Self-help is considered a good thing because it gives students a stake in the process and it stretches scarce grant dollars. Maybe the parents can pay more. There are lots of ways for our student to handle the gap. He can take fewer courses, which will drive down the cost per year. He can attend a less expensive school.
Costs typically increase year by year.
And let's optimistically assume that our student graduates in four years and his borrowing increases only 4 percent annually. That's a mistake. Debt gives them a powerful gut-level tool for deciding whether their educations were worth what they cost. Today, student debt is piling up at a level unthinkable even three or four years ago, when it accelerated in the wake of the 1993 reauthorization of the Higher Education Act. The federal government has redefined financial need in a way that makes more families eligible for aid, but has added to the pot only by making more loan money available.