Eighty percent of her earnings goes to paying for her own things, with 20 percent dropped into a savings account she’ll use to buy a new computer for college.

With six years of college and graduate work ahead, the family’s plan is to split tuition costs between the parents and loans that Simcox will take out for herself.

“We haven’t done financial aid yet,” she said. “But we probably won’t get much.”

Junior Vanessa Scaife, 17, is getting an earlier head start on saving up. Beginning next week she’ll work 20 to 30 hours a week helping to prepare food at a nursing home — about the same amount of hours she had at her hold job in a sewing factory.

Scaife wants to become a physcian’s assistant, but plans to stay close to home for college so she can be near family. About 20 percent of her check each week goes into a savings account, at the encouragement of her parents.

She plans to work in college, too, “because to pay it off is kind of rewarding.”

And those bills have been getting steeper in recent years.

The average list price for tuition and fees at four-year public colleges rose 6.4 percent this academic year to nearly $6,600, according to the College Board.

Prices at private colleges rose 5.9 percent to more than $25,000. Financial aid can reduce net costs to about $14,900, on average, at private institutions.

This year, financial aid seems to especially be at a premium. The Department of Education has reported that applications for federal aid are running slightly above last year’s record pace.

Feathers has been holding financial aid information sessions at Brookville High School every year since 2000, which typically draws only about five people.

He was shocked when 47 people braved a frigid temperatures and a driving snow squall for the evening talk. Penn State recommends that first-year, transfer and graduate students submit their Free Application for Federal Student Aid by Feb. 15 to get as much consideration as possible.

Lucinda Liddington, of Brookville, is familiar with tuition bills, having finished last year her human development and family studies degree from Penn State-DuBois.

Now, it’s her daughter’s turn to go to college. Theresa Liddington, a high school senior, plans to attend The Art Institute of Pittsburgh to study video game design.

Liddington must begin paying off the loans for her own education in about six months, a big concern given her daughter will soon have college bills. Liddington said she pushed herself to graduate in time for her to have income to help take care of Theresa’s education.