A New Worry From the COVID-19 Crisis: Paying for College 

The College Crusade of Rhode Island, the home of Rhode Island GEAR UP, was recently featured in Education Week, for their response to the current crisis high school seniors are facing: how to pay for college now that everything has changed. Even though students had been planning extensively for a college dream since middle school, the COVID-19 pandemic changed it all. Students were now not only navigating college admissions and college costs, but financial instability, unimaginable health concerns, and more. How are they to attend college as freshman in the fall when it now feels impossible? Andrew Bramson, Rhode Island GEAR UP Director says, “Even if families have gotten stimulus checks, the first thing that they're thinking about using them for is not deposits for college in the fall." The article explores the impact COVID-19 has had on the college going process in Rhode Island and across the U.S.