomes have taken a drastic hit—and when the federal boost to unemployment expired on July 31, that placed some families in even more dire circumstances.
Kantrowitz’s advice to viewers of the event? If COVID-19 has led to a reduction or loss in income, especially compared to the income listed on the student’s Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, let the college’s financial aid office know. “Be vocal,” he said.
A financial aid appeal will take time and will require providing proof of the reduction in income. But schools are prepared to take your appeal under consideration, especially if it means keeping the student enrolled rather than losing them for the year. It’s possible—and, in fact, advisable—to ask for more financial aid if the coronavirus has changed your financial picture.
2. Rethink Debt
It’s always a good idea to minimize parents’ and students’ college debt, and to use a student loan calculator to get a clear idea of how much you’ll owe per month when school ends if you do take on debt. But with the college experience changing so dramatically this year, it may also be wise to bring an even more critical eye to the amount you borrow.
Singletary shared her family’s approach to student loan debt, which was to use parents’ savings and student scholarships and grants to pay for her children’s educations—no loans at all. That reduces the possibility that a student won’t be able to afford their payments after graduating, depending on the type of job they pursue.
“Hope is not a plan,” Singletary said. “And as smart and bright as you think your kid is, the likelihood of them getting a full ride is just not there.”
Avoiding debt altogether may not be possible for some families, but make it a goal to at least minimize private student loans in favor of borrowing federal loans. That advice was underscored when the government let borrowers pause federal student loan payments until Sept. 30, 2020 and set interest rates at 0% during that time. If you take on private student loan debt, you’ll lose out on such generous benefits if you have trouble affording loan payments in the future.
3. Stay Flexible
Each of the panelists stressed the importance of staying open to change during this period, when everyone is working to manage unprecedented circumstances. Chatzky explained that potentially making changes to a student’s college plan—taking a gap year, for instance, or transferring to a community college—is personal.
“We have to pay attention to what our college is requiring of us, what the temperament of our student is, what they’re studying, what progression their courses are taking and how all of this is going to play together,” she said.
What’s right for one student might not be right for another. But it is wise to think deeply about whether remote learning is going to work for you or your child, and to shift focus, at least for the fall semester, if that’s best.