Editor’s note: This is the first in a three-part series exploring the ways Ohio University students fund their education.
When Olivia Suttles opted to take out parent-plus loans to finance her Ohio University education, she didn’t expect the cash flow to run dry in less than a year.
After Suttles’ freshman year at OU, her parents were financially unable to co-sign on her loans to finance her sophomore year. With no credit history of her own and no alternative co-signers, Suttles was denied student loans.
“I just cried (when I found out),” said Suttles, a junior studying journalism. “I went home and cried because I knew I couldn’t come back (to OU). I had made friends and was involved in way too many activities to count, and I had to drop it all.”
During the 2010–11 school year, OU students borrowed about $165 million in federal student loans, said Valerie Miller, director of Student Financial Aid and Scholarships, in an email.
Suttles, who expects to have $80,000 in debt when she graduates, returned to her hometown of Cincinnati and enrolled at the University of Cincinnati’s Clermont campus for a quarter before transferring to UC’s main campus.
With plans to reapply for loans and complete her junior and senior years at OU, Suttles applied for a credit card and charged several items to it per month to build credit.
“Hindsight being 20/20, I wished I had a credit card (before attending college),” said Suttles, who returned to OU for her junior year after her grandparents co-signed on her loan.
Jordan Mescher, a junior studying finance marketing, said he too feels the pressure of financing his education with loans. Though Mescher said his loans do not create daily stress for him, he works 10 hours per week as an office assistant in the College of Business in conjunction with taking a full course load.
Suttles said she pays for the utilities at her apartment using the minimum-wage paychecks she earns at Latitude 39, adding that she does not qualify for programs such as PACE, which provides internship-like work to students who meet certain financial requirements.
About 382 OU students were employed through PACE during the 2010 school year, earning a total of about $540,000, Miller said. Additionally, Federal Work Study provides funding to employ about 854 OU students, and general student employment comprises more than 7,000 OU students.
Though both Mescher and Suttles face an undergraduate experience different from that of OU students not depending on loans, they insist that it does not negatively affect their grades.
Suttles added that paying her own way through college even makes her more responsible for her performance.
“I know that, if I fail a class, that’s all on me, and I’m going to be the one to repay taking that class,” Suttles said. “And I guess in that regard, I’m slightly OK with taking a class over.”
sg409809@ohiou.edu
