At the start of the semester Deshaun Watson (not his real name) needed to come up with $1,151 to pay the rest of his fall semester bill. If he didn’t, he wouldn’t be able to enroll in school for the spring. Looking for answers, he began making his rounds in Foote-Hilyer to make his case to a financial aid adviser, student accounts office, anyone who would listen really.
“I’m lost,” Watson said. He grew increasingly overwhelmed as the financial aid adviser walked him through his options. There were few. Watson had already received all the federal (Pell) grant money he could get. The roughly $45.4 million in need-based financial aid that FAMU distributes among its nearly 8,500 undergraduates was long gone. So too was nearly all of the roughly $4.5 million in scholarships made possible by the FAMU Foundation, most of which had at least some academic requirements attached. Still, Watson watched attentively as he was shown how to use the school’s scholarship portal and how to find information on private loan providers once he maxed out his federal ones.
Stepping into the hallway after the meeting, he could no longer hold back his tears. The way Deshaun saw it, he had two options: cobble together enough loans to get him through his freshman year — likely the first of many times he would have to borrow — or drop out.
“If I can’t get this paid off, it’s over already,” he said.
For financial aid counselors, and student accounts personnel at FAMU, wrenching stories like this one are part of the weekly routine.
Just a half mile up the road at Florida State University, the reality is very different. At Florida State just 28 percent of its roughly 33,000 undergraduate students receive Pell Grants compared to 65 percent at FAMU. The average household income of students at FSU is roughly $115,000 compared to $34,000 at FAMU.
Florida like, many other states, leave finding need-based financial aid up to the university creating major inequities between the haves and have-nots. When a state doesn’t level the playing field, its flagship(s) —with far more public and private resources at its disposal — usually have greater access to additional funds to help financially challenged students remain in school. That can have severe consequences for students who go elsewhere, like FAMU who need help the most.
The inequities in institutional need-based financial aid, is most egregious among HBCU when compared with non-HBCUs. The scope of the problem is compounded by the fact that the vast majority of HBCUs enroll more low-income students than non-HBCUs.
Without an “angel investor” or additional state investments in need based financial aid, HBCUs like FAMU will remain unable to compete with their more well-financed counterparts.
Reluctantly, Deshaun, took out a student loan to pay down his pass due bill and enroll for the spring semester.
“I wish I had money to give him,” said a financial aid counselor. With so little available money and so many students, “you can only do a little bit here and there.”