Thinking of students’ basic needs to sustain their lives, the first thing that comes to mind is food, shelter and clothing, which are everyone’s basic needs to live. However, looking at other important services like healthcare and education to satisfy these basic needs is essential.
Education is the key to a successful future; the more knowledge you gain, the more opportunities will open up. But college tuition and expenses make students’ life complicated.
College tuition, food, gas, textbooks and day-to-day expenses make college a big financial burden. Some students drop out because they can’t afford college and don’t have enough time to study because they have to work to pay the tuition and other expenses.
Omar Kadour, a full-time student at Madison College, shared his financial situation for his first year at Madison College.
“I have been saving up for four years because I don’t want to apply for a loan and be in debt,” Kadour said.
Kadour lives with his family because he can’t afford to pay for college tuition and housing. He calculated the basic weekly expenses between food and gas, were at least $80, and approximately $3,000 for tuition that he paid in cash per semester.
“I was so excited to start college, and now I can’t stop thinking of how I’m going to afford next year’s tuition,” Kadour shared.
However, thinking of paying college tuition besides all the other expenses make students live under pressure, causing, in most situations, financial anxiety. The impact of financial anxiety on overall mental health has become a common issue among students, leading to not focusing on school and sometimes failing classes or, in a worse scenario, dropping out of college.
Since college is becoming more expensive, students sometimes try to save money in other ways, like saving on food costs, which usually leads to food insecurity. This affects students’ ability to succeed academically.
Food insecurity can look like students attending campus events only looking for food, reducing their food intake to make groceries last longer, skipping meals, purchasing less nutritious food and deciding between buying school supplies or buying food. All these factors may cause anxiety and stress, which can adversely affect mental health.
Student emergency funding is available at Madison College for those who need assistance. Requests for assistance can be made once a semester. To learn more or to request emergency funds, visit https://students.madisoncollege.edu/emergency-funding.
In addition, students can get food assistance from the Cupboard Food Pantries at Madison College’s Truax and Goodman South Campus. Both offer curbside pickup, where students can receive 10 pounds of non-perishable foods a week. Visit the college’s website and search “food pantry” for information about open dates and times.
Inflation has climbed this year, affecting life expenses, including education expenses. Students can connect with college advisors to learn how to get the help they need to reach their goal of completing their degrees.