Student loans tempting in a tight economy

NEW YORK, Oct. 17 (UPI) -- Parents in increasing numbers are planning to use loans to finance tuition bills as the U.S. economy heads toward a likely recession, data show.

In a recent Fidelity Investments survey of 3,000 parents, 62 percent indicated they were planning on using student loans to cover college expenses, up from 53 percent who indicated they would a year ago, The New York Times reported Friday.

Colleges are going through their own budgets to see much they can help, the dean of admission and financial aid at the University of Southern California said.

"Part of the conversation that's going on now in many institutions is, do we want to put a dollar figure on how much we are willing to extend ourselves," Dean L. Katharine Harrington told the Times.

With layoffs on the rise, some families are being forced in to financial corners.

The closing of a Colgate-Palmolive plant in Jeffersonville, Ind, where Ronnie Jacobs worked, forced Jacobs and his wife, Diana, to rethink their financial plan for paying for their twins sons' educations.

"I have two kids in college and I want to say 'come home,' but at the same time I want to provide them with a good education," Diana Jacobs said to the Times.