Photo: Jonathan Newton

Many programs across the country are targeting the 39 million people who have taken some college classes but never finished. But instead of retrofitting the traditional four-year bachelor’s degree program, Morgan State University has designed its program specifically for adults who are often working full time and managing family responsibilities while going to school.

The program gives credit for work experience, provides flexible online classes, and offers in-state tuition prices to every student, regardless of whether they live in Maryland, to help make the bachelor’s degree more financially accessible.

Plenty of students enter community college with the goal of transferring to a four-year institution. The benefits are well-publicized, after all. Finish your basic courses for less cash while staying closer to home, or get your associate degree and earn more money for your bachelor’s. But how many students are reaching that goal?

The pause on federal student loan payments has given loan holders a glimpse of what life could look like if they didn’t have the debt. 

In this interview, five borrowers offer personal stories of how the payment pause is helping them. Several talk about how they approached paying for college and the ways in which they tried to avoid debt; others share their hopes for what comes next.