College tuition is on the rise. So is college debt. High school students are showered with statistics persuading them of the monetary benefits a college education can bring. Statistically, college graduates earn $1.2 million more over their lifetime than high school graduates. But that number is of little comfort to a student on graduation day whose debt is nearly $25,000.

The costs of going to college are not the same as they were 30 years ago for the parents of today’s college students. A part-time job at Marie Callender’s is not going to get me through school like it did my mom. Unless a student is lucky enough to have a killer part-time job, or someone who contributes a big chunk of money to their college education, that student is going to come away from college with some sort of debt.

According to the Project on Student Debt, the average amount of student debt upon graduation has risen 50 percent over the last 10 years to $20,000; an indicator that grants have not kept up with the rise in tuition costs. Furthermore, there has been a rise in the hours students devote to work. At Sac State alone, the number of hours students spend working has doubled over the last 10 years. The five or six years it takes students to get a four-year degree is a result of the increasing workload students take on to make ends meet.

Students should be able to graduate from a four-year university in four years. Taking on a part-time job while taking GE and lower-division courses is manageable, but when students get into their upper-division courses in their third and fourth years, academic performance should not be compromised by a student’s job. Is it possible for students to take a multiple-semester sabbatical from working, use financial aid as a crutch, focus on their studies and graduate on time? The answer should be yes, but the numbers point toward no.

Financial aid has not kept up with the costs of college, making income from work a necessity rather than an option. I would have loved to take this semester off work. This semester I was taking on 18 units, in hopes that I could graduate in May at the 4-year mark. With 18 units, I had more than enough to keep me busy.

Unfortunately, when I received my financial aid award letter, the offering was $3,000 short of what they estimated I needed. That estimate, along with being short, included a $1,300 parental contribution, none of which I was going to see. If you are legally independent of your parents at 18, you should be financially as well.

My parents, divorced, have very different opinions on how my college education should be funded. My mother, if she had the money, would see to it I had everything for school I’d need. My father, on the other hand, believes that paying for college on my own will make me a stronger, more independent person. So far, paying my own way has made me more independent, but to the tune of $20,000 in debt.

But I digress. Back to the financial aid. A portion of my aid included work-study. I was offered 20 hours a week on work-study for a total of $3,500 a semester. This would be in conjunction with the 25 hours I already work, since they required my W-2 and work information on my FASFA, the form that determines the eligibility and amount of aid a student receives.

Without the work-study money, the parent contribution, and the $3,000 that were never included, I was nearly $8,000 short of the total need estimated by the financial aid office. After my tuition was paid for, I would be left with a little over $3,000 to live on for the semester. Books, transportation, rent, food, utilities – yeah, right. There is no way $3,000 would last me until February. So, I kept working 23 hours a week. Because of the work and the workload from school, I had to drop a class and will be sticking around Sac State for another semester.

The decision between school and financial security is one a lot of students face. But it shouldn’t have to be. College is supposed to be the stepping-stone to financial security, not a sinkhole to debt. Yet many students, even before graduation, begin to feel the financial burdens of a college education debt. Many choose to take on more hours and less school, putting off graduation but ensuring they can pay the bills.

The financial aid process needs to be re-evaluated. Federal cuts to financial aid and rising tuition costs make taking work off for school nearly impossible for students who pay their own way. Students should be able to work less so they can focus on their studies 100 percent and pursue internships without jeopardizing their credit score.

Choquette Marrow can be reached at [email protected]