\n<\/p>\n
Nursing student Effua Jordan wasn\u2019t expecting car trouble on her way to clinicals, but a breakdown left her facing a nearly $500 bill. She asked family for help and put the rest on her credit card, scrambling to cover the unexpected expense.<\/p>\n
While her car was being repaired, the fourth-year student at the University of Texas at Arlington had to rely on rideshares to reach her clinical rotations\u2014often about an hour\u2019s ride from campus\u2014which affected not only how she showed up for patients but also how she participated in class.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt just bled into other areas,\u201d Jordan said. \u201cWhenever I did get to clinicals, I would get there right on time because you can\u2019t really control how quick an Uber comes. It was affecting my academics, too\u2014just the stress of it all.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jordan\u2019s experience reflects broader trends highlighted in a new report from Trellis Strategies. The postsecondary research and consulting firm\u2019s 2025 Student Financial Wellness Survey, based on responses from more than 65,000 students at two- and four-year institutions, examined students\u2019 financial security, basic needs and perceptions of institutional support.<\/p>\n
More than half of respondents reported experiencing at least one form of basic needs insecurity. That financial strain is reflected in other findings: 54\u00a0percent of students said they would struggle to access $500 in cash or credit for an unexpected expense, and 65\u00a0percent said they had run out of money at least once since the start of the year.<\/p>\n
Carla Fletcher, principal research associate at Trellis Strategies, said the survey illustrates how financial and basic needs insecurity can undermine student success.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt shows that a lot of students are living on the edge,\u201d Fletcher said. \u201cA flat tire, medical bill or childcare disruption can derail an entire semester, and that financial precarity can affect their attendance, retention and even their mental health.\u201d<\/p>\n
Student financial security: <\/strong>The report found that 54\u00a0percent of respondents had used a credit card during the past year. Most said they always pay their bill on time, but 47\u00a0percent of those at two-year institutions and 35\u00a0percent at four-year institutions said they did not fully pay off their balance each month.<\/p>\n About 28\u00a0percent of students also reported using buy now, pay later services, such as Klarna and Affirm, while 13\u00a0percent said they had borrowed through payday or auto title loans.<\/p>\n \u201cYou really have to keep track of all of your payments to make sure that you don\u2019t end up paying any interest or late fees,\u201d Fletcher said. \u201cSo the more students are using these tools to pay for basic necessities, if they end up being late, they\u2019re going to end up paying extra fees on food or housing or whatever they\u2019re using it for.\u201d<\/p>\n Adrian Caraves, a graduate student at the University of Houston Clear Lake, said he was surprised to learn through conversations with his peers how many were in debt.<\/p>\n \u201cThere should be more financial literacy around accepting loans and credit cards,\u201d Caraves said. \u201cIt\u2019s so convenient to put monthly payments on a credit card, but then I have to pay off those balances or my credit score will go down.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThere have been times I couldn\u2019t make a payment and my credit score took a hit\u2014and I\u2019m still recovering from that,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Working students:<\/strong> About two-thirds of students reported working while enrolled, and roughly a third identified primarily as \u201cworkers who go to school\u201d rather than \u201cstudents who work.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cInstitutions still sometimes design their policies around that traditional residential student, and that\u2019s just no longer a reality for so many students,\u201d Fletcher said. \u201cThey are missing class because of work schedules, childcare issues and unreliable transportation. So they\u2019re kind of balancing survival against education, unfortunately, and sometimes that can directly affect grades, engagement and completion.\u201d<\/p>\n Both Jordan and Caraves strongly identified with this characterization of students as workers first. Jordan, in particular, has balanced multiple jobs on top of her classes and clinicals to make ends meet, including working as a patient-care technician at a hospital and as a receptionist at an optometrist\u2019s office, which has sometimes led her to skip class in order to pick up extra shifts.<\/p>\n Her experience reflects the survey results, which found that 20\u00a0percent of students missed class due to transportation issues, 20\u00a0percent of parenting students missed class because of childcare hiccups and 21\u00a0percent of employed students missed class due to work conflicts.<\/p>\n \u201cSometimes I\u2019ll skip classes, which I shouldn\u2019t, but sometimes it\u2019s just that thing that you have to do,\u201d Jordan said. \u201cI just feel stretched thin. I can\u2019t really be [in class] mentally sometimes because I need to focus on rent coming up in a few days, and I have to pay that off, so I need to pick up another shift.\u201d<\/p>\n Balancing hardship and hope:<\/strong> Despite these challenges, students remain optimistic about the value of college. Most respondents said college is a good investment in their financial future, with 84\u00a0percent agreeing that a degree will provide a higher quality of life. Respondents attending two-year institutions were especially likely to see college\u2019s worth and to recommend their school to prospective students.<\/p>\n Fletcher said this attitude reflects students\u2019 continued faith in higher education despite ongoing financial strain.<\/p>\n \u201cThey still believe in education as a pathway to better opportunities in the future\u00a0\u2026 but we do need to meet students halfway to keep that trust from eroding,\u201d Fletcher said. \u201cSome students are pushing through immense hardship because they feel they don\u2019t have a better option, and they do have hope for a better future.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe just need to ensure that students are given the opportunity to reach the finish line,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Get more content like this directly to your inbox. <\/em>Subscribe here.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Nursing student Effua Jordan wasn\u2019t expecting car trouble on her way to clinicals, but a breakdown left her facing a nearly $500 bill. She asked family for help and put the rest on her credit card, scrambling to cover the unexpected expense. While her car was being repaired, the fourth-year student at the University of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":47956,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[9135,1790,22329,6179,393],"class_list":{"0":"post-47955","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-education","8":"tag-experience","9":"tag-financial","10":"tag-shapes","11":"tag-strain","12":"tag-student"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47955","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=47955"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47955\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/47956"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}