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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Thursday, June 19, 2003

Earlier college planning urged

By Jennifer Hiller
Advertiser Education Writer

A Hawai'i partnership says that parents and students overestimate tuition costs and other hurdles to earning a bachelor's degree.

A survey done by GEAR UP Hawai'i, a partnership financed by a $10 million federal grant that encourages middle school students to start thinking about college, showed that parents and students overestimate the price of college tuition.

Susan Kanagawa, project director for GEAR UP Hawai'i, said the survey shows that more Hawai'i families need information about financial planning and the college preparatory classes students need to take in high school and in middle school.

"We've got to educate both the parents and the students," Kanagawa said.

GEAR UP, which stands for Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs, provides college resources, scholarship opportunities, tutoring and parent activities, as well as professional development for math and language arts teachers. This summer GEAR UP is offering "algebra camps" as a way to prepare low-income students for high school classes.

Cost of college

A survey has found that Hawai'i's parents and students overestimate what it costs to go to college.

  • Annual tuition at the University of Hawai'i-Manoa: $3,120
  • What parents think it costs to go to UH: $14,219
  • What students think it costs to go to UH: $10,180

— Source: GEAR UP Hawai'i

It focuses on middle school students because Kanagawa said that by the eighth grade students need to start planning for college.

The program started in Hawai'i in 2000 and targets low-income families as a way to close the gap between low- and high-income students when it comes to earning a bachelor's degree.

Students from public high schools in high-income communities are more likely to go to college than their peers from lower-income communities, even when both groups have been high academic achievers, according to the U.S. Department of Education.

There is also a gap in college preparation. Low-income students are less likely to take the more difficult high school coursework and earn a 3.0 grade-point average than their high-income counterparts, the GEAR UP survey said.

And although both low- and high-income families worry about college costs, going to college isn't nearly as costly as people think.

Statewide, parents estimated the cost of one year of tuition at the University of Hawai'i-Manoa to be $14,219. The parents of GEAR UP children estimated the costs even higher, at $18,094 per year.

UH-Manoa costs about $3,120 per year.

Students also overestimated the cost of college, but not as much as their parents. Students estimated the cost of the Manoa campus to be $10,180 and a UH community college to cost about $7,608. The tuition cost at a community college is about $1,032 per year.

"The big emphasis of GEAR UP is to change that culture of thinking about college," said Gale Mejia, public relations specialist with the program.

The survey showed that while most parents expect their child to go to college, not everyone has started planning for tuition costs.

While nearly 80 percent of parents across the state expect to help pay for their child's college costs, only half have begun saving to do so. Many parents also expect their children to earn academic scholarships (65 percent), to work during college (65 percent), to take out student loans (62 percent) or to receive an athletic scholarship (30 percent) to help with the tuition costs.

Just 10 percent of students expect to pay for college with a student loan. Most intend to work their way through school and receive help from their families.

Kanagawa said these are the types of expectations that parents and children need to talk about well in advance of a student's junior or senior year in high school.

There are 32 GEAR UP middle schools in Hawai'i that recently invited eighth-graders to join the program. GEAR UP scholars must earn at least a 2.0 grade-point average, commit no class A or B behavioral offenses and resolve to stay in school, stay out of trouble and prepare for college.

More than 2,000 students from the class of 2006 have joined GEAR UP. Of those, 37 percent were Hawaiian or part-Hawaiian, 53 percent were eligible for the federal free or reduced-price lunch program and 64 percent would be in the first generation of their families to go to college.

The enrollment period for the class of 2007 ended last week.

In Hawai'i, GEAR UP is a partnership between UH-Manoa, the Department of Education and community partners.

Nationally, the federally financed GEAR UP tries to bring the college message to middle school students. Research shows that students who take more challenging coursework in middle school are more likely to find success in high school and continue onto college.

Reach Jennifer Hiller at jhiller@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8084.