The higher education system (or lack thereof) is not serving the country and its citizens. The increasing number of admission standards, exponential tuition increases, the financing of the cost through loans, and the boasting of turning students away all contribute to rising disparity between the quality of education that upper class families can afford compared to lower and middle income families. The rising costs of higher education in this country are problematic in that they fuel a disparity between economic classes. Capitulating the problem is the amount of debt college graduates have accrued at the time of graduation. The Institute for College Access and Success (2013) reported that 70% of graduates had and average of $29,400 of debt. This number primarily focuses on non-profit and private institutions. The average annual salary of a college graduate is $57,616 (United States Department of Labor, 2014). So many college graduates have accumulated a debt worth half of what their starting salary may end up being. The Institute for College Access and Success (2013) reported that 20% of that debt “is comprised of private loans, which are typically more costly and provide fewer consumer protections and repayment options than safer federal loans3” (p. 1). This is an oversimplification in that it is looking at a very general population. Based on the degree and the subsequent employment, income will vary as does the institution attended and the student’s economic status affect the overall individual debt. Loans, of course, need to be paid back by students, and this ultimately affects the students’ quality of life after graduation as a certain amount of their income will go to paying off their loans. This also has socio... ... middle of paper ... ...h and life of the great American school system: How testing and choice are undermining education. New York: Basic Books. Reich, R. (2012a, March 7). College is key to success [Web log post]. Retrieved from http://www.marketplace.org/topics/life/commentary/college-key-success Reich, R. (2012b, May 18). The commencement address that won’t be given [Web log post]. Retrieved from http://robertreich.org/post/23301640941 Sandel, M. J. (2009). Justice: What's the right thing to do? New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. The Institute for College Access & Success. (2013, December). Student Debt and the Class of 2012. Retrieved from The Project on Student Debt: http://projectonstudentdebt.org/files/pub/ classof2012.pdf United States Department of Labor. (2014, March 24). Employment Projections. Retrieved from Bureau of Labor Statistics: http://www.bls.gov/emp/ep_chart_001.htm
Hulbert, M. A. (2011). Pursuing justice: An introduction to justice studies. Black Point, Nova Scotia: Fernwood Publishing.
...hew , and Debbie Cochrane. "Student Debt and the Class of 2012." Institute For College Access and Success. December (2013 ): n. page. Web. 12 Dec. 2013.
There was a time in America where college was based solely on merit, higher education and pursuing the American Dream to obtain a career and gain social status to be successful in society. According to the Economist newspaper, rising fees and increase of student debt, shared with dwindling financial and educational returns, are undermining at least the perception that university is a good investment. Now due to high cost of an average good university, students are leaving college owing back over $100,000 and are not getting the job of their original dreams.
An education is one of the most important tools a person can acquire. It gives them the skills and abilities to obtain a job, earn a wage, and then use that wage to better their lives and the lives of their loved ones. However, due to the seemingly exponential increase in the costs of obtaining a college degree, students are either being driven away entirely from earning a degree or taking out student loans which cripple their financial prospects well after graduation. Without question, the increasing national student loan debt is one of the most pressing economic issues the United States is dealing with, as students who are debt ridden are not able to consume and invest in the economy. Therefore, many politicians and students are calling on the government to forgive their student loan debts so that through their spending the slowly recovering economy can finally return to its pre-2008 strength.
Employers consider a degree necessary for getting a job at their company. However, not many people can afford college. The solution is to take out loans, then college becomes affordable. These loans create a whole different issue, student loan debt. This can affect people their whole lifetime and has been happening for years upon years. But, in the more recent years America is starting to shed more light onto the issue and are becoming curious on why colleges charge twenty five thousand dollars, or more, for a year of education. Many different countries offer free college, but in America student loan debt keeps getting worse.
The increasing cost of higher education in the United States has been a continuing topic for debate in recent decades. American society emphasizes the importance of education after high school, yet the cost of undergraduate and advanced degrees continually rises at a greater rate than inflation. According to the Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance, cost factors prevent 48% of college-qualified high school graduates from pursuing further education (McKeon, 2004, p. 45). The current system requires the majority of students to accumulate extensive debt with the expectation that they gain lucrative post-graduate employment to repay their loans.
It is a norm and expectation in society today for students to pursue higher education after graduating from high school. College tuition is on the rise, and a lot of students have difficulty paying for their tuitions. To pay for their tuitions, most students have to take out loans and at the end of four years, those students end up in debt. Student loan debts are at an all time high with so many people graduating from college, and having difficulties finding jobs in their career fields, so they have difficulties paying off their student loans and, they also don’t have a full understanding of the term of the loans and their options if they are unable to repay.
Every member of this class, this university, this collegiate atmosphere, has most likely accumulated debt to achieve higher education. I certainly had the feeling that entering into the University of Massachusetts as a freshmen this year would involve relatively little debt which I would pay off upon graduation–a simple affair in which I received an education for a fair price. Yet, looking even at the comparatively “small” expenditures I have to deal with, examples of educators, students, and parents all paint a portrait of the devastating and deceiving nature of debt involved in the collegiate system in this country. Systemically, culturally, and personally, the system of debt associated with virtually every modern college experience of all but the highest socioeconomic echelon wrings the resources of the average college student dry.
As Graduation comes near we all like to believe that our careers begin debt free behind that glass door, and we turn the knob and all our hard work will have paid off. When in fact, the glass door shatter and the student faced with the reality of paying back student loans. There is little dispute today that the number of students who have student loan debt has increased.
Through my research I hope to explore the consequences of education debt on college graduates’ lives, including career choices, consumption pattern and lifestyle choices. Meanwhile, I want to discuss some feasible alternatives to minimize student loan debt. My intended audience will be the American college students and their families. The other audience I want to reach is those education policymakers. The contribution of this research will be to help students better understanding the consequences of indebtedness and making informed and careful decisions on paying for college. Also, it will raise the awareness of education policymakers, prompting them to improve our existing student loan policy. As a college student, how to finance a higher education is closely related to my personal life. Through the research I hope that I can acquire enough information on the pros and cons of student loan, and other options to minimize the student loan debt, so that I can make careful decision on financing my college education.
The Boom of the college tuition bubble saw a visible increase in price due to massive demand and expanded credit, as caused by the Displacement demonstrated above. Students are investing more and more in college hoping for an advantage because of their degrees and many jobs require some level of postsecondary education, making the investment seem necessary. The demand increase for college becomes visible through the statistics of student loan debt. College Board’s Trends in Student Aid states that 10% of people graduating in 2007-8 had loans over $40,000. The Project on Student Debt discloses that 206,000 graduated from college in 2008 with more than $40,000 loan debt, a ninefold increase from 1996. Outstanding student debt has tripled in the past ten years, increasing from $363 billion to more than $1.3 trillion. Seven of ten students graduate from college with debt, exceeding credit card and auto loan debt combined. Currently, over 40 million people hold debt from their student loans, and annual
Two-thirds of all students graduating from American colleges and universities are graduating college with different levels of debt. According to The Institute for College Access and Success (TICAS) the average the student loan debt is at it’s lowest $26,000 and the most can be up to $100,000. College loan debt is not only negative for the students, but for the economy as well. Student loan debt has reached its highest point at 1.2 trillion according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. As of 2015, student debt is the ranked second highest in the country from consumer debt behind mortgages. Although, student loans, only cover 6% of all nation debt, it decreases the growth of the economy. Because of this, it increases the price of collage,
For countless years, the cost to go to college has risen drastically and this has led to an accumulation of more than a trillion dollars in student loan debt for students after they graduate. Seventy percent of students who graduate
College tuition has a bad name to it, and for a good reason. More students and paying parents are feeling defeated attempting to pay off loans that typically hang over a students head for a good amount of years after finishing their education and getting their degrees. While the government has attempted to try chip away at the $1.2 trillion debt that has accumulated for college students around the United States, they are no where near having a permanent solution that lets graduates get on with their life without struggling. There are a spectrum of problems that create this debt, and only a few solutions that match up with these problems.
Between 2003 and 2012 the number of twenty-five-year old’s with student debt increased from twenty-five percent to forty-three percent and their average loan balance was $20,326 in 2012 – a ninety-one percent increase since 2003, and ten percent of these students graduated with over $40,000 in debt (College Education). By graduating this much in debt, it made peoples life plans get pushed back to nearly twenty years and some of the unfortunate graduates never got out of debt causing them to resort to things such as homelessness. In 2013, student loan borrowers delayed retirement saving (41%), car purchases (40%), home purchases (29%), and marriage (15%) (College Education).