PI.EDU Class Roster

Everyone, it seems, has a complaint about the schools. Indifferent bureaucracy, change-averse unions, faddish curricula, soaring school taxes matched with mediocre student performance — the list is long and seemingly unchanging.

At the start of yet another school year, it's time for some radical change in your local schools — a specific change that only parents can bring about. It's a thing already being done in some far-off countries but that remains strangely rare here in America. It's something I've tried — and, despite the skepticism of friends and neighbors, it seems to work.

Heidi Stevens

What is this miracle that lies within the reach of nearly every family? It's simple. All you have to do is to start insisting that your children fully apply themselves to their studies — and commit yourself to doing your part. That means making sure they do all the work expected of them as well as their abilities allow. It also means making sure everything at home stands behind these principles and supports the idea of learning.

These will sound like obvious ideas. In fact, given all the distractions of modern life, it is a radical departure from the normal order of things. Let's face it: More than budgets or bureaucrats, more than textbooks or teachers, parents are the reason that kids perform as they do in school.

In a survey of the research, Michigan's Department of Education summarizes the findings neatly: "The most consistent predictors of children's academic achievement and social adjustment are parent expectations of the child's academic attainment and satisfaction with their child's education at school. Parents of high-achieving students set higher standards for their children's educational activities."

One great thing about this statement is that income should not matter, since almost any family can insist that conscientious schoolwork be Job One. The stereotype, of course, is of frantic upper-middle-class parents bombarding their precious little ones in utero with Mozart and then hectoring teachers and hiring tutors right up until the Harvard application essay.

But my impression is that many prosperous parents pay mere lip service to education. A study of elementary-school families last year in the Quarterly Journal of Economics bears this out. Researchers at Brigham Young and the University of Michigan found that parents preferred teachers who make their children happy over those who emphasize academic achievement. My experience in a nonobsessive school district is consistent with this. Our family's intense focus on learning is regarded warily by some parents, whose dissatisfactions with school are mostly about testing and creativity but never about a lack of foreign-language instruction or overall academic rigor. Indeed, teachers have reported watering down the public middle-school curriculum in response to parental complaints that it was too difficult.

The lack of demand for serious schooling is the least of it. Too many kids are growing up in homes with little emphasis on reading, learning or culture. Nielsen Media Research reports that Americans ages 2 to 17 spend an average of three hours a day watching television, which is way too much for any good student. In a study of 4,508 middle-school students published two years ago in the journal Pediatrics, researchers found that weekday TV and videogames were strongly correlated with poor school performance.

Reading among the young is also in decline. The National Endowment for the Arts, in a sobering report last year, found that a mere 30% of 13-year-olds read for fun daily (a number that has been shrinking), while 13% hardly ever read for fun (a number that has been growing). The adults weren't much better; by their own report, Americans aged 15 and over spent less than 22 minutes a day on voluntary reading of any kind.

Is it any wonder that our children aren't doing as well in school as we'd like? Can we really blame the educational system, with all its shortcomings, for the failure of American children to emerge from years of costly schooling with a reasonable level of knowledge about the world, or with the ability to read, write, think logically and handle math? I don't think so.

Yet with some parental effort, children can do better. Lord knows I'm no Ozzie Nelson, and "My Three Sons" involved one more than I could ever handle. But I can convey something of my own family's experiment in education, which so far seems to be working.

The first thing we did was to tell our kids that we had no doubt they could do well, and that in fact we expect it of them. We declared that their education is our family's highest priority, and that during the school year everything in our home will revolve around their success in school. We reiterate these messages regularly, and we communicate them to teachers and administrators, making clear that we want to be kept well-informed.

With some effort, we resist the impulse to "help" our boys much with their homework. Would doing push-ups for them strengthen their arms? The same applies to schoolwork, whatever it is — including science projects. But we make sure homework is done early, without loud music or other distractions. We're available for consulting, and while they're still young we review their work nightly.

We keep a tight lid on media. Computer time is limited, there's no gaming system, and during the school week virtually no television. Extracurricular reading is constantly encouraged, and we choose movies with care. For years now we've made a family project out of classic cinema, most of which is highly suitable for kids (and pleases grown-ups as well). "To Be or Not to Be" (1942), in which Carole Lombard and Jack Benny hilariously foil the Nazis, was recently a huge hit with our boys. They can have their jarring music, as long as there's no foul language or misogyny, but during family meals — which we never miss — they can get used to Mahler or Miles Davis.

We're also conscious that incentives matter. Like most kids, ours have spending money, cellphones and most other perks of prosperity. But none of these things are mandatory, and all parties understand that blowing off school will have a high cost. Extracurricular activities hinge on school performance too. Recently I heard from a friend that his teenage son, a superlative athlete, was getting poor grades, so I asked if they'd considered cutting back on sports. "I could never do that to him," my friend said, and I couldn't help thinking: "How could you not do it for him?"

We take the kids to museums and the like, but there's always room for athletics as well as silliness. An occasional brainless blockbuster at the mall on a rainy Sunday doesn't seem to be doing them any harm, and we spend ample time watching the Yankees and "The Simpsons." But it turns out that acing exams is lots of fun for kids too, and once they got going, my guys wanted to keep it up. Who knew?

Kids form lots of habits over the years, some good and some bad. What a nice surprise that doing well in school can be one of them.

Ah, life in the university district. Cheap ethnic food. Vibrant street life. Fresh-faced students whizzing by on bicycles.People who choose to live on the beautiful tree-lined streets surrounding the nation's institutions of higher learning often get a more vibrant experience than they expected — loud parties, rundown student boarding houses and trash generated by weekend melees.

A growing number of universities are starting to take a more proactive approach to monitoring off-campus behavior and neighbors say the efforts are working.

The University of Washington now enforces its campus behavior code off campus as well. A student doesn't need to be charged with a violent crime to activate the campus code at this Seattle university. Being cited for breaking the city's noise regulations is enough to score an invite to the student conduct office.

Architecture professor Earl Bell, who bought a house in the University Park neighborhood 40 years ago, says he has discovered that there's a fine line between convenient and too close.

"We've all got a kind of love-hate relationship with the University of Washington," said Bell, acknowledging that he and his neighbors have noticed a slight improvement lately.

The University of Colorado-Boulder and Penn State also are taking a broader view of offenses that can activate the campus discipline system. In Colorado, the code regulates any conduct that "affects the health, safety or security of any member of the university community or the mission of the university."

Since most college students live off campus, colleges that want to be on top of discipline need to extend their reach beyond their own real estate.

To some, this may sound like an overreaching of university authority; to others, it's a teachable moment.

"We have a responsibility to educate our students about being responsible citizens," said Elizabeth A. Higgins, Washington's director of community standards and student conduct, whose office has "educated" 19 students since the extended code of conduct took effect in January.

The legal ramifications of these policies are not entirely known, said Sheldon Steinbach, an attorney in Washington, D.C., who formerely worked for many years with the American Council on Education, representing school presidents from 1,800 colleges and universities.

"I fully anticipate a judicial challenges over time," Steinbach said.

Penn State's rules are similar to those at the University of Washington, but as university spokesman Bill Mahon points out, he has to first hear about a student behaving badly. Some local police departments work closely with campus authorities, passing along arrest information; others do not.

For example, if a Penn State student breaks the rules over the weekend in State College Borough, the university would probably hear about it on Monday morning, but the same violation in another town would go unnoticed.

"It's an imperfect system," Mahon said.

University of Washington police work with Seattle officers to patrol the area north of campus thick with off-campus housing including fraternities and sororities. Boston College goes further by sending a college official off campus to look for parties and students breaking the law.

An assistant dean of students at Seattle University does something similar via the Internet. A number of parties were shut down this past year after Glen Butterworth spied a page on Facebook publicizing the events. The private university has put its students on notice that cyber-patrolling will continue this year.

The University of Minnesota's campus code is more typical: It is only applied off campus during melees that happen around a campus event. Ohio State University applies its code off campus in cases of assault, drug dealing and major incidents that affect safety on campus.

In New Jersey, Rutgers University polices off-campus behavior only when campus officials have reasonable grounds to believe a student could be dangerous, said university spokeswoman Sandra Lanman. Typically, that means a pending criminal charge relating to a violent crime.

Some universities take their discipline policies a step further. At Duke University, the campus code requires students to report misbehavior by their fellow students to campus officials, no matter where the students find themselves.

In a rural setting, where a university can dominate the community, responsible behavior is much easier to enforce, said Elaine Voss, director of the office of student conduct at Washington State University in rural Pullman, Wash.

A 1998 riot along Greek row and Washington State's national reputation as a "party school" led the university to start taking a more proactive approach to curbing off-campus behavior.

The student code was revised to make the same rules apply to both on- and off-campus behavior. A staff member checks the local police log every day. Campus police forward their log to Higgins' office. Her staff does a lot of on- and off-campus education about alcohol abuse, personal safety and university expectations, including a three-day intensive freshman orientation.

"I think we've made huge strides in calming the place," Voss said.

When college students start the fall term at the state's public universities next week, they can expect fewer choices for majors and classes, more crowded classrooms, and a faculty that's being lured away by other states at an alarming rate.

Deep budget cuts imposed by the state Legislature this year have resulted in the elimination of the industrial engineering major at Florida International University, the Diabetes Research and Training Center at the University of Florida, and many others around the state. The money crunch prompted FIU to put its staff on a four-day work week over the summer.

But even before this year's budget turmoil, Florida's State University System had witnessed at least 10 years of decline in state funding, when adjusted for inflation. That placed the state at or near the bottom nationally in several critical benchmarks of university quality.

Florida now ranks 50th in the nation in faculty-to-student ratio. It is also far below average in funding per student, and last in the number of tenured or tenure-seeking professors per student.

Florida charges the lowest tuition of any state — about $3,500 a year for a full-time load at a four-year institution. That's good for budget-minded students but bad for generating revenue to prop up higher education. And so, programs get eliminated.

"They are cutting too much and eliminating too many programs that could be beneficial to the kids," said Amada Mena, a Miami mother whose two sons attend Florida International University.

To complicate matters, higher-education leaders say a devastating "brain drain" is occurring because professors have received raises in only two of the past five years. Some are going elsewhere. Florida ranks seventh among the 10 biggest states in pay for full-time faculty members, averaging $84,000, according to the National Education Association. Full-time faculty members in North Carolina, the highest paying of the 10 biggest states, earn $97,000 on average.

The State University System is requesting an additional $65 million from the Legislature to give professors a 4 percent raise to stem the outflow. The stewards of the system are asking for an additional $30 million in fresh funding to cover the rising costs of keeping the lights on and the air conditioning running in university buildings. The prospects aren't good, university leaders say, and, in fact, another round of cuts is expected next year.

"I think it's very precarious," Bob Graham, former Florida governor and U.S. senator, said of the system's health. "The university circumstances are the canary in the mine shaft of where the state is going."

ECONOMIC ENGINE

University executives have long argued that higher education is a proven economic engine.

People who obtain a bachelor's degree can expect to earn about $23,000 a year more than those who have only a high-school diploma, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, which means about $2,000 more in annual state and local taxes paid by college-educated citizens.

But Florida is 47th in the nation in bachelor's degrees awarded per capita. Only 27 percent of Florida adults between the ages of 25 and 64 have a bachelor's degree, versus 33 percent in the 10 richest states. Florida, which is among those 10 richest, would have to crank out more than a million bachelor's degrees to hit the average.

"The system in Florida is being poorly funded and slowly strangled," said Charles Reed, who headed Florida's State University System and is now chancellor of the California State University System, the biggest in the United States.

"There's no overall master plan for higher education in Florida. There is no single vision."

Sterling Ivey, a spokesman for Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, said the governor believes that "higher learning environments are important to sustaining an enriching and prosperous state." But the governor, through Ivey, declined to be interviewed for this report on his goals for the university system.

According to statistics compiled by the Board of Governors, which oversees the state's public universities, state funding per student in Florida is at a 20-year low, when adjusted for inflation. In 1990, the state provided $15,800 per full-time student. Today: $12,300 and falling.

`BARELY AT A MINIMUM'

State University System Chancellor Mark Rosenberg said the situation needs remedy.

"The mere fact that we are having to turn away eligible freshman, that we are having serious conversations about shrinking the size of the university system, would suggest we're barely at a minimum."

Higher-education specialists are considering a host of possible solutions, including getting the community college system more involved in granting four-year degrees and reforming Bright Futures, the popular program that pays the tuition of students with exemplary grades, said Miami lawyer Dean Colson. He serves on the University of Miami's Board of Trustees and is a special advisor to Crist on higher education.

There are some bright spots. In the past few years, Florida has added three medical schools — at the University of Central Florida, Florida International University (opening in the fall of next year) and Florida State University. And spending for construction is up.

Former Gov. Jeb Bush defended what he saw as key advancements in higher education on his watch. For example, he said that during the past decade, Florida has seen a 64 percent increase in the number of four-year degrees earned by black students, and a 79 percent increase for Hispanic students.

"We need greater accountability in the system," Bush said in a written response to questions. "We should create a statewide plan for each institution that identifies where they should be in terms of graduation rates, retention rates and degree production." But the basic tenets of undergraduate education are in jeopardy.

Take South Florida, where the largest university, FlU, is reducing undergraduate enrollment and receives less funding per undergraduate student than other state schools, according to documents provided by FIU and confirmed by Rosenberg. This year, the university shut its industrial engineering program to cope with budget cuts, despite projections of growing demand for the field made by the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics.

BRAIN DRAIN

FIU philosophy professor Bruce Hauptli, who was the Faculty Senate representative on the school's board of trustees this year, said all of it is contributing to the brain drain.

"Why wouldn't somebody want to go to another state where they could focus more clearly on their educational objectives, instead of having to worry about cramming more students into a classroom than the fire marshal will allow?" Hauptli said.

FIU receives about 20 percent less per student every year than the average for the State University System.

"There are at least 3,000 qualified students out there, 80 percent minority, who are not attending FIU because we don't have the money," said FIU President Modesto "Mitch" Maidique. "I don't see this letting up. I see us as continuing to bleed."

Maidique said his calculations show that Florida would have to beef up funding for higher education in Florida by $1 billion a year to bring it up to the national average.

But doing so would be difficult — in part because of Bright Futures.

As of 2006, Bright Futures had rewarded 140,000 students, many of whom could afford college on their own, with tuition scholarships amounting to $1.6 billion since 1997.

University of Florida President Bernie Machen said Bright Futures has helped keep many of the state's best students in Florida's schools. But he also said the program makes the Legislature reluctant to increase tuition because doing so would impose a greater financial burden on the state.

One possible solution is to put a cap on the amount of tuition that a Bright Futures scholarship will pay, making the student responsible for the difference. That is already being tested through a program of differential tuition, where the state's top research universities can charge a tuition premium that the students have to pay.

"In Florida, if your family is wealthy and you can afford college, you get it for free," Reed said. "If you're poor, you don't get a chance to go. That's just backward."

NATIONAL RANKING

UF is the only university in Florida ranked by U.S. News & World Report in the top 50 in the United States. This year, the school announced layoffs and program closures. Machen said UF could drop in the rankings if the state doesn't act, threatening to leave Florida the only big state without a single university in the top 50.

"We don't have enough money to remain a high-quality system for very long," Machen said.

Colson acknowledges the challenges facing Florida's universities. He said state schools can expect further cuts in funding in the next two years.

"You can't run a business the size of FIU and not know what the funding will be next year," Colson said. "If you don't stop this slide, you run the risk of hurting our university system for generations."

The University of Southern Mississippi will keep open a residence hall it had planned to close. And Mississippi State University has taken rooms once reserved for overnight renters and filled them with students.

As the start of fall semester approaches, some universities say housing is full or nearing capacity and exceeding expectations. MSU won't say how this year's number of residents compares to last year's. But there is one factor that has the potential to drive growth in dormitory living at all campuses: the economy.

"We saw a slight increase in the number of upperclassmen who wanted to live on campus," said Lorinda Krhut, director of student housing and residence life at the University of Mississippi. "I think it's because of the gas prices, especially if they were commuting from 50 miles away. A lot of students who normally would have commuted may have decided to stay on campus rather than pay the gas prices for going back and forth."

Gas prices this summer flirted with, and in some cases exceeded, $4 a gallon. Last month, the U.S. Department of Transportation estimated that during the first five months of this year, Americans drove 29.8 billion fewer miles than they did during the same period last year. For some students, living on campus rather than buying gas for a daily commute may be a money-saving option.

Ole Miss has room for 3,600 students in residence halls, and Krhut estimates its buildings are about 95 percent full. About 2,500 of those spaces have been assigned to freshmen.

Housing officials won't know exactly how many students they'll have in residence halls until school starts. But as the summer disappears, housing directors are making room for more students.

"We're 98 to 99 percent full in almost every building," said Chris Crenshaw, director of residence life at USM. "In fact, we've got a waiting list for upperclassmen. I have not historically had that problem with upperclassmen."

An increase in freshmen women forced the university to do an about face on its decision to close Elam Arms, a building that historically housed men.

"We looked at our numbers the last of June, the first of July, and we had 300 freshmen women who did not have a place to live," Crenshaw said.

USM is up about 200 students and, given that students show up without having made arrangements, Crenshaw is expecting even more students to apply to live on campus in the next couple of weeks.

It's not uncommon for housing to appear to be full before residence halls open. However, space slowly becomes available during the first couple of weeks of school as administrators re-rent the rooms of students who didn't show up.

"We're bursting at the seams," said Ann Bailey, director of housing and residence life at MSU, where there is room for nearly 4,000 students in housing. "We have several people on waiting lists."

Bailey would not provide numbers.

Since 1993, MSU has used Herbert Hall for conference housing, rooms guests could rent at a nightly rate of less than $50. Because of demand, students have been assigned to live there during the semester. Some students were assigned to Herbert last year but were moved into other residence halls as officials re-rented the rooms of no-shows.

The outcome likely will be different this year.

"There is a great chance people will be in Herbert all year," Bailey said.

Requiring freshmen to live on campus will generate a need for more rooms, but that may be only a slight increase, given that more than 90 percent of freshmen historically have roomed on the Starkville campus.

Not every school has seen a big spike in housing requests. Last week, Jackson State University had assigned around 74 percent of its rooms. Vera Jackson, director of residence life at JSU, said she hasn't seen an increase in students who live within 50 miles seeking housing. Like officials at other schools, Jackson expects more requests for rooms to come in between now and when classes start Aug. 22.

Housing at public universities can range from $1,500 a semester to just more than $3,000 a semester, depending on the campus and the dorm. Given the many who live in apartments have roommates with whom to share expenses, it's difficult to argue that living on campus is always cheaper.

Crenshaw also attributes growth on his campus to marketing the advantages of on-campus living to students and parents. Off-campus apartments, he pointed out, typically don't have staff members who check on students they haven't seen in a few days or provide educational programming. Those who live on campus are encouraged to build relationships with residents in their buildings, a task that might introduce them to a more diverse group of friends than being in an apartment would.

It's this staff-resident relationship Crenshaw and other housing officials tout when promoting dorm life. Housing staff members also share research that says students who live on campus have higher grade point averages, something that might help them get better jobs.

"And because of the social skills acquired from living in a very diverse community like that, (residence hall students) are very successful in their profession when they graduate," Crenshaw said.

On Aug. 14, family members and friends will arrive at residence halls to help students move in. But after all the boxes are unpacked and parents fight back tears, students are left alone to begin a new journey.

Being away from home and living in a traditional dorm with a roommate is a tough adjustment for many students

Sara Beth Pertain, a resident assistant in the Oglethorpe House dorm, provides the following advice on how to survive life with a roommate.

- If something about your roommate is bothering you, don't let it build up.

- Know what bothers your roommate. When Pertain was a freshman, she never knew that she woke up her roommate when she got up for her 8 a.m. class.

- Don't share commonly used things such as a printer or computer. They can become a source of disagreement.

- Set boundaries at the start of the year so you know whether your roommate is comfortable having members of the opposite sex in the room.

- Know that getting involved romantically with someone on the hall can be difficult. Let's face it - it is unlikely you will meet the person you will marry. Break-ups will happen and may not end well.

- Be tolerant of another's lifestyle. If your roommate goes to bed at 10 p.m. and you come back early in the morning, you need to be considerate.

- Be aware that having a relationship back home can be hard because you will go home often and talk on the phone while at school, which will keep you from making new friends.

- Do not isolate yourself by playing video games or by only hanging out with high school friends.

- Make the most out of living in the residence halls, even though it might be rough at times. The people you will meet will be your friends for all of college.

Shopping for accesories for a college dormitory room offers plenty of options. Students can go online to get ideas on how to furnish a room, and some Web sites offer tips on how to think green with the space. Jackson students Abby Agnew and Roderick Tomlin II, who will begin their freshman year in college this month, have their own ideas about how to decorate their dorm room, too.

Consider these student ideas

Dormbuys.com conducted a survey of 1,120 college students in April and found that 92 percent of them think that personalizing their dorm room is an essential aspect to making college living comfortable.

In the survey, students were asked what's most important to them when personalizing their dorm room. Here are their top five answers:

1. Hang pictures.

2. Add color.

3. Hang items of significance, such as posters, drawings or magazine pages.

4. Bring items from home, such as a favorite blanket, pillow or stuffed animal.

5. Add comfortable furniture, from a chair to a futon.

CTMF.edu's decorating tips

Credit cards. Home equity loans. Retirement accounts.

Used to be, these options were last resorts for parents paying for their children's college tuition. Now, tapping into home equity, raiding a 401(k), maxing out Visas and MasterCards, and - the latest craze - borrowing online from strangers, have become more attractive as private student loans have gotten increasingly difficult and more expensive to get.

"It's a tough time for loans," said Bill Simpson, a financial planner at Azimuth Financial Planning in New Hampshire. "People are going to drastic measures to pay for their children's education."

Parents and students are responding to the recent credit crunch, which has pushed several lenders out of the private student loan market.

The Massachusetts Educational Financing Authority on Monday said it would no longer provide private loans to 40,000 students, joining a list of more than 50 private lenders that have stopped issuing student loans this year. And the nation's largest provider of student loans cut the amount of private loans it issues to $7 billion this year, down from $8 billion a year ago.

Meanwhile, remaining lenders are imposing more stringent standards, making it difficult to get a loan and more costly for those who do qualify.

That has some students and parents scrambling to find other options to pay tuition. But financial aid analysts warn that doing things such as borrowing from 401(k)s or charging credit cards could put parents in a financial bind.

"With all the uncertainty in the economy and the job market, the wrong move could cause the parent to lose their home or pay hefty fees," said Karen Busanovich, a Woburn financial planner who specializes in student loans.

To be sure, most experts agree it's wrong to use credit cards to fund a college education. Credit card companies often jack up interest rates if users miss even one payment - sometimes even if they're late paying on another credit card - and add stiff penalties on top of that.

The terms and higher interest rates also make using plastic one of the least attractive options. Additionally, unlike traditional loans, users cannot defer payment while they are in school or take a tax break on interest paid.

"That's a dangerous game that could lead to a downward spiral," Simpson said. "If you don't have the money today, then will you really have the money tomorrow when the bill is due?"

Raiding 401(k) retirement accounts could also be a poor option, even though it might seem like the next logical choice since it is money already saved. Most financial experts strongly warn against it.

Money withdrawn from a 401(k) is often heavily taxed. Borrowers sometimes pay up to 40 percent of the amount in taxes and early withdrawal penalties.

In addition, the loan has to be paid with after-tax money, and again when the retiree cashes out, so the funds are taxed twice.

A growing alternative to using credit cards and tapping into retirement accounts is peer-to-peer lending websites. Financial experts say the sites, which facilitate strangers making loans to others, can be an alternative to raiding retirement accounts and running up credit card bills.

One benefit: The rates are comparable with those of private loans, said Mark Kantrowitz, the publisher of www.finaid.org.

"It hasn't done significant volumes," said Kantrowitz, who estimates the peer-to-peer lending sector issues in the low tens of million of dollars in student loans out of the huge $17.5 billion student loan industry.

"But it looks promising that it would grow over the next several years. It's just not the comprehensive solution to the student loan problem."

Here's how peer-to-peer lending works: In a contemporary version of borrowing from your neighbor, peer-to-peer lenders allow people to list the amount they wish to borrow on the website and the maximum interest rate they are willing to pay. Then, other people agree to lend the money and list the interest rate they plan to charge.

The loans can be attractive because they can be easier to obtain than traditional bank loans. Most peer-to-peer lenders do not use the applicants' FICO score. Instead, sites that handle student loans often use their own scale based on the applicant's academic characteristics, such as their standing in college, grade point average, course of study, and the profile of the educational institution.

One downside to peer-to-peer lending is that the loans often are given piecemeal. Usually lenders offer only a fraction of the total amount of the loan requested, which means borrowers may wind up owing several lenders at a time.

At peer-to-peer lender Fynanz (pronounced finance), based in New York , borrowers can get up to $40,000 a school year at a negotiable rate. But the company says that since its March launch, the largest loan it has funded was for $7,900.

The site is gaining popularity: Fynanz said the number of applications for student loans jumped to 102 on Monday after MEFA's announcement. A week earlier, the company received only 60 applications.

Yasifur Rahman, who pays his brother's way at Queens College in New York, recently requested a $2,600 loan on Fynanz so he could help his brother with tuition and buy him a new laptop. He received small loans from about 10 people, some only lending him $50. The average interest rate was 6 percent.

"Normally I would have took out a small loan or put it on my credit card," said the Queens resident. "But this was a better deal."

Some parents may also think they're getting a deal by taking out a home equity line of credit to pay tuition. Homeowners have long relied on home equity loans to fund major financial purchases, so it's no surprise that parents are looking into them now, said Busanovich, the Woburn planner.

On the surface, home equity loans certainly seem like a great option: They have rates comparable with private loans and easy terms. But just like private loans, they are also less available. The shakeup in the housing market has caused home prices to go down, which means parents might not have enough equity in their home to borrow against. Or worse, if they do get a home equity loan, parents risk losing their homes.

"Parents think they need to sacrifice for their kids," said Simpson, the New Hampshire planner. "But they need to think about themselves."

Meanwhile, Busanovich said parents and students rarely explore one important alternative to private student loans - one that can ease the financial burden of college tuition.

"It doesn't have to be a $40,000-a-year school," she said. "There are good schools that cost less than private. And those are much better options."