Student view: Financial aid opened the door to engineering and opportunity

Malachi Keener was born and raised in Lansing, Michigan. He graduated from Haslett High School in 2019 and earned an associate degree in physics engineering from Lansing Community College in 2020. He received a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Michigan State University in 2023. He is currently entering his third year as a doctoral student in electrical engineering at MSU, with an expected graduation in May 2028.

For the 2025-2026 school year, the estimated cost for a first-year, in-state, full-time undergraduate engineering student at Michigan State University is $36,962, combining tuition and housing. Tuition is a flat fee for those taking between 12 and 18 credits at $16,916 per year or $8,458 per semester and rises as one goes further into their undergraduate degree.

A student could easily spend more than $100,000 over the course of four years. Without financial aid, the financial barriers would prevent many students from ever attending college. For those without family wealth or considerable savings from previous work, higher education is just impractical. Without financial aid, I do not believe I would have been able to attend college.

My parents were very young when they started a family, and neither of them had even a high school diploma. We were poor and struggled to make ends meet. My parents worked hard and put themselves through college using grants and financial aid while also working and raising a family. They always stressed the importance of school, and observing their perseverance inspired me to pursue as many educational opportunities as I could.

Growing up, I was able to take advantage of state-funded educational programs**, which** unfortunately do not exist anymore. During the school week, I was bused to a local high school for a STEM-focused program called INSIGHTS, in addition to my normal classes. During the summer, I attended Young People's College, which offered more diverse, advanced educational opportunities such as coding and language studies. In my junior and senior years of high school, I attended The Early College at Lansing Community College to concurrently earn my associate degree in physics engineering and my high school diploma. I also waited tables while obtaining my associate degree to save up money to cover my first couple of semesters at a university. I believe all of these experiences greatly honed my dedication to learning.

Throughout my time in the Early College program, I maintained a 4.0 GPA in my college classes and scored a 1470 on the SAT (99th percentile). Despite my 4.0 GPA in college classes and high SAT score, I was only offered scholarships amounting to half of my tuition costs. Without financial aid, I would never have had enough resources to attend a university and obtain my undergraduate degree. Luckily, I qualified for loans, which allowed me to pursue my passion in electrical engineering. Because of financial aid, I was able to:

• Work for two NASA-funded drone research groups
• Gain teaching experience as an undergraduate learning assistant for a circuits course and a digital logic course, creating class projects still used in present-day curriculum
• Earn four internships from companies across the country
• Attain top secret security clearance to work at the Naval Research Lab in Washington, D.C.
• Be accepted as a graduate research student in the electrical engineering program and the Accelerator Sciences and Engineering Traineeship

If not for financial aid, I would probably still be waiting tables, hoping to earn enough to take a class here or there. I would not have been able to participate in any of the extracurriculars that molded me into the diversified, sought-after electrical engineer I am now. Financial aid allows dedicated, intelligent people with limited resources to overcome their financial limitations and gain access to education. Universal access to education promotes fair competition for higher-paid positions and taps a greater talent pool to push professional fields to new heights.