Negative Essay: Is College Really Worth It?

Everyone knows that going to college and getting a degree is the most effective and guaranteed route to ensure a prosperous financial future, right? College is considered by most to be the best investment you can make in life, but what happens when that investment leaves you drowning in thousands of dollars in debt right after graduation day. This is the situation that millions of college graduates are faced with in 2016. Rising college tuition perpetuates student debt and is on a sharp incline and it seems to have no ambition of ever slowing down. The effect of this catastrophe is felt by millions of families across the country who now question, “is college really worth it?” In order to highlight just how awful the situation in America has …show more content…

So the system that is supposed to lead to financial stability later in life causes families to use nearly one hundred percent of their revenue in a given year to continue the cycle for their kin. The main culprit in this treacherous cycle is, you guessed it, the government. According to Paul F. Campos in his article “The Real Reason College Tuition Costs So Much” he cites Sandy Baum saying, “it’s not that colleges are spending more money to educate students, it’s that they have to get that money from someplace to replace their lost state funding — and that’s from tuition and fees from students and families.” (Campos). Essentially, the government has been cutting funding over the last decade due to various reasons. The recession in 2007 was a major contributor to this loss of funding. In fact, Lynn O 'Shaughnessy writes in her article “Why college tuition keeps rising”, “Since 2008, when the recession hit, total public funding for higher education has declined by 14.6 percent.” (.O’ Shaughnessy). Public funding is a lifeline for middle and lower class families when it comes to sending their children off to college, with such devastating cuts it is nearly impossible for …show more content…

As The “Progress of Education Reform” suggests, tuition discounting is major contributor to the rising cost of college in the sense that while it provides a tuition discount to the one particular student receiving the grant or scholarship it places a heavier burden on the majority demographic that attends the university without such discounting. (The Progress of Education Reform” 1). In contrast to popular opinion, scholarships and grants which are normally regarded as blessings are ironically a contributing factor to rising tuition prices. Basically, the universities have to make up for the money they lost by awarding the scholarships so the majority of the student population who did not qualify feel it in their pocketbooks. A final cause of this ludicrous tuition spike is the shift in university budgets to cater to the administration departments of the schools. Jobs in this department are non-teaching jobs that provide student services ranging from student safety to counseling and wellness programs. These jobs are definitely