The rising cost of higher education has been increasingly at the forefront of national education concerns. While several of the top-tier schools are taking steps to address the neediest students, these only impact a very small population.
The majority of parents — even upper-middle-class parents — are feeling the squeeze. The cost of tuition, particularly at state schools as well as those historically considered second- and third-tier, continues to rise. Federal funding for higher education has been increasingly shifting from grants to loans. And now that we’re in a nationwide credit crunch, it may get tougher to secure a student loan. Private lenders are scaling back on the number and size of the loans they make.