Can you go to college without financial aid?

With the averatge cost of attending a public university being roughly $67,000 for four years (let's round that to $17,000 per year) how many people (and who are they) can afford school without financial aid? If you are lucky you can land a grant or scholarship. According to an article from USNews.com, only half of students get any kind of grant or scolarship and the aid recieved averages only $4,000 per year. Big help, right? That leaves students and parents with $13,000 per year to cover - if the student got a grant or scholarship.

Even with the assistance of scholarship or grants, that leaves the student straddled with $52,000 in debt when they graduate. Some of us know first hand what it means to carry college debt into the next stages of our lives. And for those of us still carrying this debt, the cost could be going up. On the graduated repayment plan, loan payments increase with time. Unless you consolidate student loans or refinance the loans to lock in an interest rate and payment, you could be subject to these scheduled increases as well as the interest rate changes.

We are facing an interest rate hike on outstanding and future federal student loans on July 1. Students, graduates, and parents should be aware of the changes coming to student loan refinancing interest rates. Students who apply before July 1 can lock in rates of no more than 4.75 percent. Those who graduated more than six months ago can cap their rates at 5.375 percent. And parents with at least one unconsolidated loan can set a ceiling of 6.125 percent on their PLUS loans, saving themselves perhaps $1,000 in payments over the life of a $10,000 loan.