The surging costs of college tuition result in students taking up loans and drowning in student debts of up to tens of thousands of dollars upon graduating.
Almost all students in the United States rely on student loans to help them pay for the increasing tuition fee and to ease the financial burden on themselves and their families. Over the past 50 years the cost of a college education in the United States has sky rocketed growing two to three times the rate of inflation. In 1965, the average annual tuition fees in a public university was $6000, these days it is over $13,000, a 100% increase and it is worse for private universities where the yearly costs have risen from $13,000 in 1965 to over $31,000, a 137% increase. For instance, an undergraduate student planning to study at a private university such as Harvard University or Yale University are looking at an average annual tuition fee of $45,278 and $46,500 respectively. a student planning to study at a public university such as University of Wisconsin, Madison or University of California, Berkeley are looking at an average tuition fee of $10,415 and $13,432 respectively.
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Experts state that a university education is still worth the cost, as a college degree would eventually lead to a higher salary and less unemployment. On average college graduates earn 40% more than high school graduates. According to the New York Times, “Those with a college degree stand to make $20,000 more per year on average than someone with only a high school diploma”, so attending university and receiving a college degree still seems worth
Martin and Lehren’s article “A Generation Hounded by the Soaring Cost of College” addresses the issue faced by current and former college students dealing with large amounts of debt due to student loans. The article presents the reader with stories of former college students who have either graduated or dropped out, and their struggle to pay off their student loans. The article also talks about issues such as students not being informed about high amounts of student loans and why student debts have increased. Martin and Lehren also make the issue of student debt more intimidating by giving examples of high amounts of student loans students have had. The article gives a very hard reality check to anyone reading as to how bad the problem of student debt is.
When the General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony founded the first college in America, Harvard, in 1636, it marked the beginning of college as the backbone to the American Dream (“About Harvard” ). Around the world, America is coveted for the “American Dream” in which someone can go from deep poverty, to unbelievable wealth, all by getting an education which allows a person to obtain any job and reach any economic level. The article “Peter Thiel Thinks You should skip college, and He’ll Even Pay For Your Trouble; The famous disrupted says overpriced universities hold back innovation, and what's to rewrite education to his liking” by Tom Clynes argues people should not attend college because it is a hindrance to innovation, while the article
When thinking about college the same fear is established in just about every student’s mind. How am I going to pay for college? With an increase in college tuition in the past ten years, that question has become more frequent. Whether it is a private or public institution, the price is still no pocket change and how to pay for it has become harder and harder to accomplish. In today’s society, the average person can not get as far as they’d hope without a college education. With that accomplishment of receiving a college education, comes the dreaded loans that some students have and pass on to their children.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, college tuition and relevant fees have increased by 893 percent (“College costs and the CPI”). 893 percent is a very daunting percentage considering that it has surpassed the rise in the costs of Medicare, food, and housing. As America is trying to pull out of a recession, many students are looking for higher education so they can attain a gratified job. However, their vision is being stained by the dreadful rise in college costs. College tuition is rising beyond inflation. Such an immense rise in tuition has many serious implications for students; for example, fewer students are attending private colleges, fewer students are staying enrolled in college, and fewer students are working in the fields in which they majored in.
Whoever goes to college after high school are going to have a mountain of debts caused by student loans for the rest of the student’s life. College and universities are almost inaccessible to the people who want to achieve the dream job because of the high prices of college. In an article titled, “The Challenge of College Affordability: University of Alaska is a bargain in shaping the future” by Ashok K. Roy, it is stated that “The average student debt is approximately $26,600. Roughly $864 billion is out-standing in federal student loan debt while the remaining $150 billion is in private student loan debt”. People don’t have twenty-seven thousand dollars on hand to just pay for college out of pocket. Most people cannot even have breakfast, lunch and dinner, let alone spending money on college. Many students struggle with debt because of unemployment or under-employment. The same article stated, “The Center for the Study of Education Policy estimates that in 2012-13 the average tuition and fees at a four-year public universities was $8...
Rep. Dick Zimmer predicts that at the current rate of rising college costs, by the year 2000 the average price tag for attending a four-year public university will be over $50,000 and the average four-year cost at a private university will exceed $104,000. (College costs continue to climb, 14) During the years between 1970 and 1994, the consumer price index increased just under four times, but the average cost of tuition, room, and board at four-year public colleges went up nearly five times, and private college costs rose almost seven times, from just under $3,000 to over $20,000. According to the U.S. News Cost of College Index, the average middle-class worker must now labor 95 days to pay for a year at an average private college. Two decades ago, it took slightly more than half as long to pay for the same education. (Elfin, 90) By 1994, the average four-year cost at a private college was over three times the typical family's annual income. (Reiland, 59) However, The College Board recently announced that US college tuition and fees for 1996-97 increased at nearly the same rate as they had in the previous year, adding that the more than $50...
Having the college experience is everyone’s dream, especially High School students who are ready to get out into the world and explore. College is very important for furthering someone’s career, but no one thinks about all the costs and the stress that comes along with college. Tuition fees and costs are increasing more and more each year. Now days it feels like you have to be a millionaire just to attend a good college and get a good degree in what you were attending for. There are some students that do not have a lot of money and live on very little things with their parents, but indeed are very smart and have a 4.0 GPA. Those students are the ones that are unable to attend college if they cannot afford it. College tuition is too expensive,
Today, more jobs require more than a high school diploma. In order to get a good paying job, a college degree is required. More people are attending college in order to get better paying jobs, but is going to college worth a good job with rising tuitions across the nation? According to College Board, from 2002-2003 to 2012-2013, the average tuition and fees for a private institution rose about an average of 2.4% every year. As tuition prices increases every year, it affects millions of college students. It affects college students who have to use government aid to assist paying for college.
The United States has one of the most expensive higher education systems in the world. Public colleges have no control over the state, a major revenue source. Private colleges increased their tuition by an average of 3.9% in 2012 to 1013, the smallest rise in four decades, according to the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities. The most expensive university, in terms of tuition and fees alone, is currently Columbia University in New York, at $47,246, according to the US News and World Report.
The cost of college tuition continues to increase each year. If this keeps increasing the way it has been, students will be indebted the rest of their life. Author of “The Looming Student Loan Crisis”, Jackson Toby states that student loans have increased along with the increase of tuition costs. In 2004, the average unpaid student debt was approximately $18,650...
There are many political issues that people strongly disagree on, however there is one that most people agree needs to be fixed, college tuition. The main issue with higher education today is that tuition had risen to insanely high levels. There are many different theories behind what is causing college costs to increase and there are many different possible ways to bring tuition back down. If tuition is not brought back down the question will become whether college is too expensive. While college tuition may not matter to some, it should matter to everyone. If fewer kids go to college because of increasing tuition, there will be fewer jobs increasing unemployment to all and eventually
Over the last few decades, college tuitions and fees have increased by over one thousand percent, surpassing every category associated with the cost of living including food and medical. This unprecedented rise in cost has resulted in an avalanche of issues for young and middle-age adults. As, a result of steep student loan amounts, graduates are being forced to move back with their parents, fewer young people are becoming homeowners, they are delaying retirement saving, and are dropping out of college at an alarming rate of nearly fifty percent. With all the controversy surrounding the topic of increasing college cost, the revised income-driven repayment program has been created to help borrowers pay back student loans according to their income.
Public college tuition fees need to increase and not have a ceiling set on them because over time instructional costs increase due to rising wages, salaries and inflation. If there were a ceiling government taxes would increase, and last many amenities would have to be subtracted.
Even though there's no exact answer to what it costs to go to college today, it is possible to make a good guess. Figure out what kind of school you want to attend and find out how much it costs to attend. From there, tack on an estimated percentage increase — five percent per year is a good guess(Texas Guaranteed Student Loan Corporation, 2014). According to Merkein(2013) the average sticker prices at the nation's four-year public universities rose 2.9% this year, the smallest annual increase in more than three decades, suggesting that the steeper increases over the past few years "did not signal a new era of accelerating prices," says a report out Wednesday(Merkein , 2013). “A college education is one of the best investments that students and families can make,” Coleman (Hechinger, 2013). Yet ...
Many people all around the world can not afford college. Even though scholar ships are offered it is still difficult for some people to pay their way into college. It is also more difficult to get a scholar ship if a person’s grades are not good. To get a good scholar ship a person needs to make A’s and B’s but no lower. In the article “College Costs More Than You Think” it says, “Freshman say they will finish in four years, but most will be paying tuition for five or six years” (Marcus). The longer a person must stay in college, the more expensive it will become. Tuition is not there only thing that is expensive in college. The article also says, “The average added cost of just one extra year at a four-year public university is $63,718 in tuition fees, books, and living expenses” (Marcus). More and more things get added to the list of things a person must pay for in college. Books alone that a student must have are very expensive. “The National Association of College Stores (NACS) says the average college student will spend $655 on textbooks each year, but with a single textbook easily costing s much as $300” (Kingkade). Three hundred dollars for one textbook is what a person with a high school diploma may make in one week. The more text books a person needs the more money they will have to spend. The cost of dorms are also very expensive. A person must pay a down fee for the dorm and then they