Outside the Bubble: How the Bay Area Pays for College

College–aged Lamorindans represent only a small portion of the Bay Area’s undergraduate demographic; what the community’s overall ability to pay its tuition checks does not represent is that just outside these borders reside students of a comparable academic capability yet fully dissimilar financial background.

To say that this is a fact gone unnoticed, however, is quite false. Organizations such as Beacon College Funding Solutions, a San Francisco-based education financing business, and Students Rising Above, a 501(c)3 non-profit also located in San Francisco, are making sure that the Bay Area’s college students can afford to reach graduation day.

Simply put, Beacon College Funding “helps families figure out the best way to send their students to college,” says CFA Nancy Corrigan. “[These] services help all families – from those that have very little resources to help their student and may need a lot of financial aid, to families that will not qualify for any need-based aid but want to pay for college in an optimal way (minimize costs, maximize tax savings, etc.).”

As a highly experienced financial planner, Corrigan knows the hidden secrets of the financial aid application process from all angles. What’s more, she uses this extensive knowledge to get students from all walks of life through college funding with as few loans and debts as possible.

“I tell people that their families will fall into one of three categories: those with low incomes…[in which] everything they earn goes to survival… families who will get some need based aid…and families that have more than enough money for income and can write a check,” she says.

“My plan is not simply to get student number one into freshman year…because financial aid has to be redone every year, we work with the families throughout all four years.”

And some of those families may be closer to Lamorinda than is noticed. According to Corrigan, the middle class often falls through the cracks in the financial aid process.

Whereas many people only see two ends of the spectrum – the poorest, those whose annual income falls lower than $40,000, and the wealthiest, those who have never heard of the FAFSA– there is a middle ground. “[And] it’s these families in the middle that are being squeezed,” says Corrigan.

Lamorindans may fit into that middle gap. There is a certain affluent nature to this region of Contra Costa, there’s no denying that. But the lifestyle required to afford the East Bay has the capability to impinge on tuition checks.

That breadth is the key to understanding that there are few exceptions to the need for financial assistance, a process complicated greatly by the education system. As much as schools at the high school and university level strive to help, “74% of FAFSAs go in with errors,” says Corrigan. “It looks like an obvious form, but there are a lot of layers to peel back.”

“It’s a huge need nationwide, and there are not that many people who devote their time to this,” she says. Schools do their best to dissect the process into simplified steps, but “most guidance counselors I’ve talked to have been told by their principals to not talk about money,” says Corrigan. “To have them act as counselors, accountants, and lawyers is unrealistic.”

More distant from the Lamorinda lifestyle, though still very much a local project, is Students Rising Above (SRA), an organization founded fourteen years ago by news anchor Wendy Tokuda that supports financially underprivileged Bay Area students in their college experiences, all the way from finances to exam preparation. Reaching out to nearly 700 applicants per year in all 11 Bay Area counties, “we try to connect the dots,” says SRA Executive Director Lynne Martin. “Where high school programs end, we begin.”

Unlike close to half of Beacon’s clients, close to 100% of SRA students are the first in their families to attend college. About 72% of those students come from foster care or are living without a parent. Yet they all boast not only impressive academic records but just as accurate moral compasses as well. “These are kids who have the ability to rise above circumstances that were beyond their control…we don’t only pull the 4.0s,” says Martin. “We look for kids who give back. It’s not a charity, it’s a loan. When students pay it forward is when we feel that we’ve been paid back.”

With almost 200 matriculating students this past academic year, SRA can confidently say that this method has been, and still is luctrative. But what makes Students Rising Above unique is its action beyond the financial factor.

“There are other programs that do part of what we do, but not the whole package,” says Martin. “We want to give the students opportunities for career assessment, summer internships, resume building, interviewing skills, and networking opportunities…we want them to have a portfolio of skills.”

Most unique to the SRA system are its advisor and mentor programs. “Just because a student gets their diploma doesn’t mean they’re done with us,” says Martin. “They need help with making the transition from high school to college, and college into the workforce.”

This is where advisors, paid employees with five to six year commitments to the program, and mentors, local volunteers, come into play as two different types of safety net. While the former acts as college and financial help just a phone call away, the latter is available around the clock for one-on-one attention.

“Advisors are assigned to students immediately and work with their students from the beginning until they graduate from college,” says Martin. “They help with academics, but also with emotional and social challenges of being in college.”

Mentors, on the other hand, are not financially involved. “This is a relationship of time and friendship,” says Martin. While one advisor may be responsible for multiple students at any given time, mentors are strictly dedicated to one specific student.

To say that this portion of the program is effective would be an understatement; the SRA graduation rate has increased from 50 to 90% since the Advisor Program was first introduced. Furthermore, the involvement of outside adults allows students a greater feeling of independence from their family backgrounds.

“We don’t work with the families per se, we work with the students,” says Martin. “A lot of families aren’t excited about [the process].”

Though there is demand for such programs in urban areas across the country, what Lamorinda readers ought to take away is that the immediate surroundings are desperate for this kind of attention. “Someday we may expand outside the Bay Area, but the philosophy is ‘why do that when there are so many in our own backyard that need our help?’” says Martin. “I can drive you 20 minutes from where you are and we’ll be in a pocket of poverty.”

“From a societal standpoint we’re going to pay for these students either way,” says Martin. “And this way is a whole lot more fun.”