Paying a Costly Price: Who is Responsible?

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Recommended: Effects of rising tuition costs

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.
Colleges across the United States are in a fierce competitive race to attract the brightest students as well as a superior faculty. Earning “higher” rankings attract more applicants and in turn provides more revenue for campus spending. Public as well as private universities are using marketing techniques as strategies to increase enrollment. Families wish to send their children to the “top” universities and are often lured by stellar professors, advanced research facilities, updated housing facilities, and superior sports facilities. Enrollment is on the rise in institutes of 1961, 18 percent of those who finished high school went on to college, by 1981, it was 53.9 percent, and by 2001, it was 61.7 percent” (Nathan 148). “With long lines of high quality applicants flocking to their doors, top institutions have chosen to maintain and increase quality largely by spending more, not by increasing efficiency, reducing costs, or reallocating funds.” (Sanchez). The burden of supplementing the university deficit has fallen onto the parents and students themselves. This comes at an undesirable time when families are not economically...

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... Damn High, Part III — The three reasons tuition is rising." Washington Post. 28 Aug. 2013. Web.http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ wonkblog/wp/2013/08/28/the-tuition-is-toodamn-highpart-iii-the-three-reasons-tuition-is-rising Nathan, Rebekah. My Freshman Year. New York, NY: Penguin Group, 2005. Print.
Yeagle Phillip L. "Tuition Rise at Public Universities: Who's Responsible? ." Huffington Post. 2
Dec. 2012. Web. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-philip-l-yeagle/public-universities tuition_b_2234314.html Notte, Jason. "College tuition has jumped by 500% since 1985." MSN Money. 27 Aug. 2013.
Web. http://money.msn.com/now/post--college-tuition-jumps-500percent-since-1985

Sanchez, Claudio. "How The Cost Of College Went From Affordable To Sky-Hig." NPR.
18 Mar. 2014. Web. http://www.npr.org/2014/03/18/290868013/how-the-cost-of-college-went-from-affordable-to-sky-high

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