Fewer college students to receive NC financial aid

Raleigh, N.C. An estimated 6,000 qualified North Carolina college students won't be getting the financial assistance they might have gotten final year as the result of the state's $19.7 billion spending plan.Steve Brooks, executive director of the North Carolina Education Assistance Authority, that administers tuition assistance to students, pronounced Wednesday that lawmakers reduced need-based financial aid for the University of North Carolina System by 9 percent for 2011-12.Tuition assistance funding final year was the combination of recurring money as well as the one-time allocation of $35 million. Lawmakers kept all of the recurring funds in the 2012 mercantile budget though dropped the one-time amount.About $200 million is still available for need-based grants for approximately 60,000 students, Brooks said."The bottom line is that the little students have been going to get less financial aid than they got in the past, even though their costs have been going to go up."In February, the UNC Board of Governors approved in-state tuition increases on the system's 13 campuses, including the maximum tuition increase of 6.5 percent at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, East Carolina University as well as Fayetteville State."The General Assembly did work hard to protect students," Brooks said. "Unfortunately, because of the little quirks in the approach it was funded in the past, they were not able to hold the line completely for the UNC students."North Carolina's private colleges will also see about the 12 percent cut in need-based assistance. Community colleges have been not affected.A taking flight sophomore studying containing alkali engineering at North Carolina State University, Liana Lewis, comes from the big family as well as says her parents could not afford her tuition without financial aid."It's kind of scary," she said. "I know I would probably not be able to take as many classes. I'd probably have to be the part-time student."Situations like Lewis' could put more demand on communi! ty colle ges, where tuition is less, Brooks said. It could also require students to take out additional loans or look for other grants as well as scholarships.Lewis pronounced she is considering other alternatives."I will only have to stay more focused as well as maybe get the job," she said.But, she said, she hopes she can avoid adding that to her already-hectic schedule, though will do what it takes to stay in school.