[algoatecorn]

They do though. I was a Pell Grant recipient. All I did was fill out the FAFSA and the grant was automatically applied. That got me through community college debt free.

When I transferred to a 4-year, I once again filled out the FAFSA and was eligible for an interest-free loan which covered the difference between tuition and my Pell Grant.

[grumple]

Pell grants are tiny though.

Really, the current grant system doesn't work.

We should tell the universities they must provide needs-based grants on their own and prohibit using ability to pay during admissions - or they don't receive federal grants. This way they aren't incentivized to continue to bloat costs (as happens now), since now the school is responsible for the costs.

[nsvd]

The tuition for my university (state school) is about $7,000 per year which is coincidentally close to the maximum you can receive through the pell grant.

[grumple]

What university? In PA, Penn State's in state tuition and fees come to almost 20k and out of state is almost twice that: https://admissions.psu.edu/costs-aid/tuition/

[tekknik]

Well rarely do you see someone on a Pell grant moving states to go to school, cause now room and board and food come into play.

There’s at least one site showing (oddly enough) private schools with lower tuition than Penn State as well as some non-private [1], but you’re still over the max of a Pell grant

1: https://www.bestvalueschools.org/cheapest-colleges-in-pennsy...

[lolinder]

> Pell grants are tiny though.

No, tuition rates at some schools are absurd. Max Pell Grant is enough to cover tuition at the three universities closest to me.

[grumple]

Tuition rates are much higher near me and the other states I've lived in. PA and CA... and I went to a private university. Silly me.

[Sohcahtoa82]

I'm wondering when and where you went to college and what other circumstances affected the size of your Pell grant.

I went to community college in 2009. I filed my FAFSA and if I recall correctly, my Pell grant was $300/term. Meanwhile, tuition was $115/credit. My full-time class load was nearly $2,000/term once you included the books.

When I transferred to the state University, tuition was double that and my Pell barely changed.

I was 27 years old when I started college, working at a Subway restaurant for $10/hr, had no savings, and parents that did not give me a dime after I moved out at 21.

I finished my degree with $45K in debt.

[tekknik]

My Pell grant was around $1200/term. It was enough to cover tuition, supplies and still have enough for a refund at the end of the term of about $200.

The amount you get is based on your financial need amongst other things, so likely your parent could afford some amount of tuition from the govs perspective.

Max for a Pell grant is about $7k/yr atm

[Sohcahtoa82]

> so likely your parent could afford some amount of tuition from the govs perspective.

Oh, they absolutely could have, but they didn't. Pretty sure the FAFSA even had a line about money coming from others, and I put $0.

And so I get a little salty when my peers talk about being short on money because they're paying for their kids' college.

Whatever, though. I'm making good money now, and I can accurately say that I'm a self-made man.

[runarberg]

Another crazy thought than. How about government simply pays for education. Sort of like universal income, but with education. No grants, no loans, just free education.

[tekknik]

Then how do you decide who gets a bachelors, masters or PhD? What if I want to have a PhD in computer science but work a normal job? Will the gov pay for it or force me into research? What if I want to be an MD? Will the government pay for that MD while denying others that want a PhD? What happens when someone fails out of school? How do you avoid people using school to avoid the selective service?

[runarberg]

It doesn’t work like that. Lots of countries have free education, some even pay students in higher educations stipends (and some make you pay it back if you drop out without a degree, for better or for worse). Students are free to pursue whichever degree they want, and leave academia for whichever job they can get whenever they want.

Think about free education like you think about universal income, except free education is not an experiment with limited data to back up it’s value, but rather a tried and trusted policy with ample data to back up it’s success.

[tekknik]

Yea I don’t want to pay taxes for someone pursuing something worthless. You missed the point.

[runarberg]

You probably already do. If you are American, you probably paid much more taxes to pursue a worthless invasion into Iraq and Afghanistan. If you live in a capitalist country, you are probably paying taxes to pursue worthless bailouts of corporations, or whatever infrastructure these corporations want the state to pay for them.

It is also a bit unfortunate that you view education that doesn’t lead directly to a career to be “worthless”. You learn a lot of skills when you get university education, including but not limited to knowledge about the field at hand. If you get education in one field and then go into industry in another area, you will take those skills with you, and the industry at whole will benefit from having a wider skillset among its workers.

[tekknik]

I agree with all of those, but not paying for a degree in underwater basket weaving. Sorry.