Why has our generation become so immersed in debt? Student loans are a major contributing factor. 40 million Americans now hold student loan debts (The Institute). In 2014 the average student loan debt per student was $28,950 (The Institute). However these numbers are declining, student loan debt is and has been continuously rising each and every year. If a student wanted to pay off their $28,950 of debt off in 5 years they would have to pay $559.68 month. To put this in perspective, 559.68 is more than the average car payment. Even if students wanted to pay off their loan in 10 years they would still have to pay $321.40. This is 10 years of hard earned money that students will never get to see because of the cost of education.
Going to college
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On a daily basis I see students including my self-waking up at 8:00 to attend class, going to work at 3, and then working until 10 o’clock at night. Students are so concerned about trying to keep their debt down that they barley have sufficient time to study. Students are having to do this simply to pay for their education. However, covering the outrageous cost of tuition is not all that has to be paid for. What about books for 12+ credit hours? According to the University of Tennessee-Knoxville website they predict that their students will spend on average $1,598 a year just on books alone (One Stop). Beyond this number students still have to buy food and other necessitates one must have. College should be more affordable because although many states do offer some assistance it is simply not enough to make a significant difference. For example, the tuition at my University cost $12,436, while the state of Tennessee’s lottery program does offer 3,500 dollars, I am still left with a costly $8,936 to come up with (One Stop). Furthermore, since the majority of students make minimum wage it doesn’t allow students to make enough money to pay tuition alone without the student …show more content…
Even if students were provided with more aid a semester or cut tuition cost, it would help student’s finances a great deal. States should see to providing more assistance to these scholars. In addition, the government needs to discover ways to help lower the rates on student loans. According to Bob Samuels article “Why All Public Higher Education Should Be Free” he mentions that “only 30% of Americans who start college or university end up graduating…In fact, the biggest reason why students drop out of higher education is that they cannot afford the high cost of tuition” (Samuels). The graduation rate for students could potentially make an enormous jump if students could solely focus on schooling instead of focusing on how they will fund it. College should be a place where students can further their knowledge, make connections, and grow into a mature adult. It should be a place where students can focus on an education and work hard so that they may be prepared when entering the workforce. The fact of the matter is, many students cannot do this because they have to work or get loans because funding an education has put a burden on many
Wilson states that for the 65 percent of students that graduate with debt, the average amount owed is a staggering $20,000.00. On the contrary, as many as a third of all college students will graduate with no debt at all. Some may think that $20k is an outrageous amount of debt. But if you consider what the average adult spends on their first new car, it puts things into perspective. A new 2016 Nissan Rogue SUV for $20k could be paid off in an average of 4-5 years. This is where one would argue about what
High school graduates don’t have enough money to pay for college, they barely have any money at all. College tuition should stay reduced at an affordable cost so students can afford it and not have debt. According to Steven Goodman, in his article Why College Tuition Should Be Regulated, “two-thirds of American undergraduates are in debt” (Why 1), which is ridiculous considering the fact that they have not graduated yet. Even though he said that in 2011, it is very aware that it will continuously go up if no one puts a stop to it.
There is no doubt that college is expensive, price tags for some universities go over a quarter of a million for just a bachelors degree! (That’s if you graduate in four too). The extravagant price for college is no doubt crazy. Trying to better yourself and your future shouldn’t cost $250,000 plus. If public universities were to be free a plethora of problems could be solved instantly. According to Forbes the National student loan debt has surpassed 1.2 trillion dollars (Denhart )! This number is growing exponentially as more students enroll in to college. Why question then whether college should be free? Well, this number is the total amount of student loan debt from all students that have exited college. Some of these students are freshly graduated while some are aged with the wisdom trying to pay their loans back. If public universities were to be free and funded by our federal government, our government would pay this amount within ten years. Relatively a short amount of time considering that the student loan debt is an accumulation debt from students that have graduated more than ten year ago, also this also greatly increase with the following years as well.
The debt associated with higher education is one of the biggest factors of deterrence for most people who are interested in college, and it is not at all surprising. 71 % of college seniors who graduated last year had student loan debt, and the average debt for a college student with a four-year degree is $29,400.This number has gone up an average of 6 % each year. Keep in mind that this is just the average debt, and there are students who are in debt upwards of $30,000 dollars (projectonstudentdebt.org). Now in order to understand why the debt is so high it is best to break down the different costs of higher education. The first and most important of which is tuition.
and tuition plays a major role in students’ decision for attending college. Students according to a 2008 national survey of roughly 1800 students who qualified to attend college 1000 students of those 1800 did not attend college at all. The main reason claimed by 80 percent of the “non-college-goers” was due to lack of money, more especially not enough grant aid. Although a student was well qualified to attend college having no financial aid made their choice to attend impossible. On the other hand, students who couldn’t receive enough grant aid sought other alternatives to go into college like getting loans. Depending on the amount of years one chooses to attend college it can rack up to an unbelievable amount. According to Edvisors, a financial aid website, “The class of 2015 graduated with $35,051 in student debt on average.” Imagine that! It’s no wonder that the students who didn’t receive enough grant aid chose not to attend college. It was because they did not want to accumulate a debt that in most cases they would have to pay throughout their lives, claiming that tuition cost is too much for
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.
As of 2016, American students have accrued a massive 1.3 trillion in student loan debt. Just 10 years ago, the nation’s balance was only $447 billion (Clements). This ever-present cumulative burden has caused many post graduate Americans to delay important life events such as marriage, homeownership and children because of this substantial encumbrance (Clements). The debt will only continue to grow with neglect, so the most effective action to take would be eliminating the cost altogether.
Going to college has been getting more expensive every year since colleges started. Going to college gives a student a chance to find a career in their major of choice. The only problem is that it isn’t always guaranteed. There are millions of graduated students that can’t find jobs in their major. Most of those students have student loans that they still owe and can’t afford to pay off. The average student with student loans owes over $25,000 and that doesn’t include all that interest that piles up every month. The United States should make college tuition free for everyone that has a high school degree. That can be achieved by making colleges give free tuition, changing the way interest piles up, and by lowering the military budget.
There are so many students who would extremely grateful to attend any four year institution but can’t because of the lack of funds. College life can be very stressful, and the process can is very frustrating to most students the first two years. When the cost of college tuition is compared to the 21 century financial economy the cost does not make sense, because for a middle-class family it is impossible to afford sending their child to any four-year institution. It hard for students to graduate with the stress to pay-off hundreds and thousands of dollars in loans. Going to college is stressful enough without the need to worry about how we’re going to pay for it and what other costs will continue to rise with getting a degree afterwards. With the current increase of unemployment rate and the thought of going to college seems like a farfetched goal. Many people choice not to attend a four year institution, because they did receive a scholarship or enough government funding. Having a college background is very important for professional growth, it will eventually limit career opportunities. My stand point is, you may not leave college doing the same thing you began with but the life experience is endless. College experience not only gives knowledge that builds you into a better person by giving a broader erosion. With the cost of tuition increasing will hurt our generation, by causing physical and mental stress but in the end it will all pay off. Not all colleges are for the blame; some of the blame is our economy and other factors play a big roll. As students we need to be aware of all our resources offered, such as Pell Grants, and government scholarships. For example, the some states will pay for a student’s college if they graduate high school with a GPA of 3.5 or higher. There are many states that are willing to pay for all or some of college tuition only if students are willing to use
Making College Tuition Cheaper I believe that college tuition should be cheaper for everyone no matter what economic level your family is in. College tuition should be very affordable for everyone, so everyone has a chance to get an education without being in debt. There are kids and adults all over the country and world that would love to go to college. Should universities turn down people because they can't afford it? Of course there are numerous scholarships, financial aids, and loans available, but sometimes they don't help everyone out that much because the average family can’t fully support the child going to college, and make a living comfortably in residence.
Student debt has a variety of the effects on young people's lives, however, these major factors are tied up to each other and commonly one aftermath leads to the other.
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...
An article written in 2015, by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities explains that “States cut funding deeply after the recession hit. The average state is spending $1,805, or 20 percent, less per student than it did in the 2007-08 school year” (Mitchell and Leachman). With approximately 20 percent less per student given to educational institutes over the course of time, this will amount to a great deal of money lost and schools will need to adjust accordingly. Unfortunately, one of the ways that educational institutes are working to correct this is by increasing college tuition for students. When you do this, it is much harder for scholars to justify attending institute. Some individuals will argue that you are able to get financial aid. However, this does not turn out to be so for must students. This, again, is a setback in getting an education. An article writing by Michael Mitchell and Michael Leachman states that “In Arizona, published tuition at four-year schools is up more than 80 percent”. With this increase of education, how do students know where the money is being spent. Scholars would like to know that the cost of their education is not being spent incorrectly and are curious as to why the cost of education is increasing when there is no increase for them in the
College is unaffordable for so many people, teenagers and adults alike. Nowadays so many people choose not to go to college because it costs too much, yet it is getting harder to find a career job that does not require a college degree. It is nigh on impossible. Then, once one obtains a degree, it is still difficult. College websites brag about 50% of people finding a job in their certified field as if this is good, but it should be higher. I believe if college was more affordable, more people would be able to pursue their desired degrees without swimming in debt and not being able to find a job after college. This would help people receive a higher education that people would circulate into more diverse jobs instead of those that do decide on going to college being funneled into one program, for instance the nursing program. This is why it should be government policy to apply for cheaper college education for those who do two years of public service prior to attending college for participating volunteer programs.
Fees and loans are too big of a load for young people to carry. A lot of students drop out do to the pressure of having to worry about all the loans they have to pay back after they are done with college. This should not be an issue to the student. According Iatham Emmmons, “Even worse, a large portion of students never receive funding at all due to the multitude of stipulations that must be adhered to in order to qualify for assistance. A major flaw in the current federal educational assistance programs is that the students’ parents’ income is used to calculate financial need” (Emmons 3). Even citizens who try to get help by applying for funding never end up getting it because they do not meet the needs required for the funding. Education should be p...