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Gael Sosa, a junior business accounting major at the University of Rhode Island, said he wouldn’t be able to attend college without his maximum Pell Grant award.

“Essentially it was my only reason to go to college,” he said.

But even with his Pell Grant, plus subsidized and unsubsidized loans, he still has a $2,000 gap to pay. He covers it by working at a campus dining hall, but he lost that job when campus closed because of COVID-19 this spring. Now he works third shift at Honeywell.

“If I don’t receive the grant, I’m not going to college because it’s just way too expensive. The only reason I’m even allowed to go is the Pell Grant,” he said. “It’s been such a great thing for me to have this grant.”

The College Crusade is a member of the National College Attainment Network, which is advocating that Congress double the amount of the maximum Pell award to $12,690 per year in the next COVID relief package. This would cover about 50 percent of the cost of attending a public four-year college like URI.

The maximum Pell Grant right now covers roughly 28% of the average cost of tuition, fees and living expenses for a four-year public university versus 79% at its historic high in 1975-76. That doesn’t surprise Sosa. “From what I’ve read, like 15 years ago the price of college wasn’t as expensive but when you look at the percentage of how much tuition has increased, it’s just amazing. It’s limiting students from going to college. If their parents don’t earn enough, they’ll have to get a job or find another way.”

He spoke about a friend who attended URI for two semesters before something happened with his financial aid that left him with a $20,000 bill. “He had to drop out entirely because he couldn’t afford to keep going,” he said. “You’d have to have a full-time job just to pay that tuition.”

Doubling Pell is necessary, he said, because of what it could mean for many students. “If more people had access to it, you’d see more people go to college and graduating with a degree,” he said. “We’d see a lot more students entering college because they’re getting such a decent amount of money. And that would better the future of the United States.”

Even before the COVID crisis, college affordability has significantly declined in recent years, according to NCAN’s research.

The Classical High School graduate said the rising cost made him reconsider attending. “When you look at the college prices, you’re like how am I ever going to pay that? Especially when you take out a lot of loans and the interest rate is so high,” he said. “As a business major, I think about the numbers and it’s going to be way too much. You hear stories about people spending the rest of their lives paying student loans.”

Sosa estimates he will graduate with about $24,000 of college debt. He said doubling the amount of the maximum Pell award would relieve a lot of his stress surrounding paying for college.

“I wouldn’t need to be working all semester. I’d be able to put more time into my studies and not worry about that overlooming thought of debt after college,” he said. “I’d have so many more options – maybe not even use any loans entirely and not have to rack up my bill so much.”

Even after receiving the maximum Pell Grant award and her College Crusade scholarship, University of Rhode Island junior Kemi Bankole found herself with a tuition bill last year. She was working, but it wasn’t enough.

“I had a gap and had to take a parent PLUS loan at a really high interest rate,” she said. “It stressed me out. I didn’t really want to take it, but I didn’t have much choice.”

The health studies major who is minoring in psychology and planning a health career working with children said the cost of college is a source of stress for her and many of her peers.

“I basically rely on the Pell Grant to go to college. Without that and the Crusade scholarship, I don’t know how I’d afford college,” she said. “When you’re looking at the cost of college, you’re like, ‘Oh, my gosh; this is so much money to do this.’ But just so you can have a better life in the future, yes, you have to continue going.”

She estimates her debt after graduation is more than $20,000 and said college debt weighs heavily on students today and influences their decisions. “I have a couple of friends that don’t have anyone to support them for college payments. Some took a gap year, some never came back, some went to CCRI. Debt was on a lot on people’s minds,” she said.

The College Crusade is a member of the National College Attainment Network, which is advocating that Congress double the amount of the maximum Pell award to $12,690 per year in the next COVID relief package. This would cover about 50 percent of the cost of attending a public four-year college like URI. The maximum Pell Grant right now covers roughly 28% of the average cost of tuition, fees and living expenses for a four-year public university versus 79% at its historic high in 1975-76.

Doubling Pell “would be amazing,” she said.  “I think it would help us a lot because being in college is already stressful and then we also have to worry about going to work to be able to provide for ourselves and live on campus. A lot more students would be able to pay for their books. They wouldn’t need to work so much and could focus on their studies. There’d be fewer loans to take out and less stress all around.”

“If Pell Grant was increased, it would mean more money to help provide meals and be closer to campus.” This fall, as part of URI’s response to COVID-19, she recently learned she couldn’t get on-campus housing, so she and some friends are trying to find something near campus. “I’d have an hour and 30-minute bus ride from my home in Providence,” she said. Because she’s a science major, she’ll have in-person labs that will require her to go to campus.

“Honestly, it’s very stressful because I feel like we shouldn’t really have to pay this amount of money to have to go to school, so if the government could help and increase Pell it would be a huge benefit on our part.”

Christopher Germosen will be a sophomore this fall at the University of Rhode Island, where he’s on track to complete the final courses he needs to get into the College of Engineering. By spring, he will be a mechanical engineering major with a focus in robotics – an interest sparked when he was a student at Providence Career and Technical Academy.

But getting to college involved sacrifices. “Receiving the Pell Grant is the reason that I attend college,” he said. “At first college was a reach for me. My parents weren’t too sure that they would be able to send me to college because of the cost. I am the first from my immediate family to attend college. My parents and I carefully looked over all the grants and scholarships I received and decided that we would sacrifice what we had to in order for me to attend college. College is so important to me because without it I can’t pursue the career I wish to have.”

Even with his maximum Pell award and other scholarships, he will graduate with $24,000 in debt plus interest.

“There is a big gap between my financial aid and the rest of my tuition. I have earned some scholarships to help close that gap but still have a good amount of money to pay,” he said. “The way my family helps me cover that is by taking out loans. I am obligated to take out $6,000 in loans each year.”

The College Crusade is a member of the National College Attainment Network, which is advocating that Congress double the amount of the maximum Pell award to $12,690 per year in the next COVID relief package. This would cover about 50 percent of the cost of attending a public four-year college like URI.

The maximum Pell Grant right now covers roughly 28% of the average cost of tuition, fees and living expenses for a four-year public university versus 79% at its historic high in 1975-76. Germosen said he thinks this is unfair.

“It’s set up for us to not pursue a higher education when we all should. Pursuing a higher education opens up doors we thought couldn’t be opened; it puts us in a great position to be successful,” he said.

He said the fear of debt has a huge impact on students’ college choices. “Speaking from experience, the debt is on my mind every day, especially when I receive my E-bill for the semester,” he said. “I have a few friends that don’t attend college because of the cost. Instead, they stopped their education after high school and got a full-time job.”

If Congress doubled the maximum Pell award, Germosen thinks more students would attend college. “The reason people set out to do other things, for example find a full-time job after high school, is because they can’t afford to go to college. Doubling the Pell Grant would change a lot of lives for the better. It would give a choice to people that they thought they never had.”