The Miami Student Oldest university newspaper in the United States, established 1826
TUESDAY, APRIL 16, 2013
VOLUME 140 NO. 52
MIAMI UNIVERSITY OXFORD, OHIO
TODAY IN MIAMI HISTORY In 1982, The Miami Student reported the addition of a 1967 London double-decker bus on campus. Dwarfing traffic, the bright scarlet behemoth carried students from the nearby Candlewood Terrace Apartments to the Shriver Center upon every hour. Apartment owner Edward Kostic said, “It perfectly compliments the charm that is Oxford.”
Student debt increases with rising tuition BY JM RIEGER
EDITOR AT LARGE
The following article is part one of a three-part series on education at Miami University. Miami University senior Jake Westfall considers himself lucky. Westfall will graduate in May with a degree, Latin honors and enters the job market with three internships and three campus leadership positions on his résumé. However, like many Miami students, Westfall will graduate with student debt totaling more than $48,000. This year, Miami students are projected to graduate with nearly $28,000 in debt, $4,000 more than the national average for fouryear public colleges and universities, according to the College Board. Nationally, student debt rose nearly 18 percent between 2001 and 2011.
More than 40 percent of Miami undergraduates receive need-based aid, although the university has met less than 60 percent of students’ demonstrated need over the past five years, as determined by the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA). “Meeting unmet need is a thing that very few institutions can do now across the country,” Brent Shock, director of the Office of Student Financial Assistance, said. “It is for 99.9 percent of the institutions across the country, meeting need is just not commonplace. And is not something that I think we’ll see happen anytime soon.” This year the university is projected to meet 56 percent of demonstrated student need, according to the Common Data Set. Meanwhile, Miami student borrowing increased nearly 55 percent over the last 10 years, and 54 percent of last year’s graduates took out student loans. Rising student debt levels have impacted students like Westfall. “It has changed my experience while at school,” Westfall said. “My classes are more important to me, what I do, what I make, what
LAUREN OLSON THE MIAMI STUDENT
Miami University senior Jake Westfall will graduate with more than $48,000 of student debt, $20,000 more than the average Miami student.
I spend, what I look at, what I consider important or significant all matter because I know that I paid every step of the way to be here.” Shock said the increase in student debt can be attributed to two factors. “I think it’s the financial, economic climate and I think it’s the expanded borrowing that the federal government has permitted,” Shock said. “And I think it’s more of the former versus the latter; I really think it’s the economy. We also have an unprecedentedly high number of students across the country entering college for the first time. When people lose their jobs, the safest, most common sense thing to do is to better yourself and better your chances of getting another job by furthering your degree.” Miami’s net in-state tuition increased more than 85 percent from 2002 to 2012, outpacing the national average for four-year public institutions by more than 25 percent. This year, Ohio residents paid more than $13,000 to attend Miami’s Oxford campus and outof-state students paid more than $28,000, a 71 percent increase over 10 years. As tuition has risen, so have other related costs. Miami’s room and board costs have increased more than 58 percent over the last 10 years, rising from more than $6,600 in 2002 to more than $10,500 in 2012. The total estimated cost of attendance grew from more than $28,000 to more than $46,000 for out-ofstate students and from more than $18,000 to nearly $31,000 for Ohio residents, a 65 percent increase. As costs at Miami have increased, students like Westfall have closely monitored their finances. “I plan my life out weeks and months at a time, which I guess is different than most college students that I have to have an investment plan [and] a savings plan,” Westfall said. “So when I do take opportunities, such as internships, sometimes that does affect me financially, but again then you have to [measure] the opportunity versus the financial burden.” Others, like senior Anna Humeniuk, have relied on their parents. Humeniuk’s parents have taken out more than $42,000 in student PLUS loans to finance her Miami degree. “It puts like this damper on Miami because it should be a really good time and a really great experience, but you constantly have this nagging stress of knowing that you’re going into debt,” Humeniuk said.
Although, according to university officials, Miami has increased aid and controlled costs while giving students a strong return on investment. The university’s average financial aid package grew nearly 73 percent over the last 10 years. “At the end of the day, while we know students are really focused on their ability to afford the education today, the reality is once they leave Miami they’ll recognize that the quality of the experience is really what will have the impact on their life,” David Creamer, vice president for finaxnce and business services said. “We constantly have to figure out how to balance affordability with the quality of the experience.” PayScale.com ranked Miami first in 2012 among Ohio public universities for best salary potential after graduation, and SmartMoney.com ranked Miami 11th in the nation in 2012 for return on investment. However, rising student loan default rates nationally have raised concerns among some economists. “For a variety of reasons we are getting away from the idea that college should be affordable by anybody who wants to do the work and effort to get a degree,” James Brock, Miami economics professor, said. “It is becoming increasingly unaffordable, even with financial aid, or it comes at a very high price in terms of debt.” According to the most recent
Department of Education data, 6 percent of borrowers at fouryear public institutions defaulted within two years, and that number jumps to more than 9 percent for all college borrowers both in Ohio and nationally. More than 5 percent of Miami students defaulted on federal loans in the same period according to the Department of Education, although Shock said less than 1 percent of Oxford campus students default on federal loans every year. Despite higher education’s rising costs though, Westfall said what is most important is the quality of education students receive. “I really worried about the quality of the institution I was going to and then figured that any way possible I’d find a way to finance it.” Scan this code to view a video with more on student debt at Miami University. This video aired on MUTV’s “Oxford Week in Review.”
Digital development: Students question shift in job application process BY LIBBY MUELLER SENIOR STAFF WRITER
Though one may argue the pink, scented résumé Elle Woods proudly presented in “Legally Blonde” was overkill, students engaged in the job and internship search constantly look for ways to differentiate their résumés, especially with the rising trend of online submissions through LinkedIn or company websites. Associate Director of Career Services Michael Goldman said a well-written and wellorganized traditional résumé is still indispensable for the job search process. “Now having said that, having a well-written, well-documented LinkedIn profile is becoming increasingly important,” Goldman
said. “The reason these profiles are becoming more and more important is two-fold. One, employers are researching applicants by looking at their LinkedIn profiles, but even more importantly, students can use their LinkedIn profiles now to network with employers for informational interviews and with alumni for job search or internship contacts.” Goldman also said more companies are beginning to advertise jobs and internships on LinkedIn. According to Goldman, the Office of Career Services has begun conducting LinkedIn workshops for students this year. He also said Career Services is offering a new LinkedIn page on its website with models for a LinkedIn page and information on how to use the site.
Goldman said many companies will not accept paper résumés for legal reasons. Large companies are subject to affirmative action requirements and have to record each application to demonstrate efforts to recruit women and minorities and software enables the processing of online résumés to do this reporting, Goldman said. According to marketing professor Dave Rosenthal, companies are also employing software to search résumés that are submitted online. The software finds key words and phrases which fit with the company’s job description or the nature of the skills the company wants for the job opening. Rosenthal said the software is an artificial way of screening candidates. Senior Paige Patton said she
has had more success in her job search handing a hard copy of her résumé to employers rather than applying online because of this filtering candidates system. “Applying online I didn’t really get that much feedback because you know your résumé goes into a system and that [system] picks things out of your résumé,” Patton said. “I’ve had more success turning in a hard copy. It’s just more interactive and I think it works better.” Rosenthal said there is a concerning new tendency among many employers who come to Miami University’s annual career fairs in the spring and fall. “There is a troubling trend and that is that companies are sending their recruiters here to our career fairs and rather than having a
conversation with the students at the career fair and then following it up, what they are doing is having the conversation with the kid and then they’re saying submit your résumé online and so the whole conversation that is being held at the career fair goes out the window,” Rosenthal said. According to Rosenthal, this minimizes students’ strengths and competitive advantage. He said Miami students come across stronger than those from other schools in interactions with employers. “I routinely meet with recruiters and fight with them to encourage them not to do this to make sure they will accept résumés in
RÉSUMÉ,
SEE PAGE 10