By William Chance
William Chance is a higher education consultant in Olympia, Washington.
The Washington Higher Education Coordinating Board has published a series of papers on work as a means of financial aid for students. Noting that it remains an important partial source of income, the papers conclude that work no longer can be viewed as a sufficient way to pay for college. The remonstrance, "I worked my way through college; you can too!" has become invalid for many students because the costs of college have outpaced students' earning potential.
During 1994Ð95, a student living away from home and attending the University of Washington would have expected to encounter expenses totaling $10,389. A student earning the minimum wage that year ($4.90) would have had to work 2,122 hours to earn enough to meet these costs (representing a cost-to-hourly-rate ratio of 2,122:1). This would require 41 hours a week for the full 52-week year, while also attending school full-time during the 36-week academic year.
If this student were to work 19 hours a week during the school year (the standard for the State Work Study Program, for example) and full-time during all break periods, including summer, he or she would have to have a job that paid $12.83 an hour to earn enough to go to college.
The numbers vary by type of institution (e.g., in the 19-hour-a-week scenario, the student would need to earn $12.02 per hour to make it through the year in one of the regional institutions ($9,738 total costs), and a very serious $25.02 per hour if the choice were one of the state's independent colleges and universities ($20,264 annual budget). In every case the prospect would be daunting. It would require dedication and persistence, with the likelihood of frequent stop-outs, part-time attendance, and extended time-to-degree.
Times are different from before. Attending the University of Washington thirty years ago, in 1964Ð65, the student would have encountered expenses of $1,350 and a minimum wage of $1.25 per hour (representing a cost-to-hourly-rate ratio of 1,080:1). This student would have needed to work 21 hours a week to cover the costs. An independent college student, faced with a budget of $1,800, would have had to work 28 hours a week. If he/she adhered to the 19-hour-a-week standard, the University of Washington student would have needed a job that paid $1.67 per hour. The private college student would have required $2.22 per hour.
In the case of the University of Washington, college attendance costs in 1994Ð95 were 7.6 times those of 30 years ago; the minimum hourly rate, however, is 3.9 times greater. Costs have clearly outraced earning potential. Working one's way through college in a legitimate enterprise and emerging with an education and a debt-free financial statement may have been conceivable then; it is not now.
This condition obviously renders student loans more crucial now than before, but it should not imply that college students are foreswearing work. Indeed, it seems that more students than ever before are working at least part-time to help cover some college costs. According to California Student Aid Commission figures, almost 52 percent of the nearly 302,000 dependent undergraduate aid applicants in 1993Ð94 reported earnings averaging $4,900. Only those from families with incomes below $24,000 had a lesser proportion reporting earnings (44 percent). Approximately 86 percent of California's self-supporting undergraduates reported at least some earnings.