Each month, Bowling Green State University senior Amber Burnett expects to spend about $300 on groceries. But there are months where her money is stretched much thinner. These are the months she said she eats a lot of ramen noodles.

It may be a common stereotype that college students eat ramen noodles, however students like Burnett who pay for their own education, understand the reality of sacrifices like a lack of variety in her pantry.

According to an annual national survey of over 300,000 freshmen by the Higher Education Research Institute at the University of California at Los Angeles, record-high numbers of students expect to work in order to pay debt collected during their years in college.

The survey results showed that 29.6 percent of the freshmen polled expect to owe at least $3,000 at the end of their first year in college, up from 24.1 percent in 2001.

Here in Bowling Green, Burnett works 30 to 40 hours a week for Information Technology Services on campus in order to work her way through college. As an out-of-state student, she pays $7,690 a semester to attend BGSU and needs an additional $200 for rent, $100 for utilities and $300 for food.

Burnett said she has known for a long time that she would have to pay for college. She began preparing herself in seventh grade, when her divorced parents made it clear to her that her college education was not as important as taking care of her two younger sisters. She is the first person in her immediate family to go to college.

“Frustration is a good word,” Burnett said. “I worried that I wouldn’t be able to go to college. I was a little angry at my parents who had told me I had to go to college all my life and then didn’t help me to get there.”

University bursar Nancy Colsman said in the past few years she has seen a higher number of students, like Burnett, who have to help pay for college either partially or entirely.

“When they leave this institution I wonder about the average amount of indebtedness they will have,” Colsman said.

Colsman said she partially blames the state of Ohio for the percentage of funding they allocate for higher education.

“It seems as though a majority of their budget goes to medical costs of their state constituents and they have to take care of [education for] K-12,” Colsman said. “I don’t know where higher education falls in priority of the way of getting funding.”

According to the rankings of State appropriations for State and Local tax funds for operational expenses of higher education per capita, Ohio was placed 37th in 2001 according to the Fiscal Year ’01 Annual Grapevine Survey and the US Census Bureau.

University sophomore Nikki Sobecki also pays for her education and finds Ohio’s ranking at 37 upsetting.

“Being 37th is really bad,” Sobecki said. “I think education is so important. It shouldn’t be at the bottom of a state’s budget. There are a lot of students whose parents can’t help them out and if their parents can’t who is going to?”

Sobecki currently works 25 to 30 hours a week at Don Pablo’s in Toledo. As of right now she said she owes close to $32,000 in student and private loans.

“It’s going to be a really big number,” Sobecki said. “I get notices every once in a while and it is so crazy to me that in two years I will owe so much. It scares me to think that I won’t be able to support myself when I get out of school.”

Both students, Burnett and Sobecki said they applied for scholarships as much as possible before they began school, but both said they were frustrated when they weren’t awarded any scholarship money.

“[In high school] I was in the French club, computer club, the band, National Honor Society, Students for Charity and some other groups,” Burnett said. “I started applying for everything. I didn’t hear back from any of them.”

Bowling Green High School Guidance Counselor Joan Tussing said it is be quite frustrating for students who apply for countless scholarships and end up empty handed.

“There is a big myth out there that millions of dollars of scholarships are out there, but that is a myth,” Tussing said. “There is plenty of competition.”

Another frustration is that students do not realize how restrictive the financial aid definition of independence is from parents, Tussing said.

A student must qualify for one of seven guidelines, which have nothing to do with whether a student lives in their own home or apartment and or claims themselves as an exemption on their federal tax return.

“Unfortunately it is not [the parents] willingness to pay, but their ability to pay,” Tussing said.

As a result of the difficulty to acquire federal or state aid for school, Tussing often suggests what she considers more realistic options to the junior and senior high school students whom she counsels at Bowling Green High School.

Her suggestions include attending a two-year community college or looking to states where tuition is lower.

“They just may have to take their time and do it a little bit at a time with work and go to the less expensive schools,” Tussing said.

At this point, Burnett, months away from graduation and the beginning of her life as a professional, said she hopes it is all going to be worth it and she tries to see the benefits of her situation.

“It will be worth it when I get a good job,” Burnett said. “The good thing is it has made me more independent.”

“It has gotten me respect from a lot of other family members and given me respect for myself — because somehow I make ends meet.”