Stranded Credits

[Alpha]

Ohio steps up to solve a problem
Ohio colleges offer former students a pathway back to higher education with new ‘stranded credit program’ - cleveland.com

[dfrecore]

So, students can enroll, and pay even more money that they don't have and will need to borrow, in order to get up to $2500 for 1 semester (and can repeat for another semester), toward their previous debt.

Granted, Ohio has decent in-state rates for college (roughly $2000/semester for CC's and $6,000/semester for 4yr schools), but this doesn't fix the problem.  I'm betting they'll be further in the hole when they're through with those 2 semesters.

Some examples:

You owe $1000 to your CC.  You enroll, adding $2000 to your balance, and at the end, they give you $1000 towards your old debt.  You're now $2000 in the hole (because you're still not qualifying for any aid due to owing your school money). Now, if you have cleared up your debt, and qualify for the Pell grant, then it would have been worth it.  Because you now get that 2nd semester paid for by Pell grants.  But I'm guessing this is not going to be the case for most, that they probably owe quite a bit more.  And they still owe that $2000.

You owe $6,000 to your state school. You enroll, adding $6000 to your balance.  They forgive $2500.  You're now $9500 in the hole.  You still can't get your transcripts until you clear up your entire balance (says so right in the article).

I am just not seeing how students come out ahead in this.  Please show me a scenario where this works to the student's favor.

[bjcheung77]

It is weird, I read the article twice and a bit confused how that's going to work either... It's like you have to pay for more courses just to get a discount OR for them to release your transcripts. I'm not sure how that is helpful, unless the student is about done with their courses and missing just 1 or two and they can "pay" off the remainder of the debt.

[rachel83az]

I agree; it looks like this is most useful for students who are only a semester or two away from finishing a degree. Or, better yet, a class or two away from finishing a random certificate they had no interest in before. It's still a bad deal for 99.999% of students, IMO.