Kris, a wife and a mother, worries about the increasing cost of higher education. She and her husband have a two year old daughter whom they are determined to send to college. They want their daughter to succeed in life, but they have to weigh the complications of going to college as well. “I have always thought about college as a “catch 22”...You’re taught from a young age that in order to achieve the “American Dream” you must graduate high school and go to college,” Kris contemplates (Kris 5).Throughout Kris’s ten years of experience with college, she has seen the tuition increase to shocking heights. In fact, she claims that community colleges cost as much as state colleges did when she first started her college hunt. Back then, she recalls, people were overwhelmed with the tuition rate being fourteen dollars per unit. Now, the same colleges charge about $253 per unit. The irony is that despite the tuition hike, the same schools, the same classrooms, and the same degree programs are being offered. Kris’s latest attempt in higher education failed too, not because she slacked off but because of the formidable cost. She had to pay $30,000 for one year of education. Unfortunately, Kris did not plan for it to be that expensive, so she dropped out. Kris realized it was not worth paying over $100,000 for college education if her future job only pays $30,000 per year. “As of now, I think the educational system is building up our youth and then tearing them down once they reach college. They implement that you have to work hard to obtain the “American Dream” but then you sit back and look at all these people living that dream and realize they didn’t work very hard at all,” Kris states (5). Most people dreams of going to college, which ... ... middle of paper ... ...12. Web. 10 Dec. 2013. McGuire, Jeff. "The Benefits of Having a College Education." College View. Hobsons Inc, n.d. Web. 02 Dec. 2013. "Michigan." Project on Student Debt:. Peterson's, Nelnet Company., n.d. Web. 03 Dec. 2013. Robbins, Alexandra. The Overachievers: The Secret Lives of Driven Kids. New York: Hyperion, 2006. Print Ruytenbeek, Jacob. "The Problems (And Solutions) Of Higher Education." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 19 Aug. 2013. Web. 04 Dec. 2013. Shellenbarger, Sue. “Weighing the Value of That College Diploma”. The Wall Street Journal. WSJ.com, 16 Dec. 2009. Web. 04. Dec. 2013. United States Department of Commerce. “STEM: Good Jobs Now and For the Future.” Economics and Statistics Administration. 14 July. 2011. Web. 04 Dec. 2013. "What's the Price Tag for a College Education?" COLLEGEdata. NACAC, 2013. Web. 03 Dec. 2013.
Dale Stephens argues that college isn’t right for everyone. He acknowledges that he left college because he believed that higher education isn’t everything. Dale clarifies that college is expensive. He refers to College Board Policy Center because tuition is about 3.6 times higher today than it was 30 years ago. He brings up good points but bases his ideas off his own opinions not facts. This is a strong argument because when the tuition is higher, it will be harder for and more people to pay for it. This encourages others to look for an alternative path to follow.
Community colleges and vocational tracks are not wrong about the high cost of traditional higher education. According to the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics, one year at a public, four-year institution costs upwards of $23,000 on average, while private institutions will cost nearly $10,000 more on average. Coupled with the fact that prices at public institutions rose 42 percent and private institutions rose 31 percent between 2001 and 2011, it’s not a shock that parents and students alike worry about paying for college. However, this won’t always be the case, as this rise in prices simply cannot continue the way it has. Eventually, people will be unable to pay the price that colleges charge. They will either settle for com...
Imagine telling a student who just graduated from college that you have wasted four years of hard, stressful and even worse, expensive work. Unfortunately, in this cynical society today, the world isn’t just full of competitors, but it’s full of greedy money-grabbing businesses. The worst businesses aren’t manufacturing or electric companies, but colleges and universities. In Caroline Bird’s essay “College is a Waste of Time and Money,” she examines how college has been viewed for so long as the best place to send high school grads no matter whether they actually want to go or not. She adds that students don’t realize how much college costs and are wasting their parents time and money, which is especially a horrible thing to waste. Now that the economy is better since September 11th and states have been stabilizing their budget debts, it doesn’t make sense that tuition prices higher than ever for college students.
Education comes at a high price for this generation and not just financially. Going to college can give students plenty of debt with no promise of a job in return, which can set a student father back on their course of life. Young adults trying to start their lives by going to college encounter many setbacks. Today the average cost for a private university is $25...
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?”
The price of a four year institution has soared over three hundred percent in the past twenty-five years or so. We would have to factor in general inflation numbers in order to figure out the real significance. After that, we see that in those twenty-five years, tuition has risen at a rate of two to four times that of the national inflation. That has not been the case with college, however, as enrollments only continue to go up. Ultimately this means that families are paying for a luxury they can no longer afford with money they don’t have. Families are looking at an expense that is thirty-eight
As the high school chapter is coming to a close, many students have to make a decision that will affect the rest of their lives. Hopefully, for many that decision is to enroll in a college and attain a higher education. However, as tuition costs rise, students have to take a second look at their options for a better future. A community college is that second look for many because it is the less expensive option. From 2007-2009, enrollment for community colleges has increased by 24 percent (“College costs and the CPI”). Students aren’t choosing a college for educational purposes because they are overwhelmed by financial issues. They are attending community colleges so they will be able to graduate with a lower debt. Some seniors have wanted to attend a certain university all their life and they work toward that goal through grade school; however, they are hindered by soaring tuition for that college. Students should be able to attend a private university if they mee...
But what’s more important? Saving money orapplying to college? So here we ask ourselves on more time, is college worth it? Of course, it is.The more colleges you apply for, the better. Expanding your college options are better thanlimiting yourself with a budget.The cost of tests and applications may be high, but that is nothing compared to how muchcollege really costs. In college, you’re not just paying for the opportunity to learn. You arepaying for books, to rooming, to the grass you step on, and to the air you breathe. A student withno subsidizing means to pay for college can find themselves amidst a nightmare when findingout how much college costs. The cost is so high that an “average of $29,400” (Webber 2) isexpected for a single student’s loans. College tuition, is not lenient, and you know it’s bad whenalmost former president Barack Obama mentioned and “criticized the rising rate of collegetuition” (Gutmann 136). The average cost of college can “range from $3,000 to more than$32,000” (How Much Will College Cost Me? 1). And for low-income students? The statisticssay that “only 52 percent of low-income students enrolled in a…college immediately upongraduating” (Elliot 26). The game is not in the favor of low-income students. In fact, collegecosts plus lack of monetary. See, they need jobs to pay for college, but without college, thechances at a good paying job are slim. And so, some never see the end of
With tuition rising every year, students face the challenge paying the debt achieving a college degree comes with. “Student debt surpassed credit-card debt in June 2010 for the first time in history, rising to about $830 billion — or nearly 6 percent of the nation 's annual economic output”(Clemmitt, Marcia). Not everyone has a ton of money just laying around. Being that financial trouble is the biggest problem for students, they begin to question whether college is worth it or not. In recent years, students have taken out loans to help with expenses. Most students choose to attend a community and junior college to help minimize the debt. Even after graduating with a degree, students still face the struggle of finding a job in this economic time. For higher class families this may not be a problem to them. But for the middle class and low income families, they face tougher times being that they don 't have the financial help like higher class families do. For the middle class and low income families, it makes more sense attending a community and junior college rather than a four year university.
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...
Everyone knows that person from high school that just wasn’t cut out for college. It’s not a bad thing by any means, but if you’re thinking about heading off to college like many American teenagers often do, think about this: going to college can be a waste of both your time and your money. I’m not the first to say it, and I sure as hell won’t be the last. In Stephanie Owen and Isabel Sawhill’s essay, Should Everyone Go to College?, the two authors take a strong economic approach to justify going to college. Owen, an ex- senior research assistant at Brookings’ Center on Children and Families and current research associate at the Urban Institute, a nonpartisan center for research on the problems of urban communities, and Sawhill, the co-director of the Center on Children and Families and a senior fellow in economic studies at Brookings, claim that the return on investment (ROI) of a college education is overwhelmingly positive on average; However, they also bring light
Bruni begins by describing the golden promise of college as it appeared for baby boomers. In that time getting into college and completing a degree was enough to be successful. He acknowledges that this idealized vision of college may be inaccurate, however, he asserts that the issue is far more “complicated” than it once was. Bruni makes use of a recent (2012) debate over student loan interest rates in the U.S. to explore the issues surrounding college education today. While rising student debt is certainly part of the problem he suggests that the issue extends beyond that. College is now a “luxury item with newly uncertain returns” (Bruni). While rising costs make college a luxury item that not everyone will be able to afford, even those who can and do manage to go to college are not guaranteed success.
In Caroline Bird’s “College is A Waste of Time and Money”, it’s argued that there are many college students who would be better off if they were to begin working after high school graduation. Colleges and universities can no longer ensure that one will go on to get a better job, getting paid more than they would have without a higher education. However, high school seniors still stress about where they will be attending college, how they’re going to pay for it and what they’re going to study for the next four years. Bird points out how college has changed over the past few decades and how, in turn, it has set many young adults up for disappointment, if nothing else.
For the past decade, The United States has stressed the importance of college education, to those seeking employment, and better careers. For most people, college is the logical next step in education, as it provides a working knowledge of a desired field and opens the door to many opportunities, but college has become increasingly more expensive as time goes on. Many people feel that college is no longer an option financially. Even with financial aid and scholarships, the cost of a college education can still be very taxing. This is due to massive price increase across the boards, but the main issue on most people’s minds is the debt that will be acquired from higher education.
Discounted Dreams: High Hopes and Harsh Realities at America’s Community College. Prod. John Merrow. PBS Home Video 2007. DVD.