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Princeton just made college more affordable by ditching student loans and covering tuition

This sounds radical but it's actually life-changing for students who qualify.

Princeton; student loans; tuition; affordable college
Photo by Joshua Jen on Unsplash

Princeton just made college more affordable.

Many parents know the excitement and apprehension that comes with college application season. We encourage our children to reach for the stars and then sticker shock sets in when they get into their dream school. It's a feeling that will quickly apply the gravity of Jupiter onto any excitement you might have been feeling as a parent, but Princeton, an Ivy League university, is about to change lives. The prestigious school recently announced that it has removed student loans from its financial aid packages and will cover the tuition including room and board for students whose families make less than $100,000 a year.

Whoa! This is huge news, but this isn't the first time Princeton has done something like this. Even before announcing this monumental change, it has granted free tuition for students from families making less than $65,000. The income limit increase will allow the school to help more families afford a higher education. Granted, most kids applying for college won't qualify for entrance to the school due to its highly competitive admissions process. But there are plenty of teens that do qualify and can't attend because the price tag isn't always covered completely by financial aid and scholarships.

Photo by Dom Fou on Unsplash

The current cost of attendance at Princeton for the 2022-2023 academic year is $79,540, which includes room, board and miscellaneous fees. On average, college costs between $11,631 to $28, 238 per year for a public university depending on whether the student is considered in-state or out-of-state. For a private college, the average cost is $43,775. The price difference between Princeton and the average cost of tuition is staggering, but it's Princeton, one of the most prestigious colleges in the United States.

Princeton eliminating the option for student loans in 2001 and now providing a free education for qualifying students will help them graduate without any college debt, likely changing the course of the students' lives. The average student loan borrower owes more than $30,000 in student loans, which has been shown to affect their ability to purchase homes and increase their personal wealth. Eliminating school debt for students from low and middle class households will allow for upward mobility and an easier path forward to building wealth.

But Princeton isn't the only school that took the option for student loans away and offered up free education. Colgate University announced in 2021 that it would do away with what some call predatory student loans and replace them with grants funded by a $1.3 billion endowment. The private New York college also made tuition free for students whose families make $80,000 a year or less.

Photo by Davide Cantelli on Unsplash

Colleges are hearing the concerns about the amount of student debt people have to take on—an issue that causes some people to opt out of college altogether. Yale, Amherst and Harvard have also cut loans from their financial aid packages, vowing to work with parents to provide enough aid through grants that loans won't be needed. If more schools take this approach we could eliminate the normalcy of graduating with mountains of student loan debt that seems to grow no matter if you make timely payments or not.

Sure, it's Princeton and other Ivy League schools that are using their deep pockets to give their students the best start, but if they can do it, what's stopping other schools from reworking their numbers? Student loan debt relief shouldn't begin and end at elite universities. Taking a hard look into the student loan crisis and finding tangible ways to address it at the colleges themselves could lead to an economic shift in the future. Hopefully other colleges continue to take note.

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O Organics
Family

1 in 8 kids in the U.S. experiences food insecurity. One simple grocery choice can help.

It's truly a win-win.

Albertsons

No child should have to worry about getting enough food to thrive.

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When you’re a kid, summer means enjoying the fun of the season—plentiful sunshine, free time with friends, splashing in pools and sprinklers. But not every child’s summer is as carefree as it should be.

For some, summer means going hungry. According to Feeding America, food insecurity affects 1 in 8 children in the U.S., largely because families lose the free or reduced-price meals at school that help keep them fed during the school year.

But back-to-school time doesn’t make food insecurity disappear, either. Hunger is a year-round issue, and with the increased cost of groceries, it’s gotten harder for families who were already struggling to put food on the table.

So what can be done—or more specifically, what can the average person do—to help?

The good news is that one simple choice at the grocery store can help ease the burden a bit for those experiencing food insecurity. And the even better news is that it’s also a healthy choice for ourselves, our families and our planet. When we’re out on our regular shopping trips, we can simply look for the O Organics versions of things we would already buy.

But wait—aren’t we all feeling the pinch at the checkout stand? And isn’t organic food expensive? Here’s the thing: Organic food is often much more affordable than you might think. The cost difference between organic and non-organic products keeps narrowing, and many organic and non-organic foods are now almost identical in price. Sometimes you’ll even find that an organic product is actually cheaper than its brand-name non-organic counterpart.

Since 2005, O Organics has helped give health-conscious shoppers more options by making organic food more accessible and affordable. And now, it’s helping those same shoppers take action to fight food insecurity. For every O Organics product you purchase, the company will donate a meal to someone in need through the Albertsons Companies Foundation—for up to a total of 28 million meals.

Look for the O Organics label in every aisle.O Organics

Here’s what that means in real-world terms:

Say you’re throwing an end-of-summer backyard BBQ bash. If you were to buy O Organics ground beef, hamburger buns, ketchup and sea salt potato chips, you’d be donating four meals just by buying those four ingredients. If you added O Organics butter lettuce and O Organics sandwich slice pickles, you’d be donating two more meals, and so on.

And where are those meals going? Albertsons Companies Foundation works with a network of national and local charities fighting hunger, and regional divisions choose organizations to fund locally. So every O Organics product you purchase means a meal on the table for someone in your area who might not otherwise have the nourishment they need.

No kid should have to worry about getting enough food to thrive. We all make conscious choices each time we walk down a grocery store aisle, and by choosing

O Organics, we can make a difference in a child’s life while also making healthy choices for ourselves and our families. It’s truly a win-win.
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Woman who lives on a cruise ship for free shares the 4 things she can’t do

Living on a ship isn’t perfect. It’s just close to perfect.

via Pixabay/Pexels

A beautiful ocean liner

Upworthy has covered a few stories about people who decided to live permanently on cruise ships because it's cheaper than living on land or in a nursing home. These stories have connected with millions because they say a lot about the modern cost of living but are also aspirational.

Christine Kesteloo has become popular on TikTok with over 680,000 followers because she shares what living on a cruise ship is really like. Kesteloo is the wife of the ship’s Staff Chief Engineer, so she gets to live on the boat for free. She only has to pay for alcohol and soda, which she gets for half off.

“I live on a cruise ship for half the year with my husband, and it's often as glamorous as it sounds,” she told Insider. “After all, I don't cook, clean, make my bed, do laundry or pay for food.“

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'If we dismissed everyone the way we dismiss moms' video hits home, but not just for moms

Phew, this is eye-opening.

My Kinda Mum/Facebook

Mom acts out scenes that flip the script on dismissing moms who vent.

Sometimes it feels like moms can't win. We're supposed to give our all for our kids, sacrifice ourselves for motherhood, fulfill the various responsibilities of child-rearing, and do it all under two unwritten but well-understood rules: 1) Never mess it up, and 2) Never complain.

It's the second rule that feels particularly cruel since the first rule simply isn't possible anyway. (Moms mess up motherhood all the time, even if we don't admit it.) But when we vent about the hard parts, the response is often dismissal, as if we don't have the right to complain or as if doing so means we're not grateful to have our kids.

A viral video from My Kinda Mum illustrates the absurdity of the way people respond to mom complaints with a little script-flipping roleplay.

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People applauded after Mark Wahlberg confronted the DJ at his daughter's dance party

Dad to the rescue.

via TheEllenShow / YouTube

Mark Wahlberg on "The Ellen Show."

Actor Mark Wahlberg recently attended a daddy-daughter dance with his 10-year-old, Grace. Sadly, Grace had no interest in seeing her father strutting his stuff on the dance floor.

"I didn't get one dance," Wahlberg told Ellen DeGeneres. "And I told her we were going to do the whole big circle and I was going to go off. And she said, 'Dad, if you embarrass me, I will never talk to you again.' But what she did do is she hung out with me."

No matter who your dad is, especially if you're a 10-year-old-girl, you have zero desire to see him dance in front of your friends.

But the parents at the dance probably would have had a blast seeing Wahlberg bust out some of his old-school '90s Marky Mark moves.

However, Wahlberg couldn't help but leave his mark on the music being played at the dance.

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Parenting

New mom vents frustration over American maternity leave in comparison to the rest of the world

"The people who decided that it is okay to leave an infant at a daycare at 6 weeks old? Jail."

Anna Gantt|TikTok

New mom vents over American maternity leave.

Have you ever tried giving birth? It's not for the weak. In fact, the entire process leading up to birthing an entire human out of your body isn't for the weak. Being pregnant changes and stretches parts of your body you didn't know existed. Even the volume of blood that pumps through your heart increases.

Your joints loosen, your hips spread and for some reason, your nose and lips can spread, too. And even though your nose looks big enough to stick your fist into, you can't breathe through it efficiently. Pregnancy is a lot. But birth, whether vaginally or via cesarean is like running a marathon with little to no training. Then come the hormones, sleep deprivation and healing.

But if you're working in America when you happen to go through that life-changing experience, you can hang up any thoughts of having adequate time to heal and bond with your baby. In many instances, you've got six weeks—and those weeks may or may not be paid. (The U.S. is one of the only countries that doesn't federally guarantee paid maternity leave, and most states don't mandate paid maternity leave, either.)

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Woman hosts 'living funeral' for her dying sister and calls the experience 'magical'

“I would describe it as an exclamation point at the end of a sentence. The sentence of her life."

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Living funerals can provide closure and comfort.

What do you do when you or a loved one becomes terminally ill? When the inescapable end all but sends a morbid telegram announcing its arrival? Do you "go gentle into that good night," filling the final days with solemn reverence and aching nostalgia? Or do you go out with a bang, choosing instead to savor whatever else life still has to offer?

For Heidi Satterthwaite, the choice was obvious.

Her sister, Jenna Satterthwaite, shared on BBC’s “Woman’s Hour” that Heidi had been diagnosed with a rare type of cancer known as myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), which occurs when blood-forming cells found in bone marrow are abnormal, back in 2018.

Before her death, Heidi made a heartfelt request to her sister—that they throw a party with all of their family and friends.

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Here are 5 things a child therapist says he doesn't do while playing with his kids

Parents often do one of these things to try to make play educational, and it may surprise you.

Good Morning America|YouTube

Five things a child therapist doesn't do while playing with his kids

Being a parent is both oddly unique and similar for all who embark on that life journey. You're in a state of constant worry that you're messing up in one way or another, while simultaneously knowing that you're doing your best to raise good humans. Not everyone can be an expert in child development, and that doesn't mean they're doing anything wrong.

But when you've got the inside scoop from someone who does have a deep understanding of child development, you pay attention. A child therapist has shared a list of things that he never does while playing with his children. Even if you have this insider knowledge, a refresher like this one can be helpful.

Joshua Terhune is a child therapist and father of two who keeps his list of "don'ts" in mind when engaging in child-led play with his children. Here are five things he says he avoids while playing:

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