College Debt Is Crushing a Generation of Students

Imagine finally graduating college, you are happy and ready to make a difference in the world. Only to find out that before you even start you are already swamped with debt. This is the problem hundreds of thousands of students face every year. Why are they in debt, you ask? They are in debt because of the rising price of college tuition and the student loans they took out to be able to afford attending in the first place.

How does the rising cost of college tuition affect us? Every year thousands of students attend a college or university, usually of their choice, with the goal of achieving a higher education and to better their future. The cost of attending college is too high and it needs to go down; there needs to be more scholarship and grant opportunities. The high cost of attending college is a major reason that students aren’t able to achieve higher education; others take this as a challenge and it is motivation for them to work harder to achieve their goal. One might ask why would someone want to spend money to receive more education and miss out on more years of work that they could’ve performed?

Low wage jobs, underemployment, and high unemployment rates have forced individuals striving for 'the American dream', upward class mobility, and a greater education to choose indebtedness, often at prices they can not and will not be able to afford. The vast amount of borrowed money is not only damaging the lives, productivity, and standard of living of individuals, but also the economy, and needs to be resolved. With society's stress on the necessity to obtain a college education in order to get a well-paying job, be considered successful, and have a higher quality of life, everyone desires a degree and many try for one. However, the typical middle-class family cannot afford to attend college without taking on moderate amounts of debt, and largely depending on scholarships and grants to send themselves or their children. Lower-class families have an exceedingly difficult time getting a college degree, living in low-income neighborhoods with poor public schools does not produce the competitive ... ... middle of paper ... ...are of Young Adults Live in Their Parents' Home.” Pew Research and Social & Demographic Trends.

There are many different types of student loans some of which do not have to be paid until the student graduates college and some that do need to be paid during the student’s college career. Although college students are aware that they are borrowing money for college to eventually pay it back, the student loan debt takes over every other priority in the college student’s life. College students become discouraged and demotivated to go on to the next journey in their lives after they graduate college once they see the horrible student loan debt they are in. A 2002 study found that 17 percent of student loan borrowers reported their loans had a significant impact on their career plans (Baum). In addition, 52 percent of people said they either strongly or somewhat agreed with the statement that their “need to pay student loan debt is hampering my ability to further my career” (Lanza).

Furthering one’s education beyond high school level should be a benefit rather than a burden. Many people believe it is the key to social mobility and an opportunity to become successful. However, with the increasing tuition of institution of higher education, students find it rather hard to decide whether continuing their education is beneficial. Most people will agree that furthering your educational career is beneficial, whether it is to move up to a higher class or just nurturing the minds. The increasing cost of attending a university has become a burden to students after graduation due to the amount of debt accumulated while studying at one of these further education colleges.

Rising Tuition Affecting College Rates In an article called The three reasons tuition is rising by Matthews (2013), he addresses two main issues to why tuition cost keeps rising. One reason is that colleges are spending more money. Matthew mentions that what is happening is that even though tuition prices are increasing, it is not keeping up with the new spendings. Colleges have to be able to pay faculties, build more and co... ... middle of paper ... ...hard work, it will pay off towards having a better future. Works Cited Alpert, Bruce.

Web. 18 May 2014. Malcolm, Hadley. "Millennials' Ball-and-chain: Student Loan Debt." USA Today, 01 July 2013.

Interest Rates and Fees on Federal Stafford Loans, 2014. Web. 10 March 2014. Stiglitz, Joseph E. “Student Debt and the Crushing of the American Dream.” New York Times, 12 May 2013. Web.

The high school senior is bombarded with a myriad of higher education choices upon graduation. Ivy-league schools, public universities, private colleges, as well as community colleges are vying for the students’ enrollment. Anticipation of college life also brings a startling revelation of increased tuition rates for most parents. Historically factors affecting rising tuition rates include supply and demand, excessive strategies, exorbitant spending, and decreased state and government spending. Too often families and/or students are faced with the difficult choice of securing loans to finance an education.

The more people with a college education, the better. The cause for a decrease in people with a college education is the rise in college costs and this effects people’s lives drastically financially. Big college costs often drive people away from the college they want to go to or drive people away from college altogether. The big college costs plus the college debt is probably really terrifying to many students. Although college can be scary for some people because of the costs or the classes and the new experience, it would later be for their advantage.