“Everybody knows if you’re a college student, you usually don’t have a lot of money. And what you’re spending your money on is usually like books and food,” says Tessa Wallace, Marketing Coordinator at the Davenport Public Library. She speaks from her own college experience in 2017.
As of this year, the average student owes $30,464 in loans according to the World Population Review. In Illinois, it’s $37,757.
Saint Ambrose University Financial Aid Specialist Alvin Vesey says it’s critical that students understand the financial impact of interest.
“In the financial aid world, that’s the biggest part of the game,” says Vesey. “Whether the loans that you’re borrowing [are] from the federal government, or you have to go the route of a private source, it’s going to be building that interest on you.”
Vesey says student finances can sometimes sound like a foreign language.
“Understanding the difference between a loan and a grant, and just really helping them (students) find all the ways to access what we call the ‘good money’, or the free money that you don’t have to pay back,” says Vesey.
For students local to the Quad Cities, free resources may be easier to access than you think, starting with study rooms at the Davenport Public Library.
“Group projects, it’s like, this is exactly what you needed. I know at my college, we had little group areas, but they were constantly booked out,” says Wallace.
They’ve also got free access to printers, textbooks, and even courses.
“There’s over 15,000 standardized test preps. Flash cards, and videos, and all types of resources for all of those standardized tests. But we also have audio books, eBooks… if you use those in the library, you can get a Chromebook to use.,” says Wallace.
With increased tuition rates, Wallace encourages students to take advantage of their free resources to save some cash.
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