Work-Incentive Programs Ease Tuition Pressure

Updated on February 28, 2008.

AS FAR AS ACADEMIC passions go, 17-year-old Esther Steier is flexible. Unfortunately, her financial situation isn't so lenient.

So when it came time to choose a college, the Glendale, N.Y., teen had a tough decision to make: Accept an offer from her top choice — the $26,000-a-year University of Massachusetts Amherst — and study whatever she wants or join the TIME 2000 Math-Teacher program where she'd get a free ride at Queens College, but must commit to a rigorous program in math education.

Even though she had never considered a career as a math teacher before, Steier opted for the latter. The free tuition was too big of a draw. On top of paying the $4,000 a year in Queens College's tuition, TIME 2000 offered other perks such as tutoring jobs that pay up to $30 an hour and the chance to attain her teacher's certification without having to get a master's degree. But all of this comes with a catch: By her junior year, Steier must pledge two years of her post-graduate life to being a math teacher or discontinue the program — and the free ride.

Steier's choice to sign up for a work-incentive program is one that an increasing number of cash-strapped undergrads, as well as graduate students, are making. Just as ROTC trains students for post-graduate stints in the military, these programs aim to remedy staffing shortages in fields such as teaching, nursing and social work by offering to repay student loans or pay tuition upfront for those who study a given field and pledge to work in that field following graduation.

It may seem as if the academic and career restrictions these programs impose are a curse to the spirit of intellectual curiosity and academia. But with college tuition rising at almost twice the rate of inflation and the average college senior graduating with more than $20,000 in debt, students who want secure jobs and little debt upon graduation are finding these programs a much more attractive option.

"[A]n increasing number of young people are obliged to be very hard-nosed and choose lower-cost educational programs, mainly for the economic return," says Anya Kamenetz, author of "Generation Debt."

Nonprofits, corporations, colleges and state and federal governments are all offering work-incentive programs. The TIME 2000 program that Steier is embarking on is being sponsored by a foundation and Computer Associates, a software company that has a vested interest in getting more math-literate students into the work force. State governments that are desperate to fill shortages in areas such as health care, education and social work, have also jumped on the bandwagon. For them, these programs serve an added purpose: keeping young talent in-state.

In Maryland, for example, the Workforce Shortage Student Assistance Grant Program offers financial assistance in studies such as education, occupational and physical therapy, human services, social work and nursing. Students must be Maryland residents and enrolled in a two or four-year, in-state school (public or private) to receive a minimum of $1,000 a year (the maximum changes each year) toward tuition. The award is enough to cover more than half the yearly cost at the University of Baltimore — one of Maryland's most expensive state school. In return, graduates must provide one year of service in the field they studied for every year they received the award.

New Hampshire's like-minded Workforce Incentive Program offers up to $10,000 in financial assistance over five years. New Hampshire residents can pursue physics or foreign languages, as well as areas such as nursing, special education and math. Like Maryland, the recipients have to put in a year of service for each year that they are covered financially.

But perhaps the biggest payoff of these programs comes at the graduate level. One of the most generous is the Loan Repayment Assistance Program (LRAP), which helps repay loans for law students who practice public-interest law following graduation. With an average debt of $90,000 from federal and private student loans, law-school graduates can expect to pay lenders more than $1,000 a month. That's doable for those who pull in six-figure salaries at corporate law firms. But for entry-level public-interest lawyers — whose average salary is $43,000 a year, according to the National Association for Law Placement — that's a near impossible feat.

Thanks to LRAP, those grim statistics didn't stop 32-year-old Kim Thuy Seelinger from following her dream to practice public-interest law. Seelinger did her research on the LRAPs offered by each of the schools she was interested in and chose New York University's law school. (Information on most school-sponsored LRAPs can be found on web sites for individual law schools.)

"NYU's incredible effort to become the leader in international law and public-interest law was enough of a draw — but [its] LRAP was the clincher," Seelinger says. NYU's LRAP now covers nearly 80% of her $160,000 in student loans. "They send me a check every quarter, and I pay my monthly installments to Sallie Mae directly," says Seelinger, who now works at the Center on Gender and Refugee Studies at UC Hastings College of Law.

But, as Seelinger concedes: "Life on LRAP is not perfect." Applicants must meet criteria that can vary greatly based on the LRAP's provider. Every year participants must reapply for the program. Eligibility depends on financial need — namely their level of salary — and the type of public-interest law they're practicing.

To navigate through the sea of options, Heather Wells Jarvis, program manager for Law School Advocacy at Equal Justice Works, an organization promoting the work of public-interest lawyers, points students and graduates to the E-Guide to Public Service at America's Law Schools — an online tool that searches LRAPs by school, state, or type of practice.

Of course, there are also programs to repay loans in other graduate fields such as health care. The National Health Services Corps offers a Loan Repayment Program (LRP) available to nurses, physician assistants, doctors, dentists and mental-health professionals. For a two-year commitment of service in a critical shortage area in the U.S., participants may receive a maximum of $25,000 a year to put toward their loans.

Work-incentive programs may not always coincide with one's calling like it did for Seelinger, but for most participants gaining the peace of mind that their tuition or student loans are paid for and there's job security at the other end of their degree is worth the trade-off. Already sounding like a teacher, TIME 2000's Steier insists: "This is a lot more practical and sets a goal."