A high school education is no longer sufficient to succeed in America’s increasingly complex economy. However, because of the high price point of a college education, far too many Americans are unable to afford education beyond high school. As shown in the graph below, the higher level of education received greatly increases the chances for employment and also dramatically increases the average salary potential of an individual.
There is no escaping the fact that the cost of college tuition continues to rise in the United States each year. To make it worse, having a college degree is no longer an option, but a requirement in today’s society. According to data gathered by the College Board, total costs at public four-year institutions rose more rapidly between 2003-04 and 2013-14 than they did during either of the two preceding decades (Collegeboard.com). Students are pressured to continue into higher education but yet, the increasing costs of books and tuition make us think about twice. Sometimes, some of these students have to leave with their education partially finished, leaving them with crushing debts. It is important to find the means to prevent these students that are victimized by skyrocketing tuitions from dropping out, and encourage all incoming high school seniors to continue their education.
Over the past decade, it has become evident to the students of the United States that in order to attain a well paying job they must seek a higher education. The higher education, usually a college or university, is practically required in order to succeed. To be able to attend these schools and receive a degree in a specific field it means money, and often a lot of it. For students, the need for a degree is strong, but the cost of going to college may stand in the way of a successful future. Each year the expense of college rises, resulting in the need for students to take out loans. Many students expect to immediately get a job after graduation, however, in more recent years the chances for college graduates to get a well paying job isn’t nearly as high as it used to be. Because students can no longer depend on getting a job fresh out of college, it has become harder to repay the loans. Without a steady income, these individuals have gone into debt and frequently default loans. If nothing is done to stop colleges and universities from increasing the cost of attending their school, the amount of time it takes for students to pay off their loans will become longer and longer. The extreme expenses to attend a college or university may leave a student in financial distress: which may ultimately lead to hardship in creating a living for them and affect the country’s economy.
“A typical college graduate earns an estimated $650,000 over a work life than a high school graduate” (Rosentiel). This amount of money is influential to not only the lives of the graduates, but also their children who will then be able to afford to go to college, and since it is such a financial benefit, post-secondary education should not be so expensive. Having that much more money in a lifetime helps the privileged and their children stay privileged and the unprivileged stay unprivileged, creating and sustaining a large wealth gap. “...when more men (and a few women) were going to college, many of them in preparation for their future high-earning careers, or simply because it was becoming more normal. Why, the reasoning went, shouldn’t they pay more” (Rothman)? Going to college was becoming more normal, so anyone who wanted to thrive in a competitive market had attend, but college was also becoming unaffordable because colleges raised their prices. Making college more expensive keeps many low-income people unable to become successful because they would not be able to enroll in college since they could not, at the moment, afford it. Seeing college as an essential but pricing it as a luxury perpetuates an already destructive wealth gap in American
In an article written by Andrew Lehren, the author provides the bold statement that “the only thing worse than graduating with lots of debt is not going to college at all” (Lehren). In today 's society, many families lack the funds to provide a full ride for their children in terms of college. Due to this fact, many people turn to alternate solutions such as loans or diving straight into the workforce instead of attending college at all. These solutions, however, may greatly affect a person throughout the course of their life. The problem of college debt is increasing rates in regards to tuition, however, fortunately there are various solutions accessible in order to decrease or eliminate the debt that many american students face.
Studies have shown that college graduates on average earn more money in their lifetime than non-college graduates. But college grads who didn’t have scholarships spend years paying off student loan debts. Ronald D. Lankford, an editor and writer for the journal The Rising Cost of College, and Richard Vedder, a writer and economics professor at Ohio University, have written articles on their views of college costs and the reasons they think why it is so steep. Lankford, author of Introduction to the Rising Cost of College, explains why he thinks college costs are so high and how it affects people. Vedder, author of Pell Grants Raise the Cost of College and Cause Education Inequality, cites Pell Grants and financial aid as important factors in the rising cost of college. Although both authors offer strong arguments, I think Vedder presents the stronger argument because he has more credibility, being and economics professor.
Steve Cohen shows the disparity between the rising cost of college and a family’s capability to afford it. Cohen explains “Tuition has risen almost 1,200 percent in the last 35 years, and the sticker price for many four-year private colleges and out-of-state public universities exceeds $250,000.” Moreover, he goes on to say that even at public universities, it is about $80,000 for four years for tuition and other college related expenses. Later in his article, Cohen explains how this leaves middle-class families in a very uncomfortable situation. The parents or other money-making entities in the household want their student to go to college and earn a degree, but now there can be an element of stress in figuring out how the fees will be paid for. Furth...
With student debt at an all-time high, parents want loans to be a last resort when in need of money for their child’s college tuition. “Money is a major concern for many high school students (and their parents) who are weighing college options” (Austin). Debt is a serious matter and is a hard thing to pay back. Another controversy with college tuition is not every person gets to have the chance to attend college. With colleges having a monthly payment plan, there could be a possibility that more students would have the ability to experience college and more would graduate with less debt. Rather than the necessity of having the whole college tuition for that school year, students would b...
I’ve routinely seen estimates that two-thirds of students take out loans for college. The New York Times, however, conducted an analysis that concluded that 94% of students who earn a bachelor’s degree borrow. That’s up from just 45% in 1993.Only 7% of students at public colleges and universities graduate without borrowing while only 5% of grads at private schools can pull off this feat. The average debt is $23,300, but 10% of students borrow more than $54,000 and 3% borrow more than $100,000” (O'Shaughnessy 1). This number is increasingly high compared to what many people think. People do not realize how much money is actually borrowed in order to complete
Have you ever thought about the inflation of college tuition in the United States? College tuition is the number one topic in every college student's or potential college applicant’s mind. College tuition rates have increased dramatically in the past decade: they increased by 266 percent in just 16 years. If this trend continues, college education will be available only for the few privileged ones because of its high price. Meanwhile, higher education is extremely important as it gives young people new skills and increases their chances of getting well-paying jobs. It goes without saying that college tuition rates should be controlled by federal and state government and partially funded by it because everyone should have the right for higher
A college education has become the expectation for most youth in the United States. Children need a college education to succeed in the global economy. Unfortunately for the majority of Americans the price of an education has become the equivalent to a small house. The steep tuition of a college education has made it an intimidating financial hurdle for middle class families. In 1986-1987 school year the average tuition at a private university was $20,566 (adjusted to 2011 dollars) while in 2011 the average cost was $28,500 for an increase of 38.6%. Similarly in public universities there has been an increase in tuition: in the 1986-1987 school year the average tuition at a public university was $8,454 (adjusted to 2011 dollars) while in 2011 the average cost was actually $20,770 for an increase of 145.7%. Most families who are able to save for college try to do so, therefore their children are not left with large amounts of debt due to loans. Nevertheless, families are only able to save on average around $10,000, which is not enough to pay for a full educ...
Caroline Bird gathered her own data by lecturing on college campuses and questioned professors and administrators (Par 2). Her article is intended for college students and the general public in the 1970s. In 1969, 80 percent of college students thought education was important and two years later the percent went down to 74 percent (Bird Par 17). “44 percent of Americans now believe that getting a college education is ‘very important’” (Valerie Strauss). This is a shocking number that students are thinking less and less of education. Bird claims that college increases the wealth gap and research proves it. According to Aimee Picchi, the wealth gap continues to increase because fewer lower class families can afford college. Bird agrees that college tuition is helping the growth of the wealth gap (Par 23). As student loans continues to increase, it becomes unrealistic to afford college and by not receiving a higher education that narrows the job field and the salary (Valerie Strauss). The 1970s was full of history: the Vietnam War was just ending, President Nixon Resigns and the country entered an economic slump. Jobs were not circulating as well as they are now. Having a college degree back in the 1970s, it was difficult to find a job after graduating it is still true today. The millennial generation makes up about 40 percent of the unemployed in the U.S. today (Leah M.Goodman). A lot has
The cost of an education past high school, is becomingly more and more outrageous to afford. In a web report article entitled, College Degrees Requiring More Student Debt, by Equal Justice Works, states “Unsurprisingly, the report shows a rapid increase over t...
The cost of tuition for higher education is quickly rising. Over half of college freshmen show some concern with how to pay for college. This is the highest this number has been since 1971 (Marill and O’Leary 64-66, 93). The amount of college graduate debt has been rapidly increasing also. With limited jobs available because of the high unemployment rate, college graduates find themselves staying in debt even longer. Although grants and financial aid are available to students, students still struggle to pay for their college tuition. Higher education costs are prohibitively expensive because the state’s revenue is low, the unemployment rate is high, and graduates cannot pay off their student loans.
In today 's high-tech economy, Americans believe that higher education as a key to the American Dream. Over the years college education has completely replaced a high school diploma as the gateway to the middle class, high school diplomas just don 't cut it anymore. However in conjunction to this belief is a very high price tag in the form of tuition fees. College education is something that most people are expected to have yet it is still something that a significant portion of the population simply cannot afford without going into massive debt with student loans. It seems to have become more of a privilege to those with higher income considering everyone else can 't afford it. "College students who fail to find employment at the level needed to pay back their loans in a reasonable amount of time have even been compared to the debtors under sub-prime mortgages whose homes are worth less than what is owed to the bank"(Psychological Today).