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?” In order to highlight just how awful the situation in America has …show more content…
So the system that is supposed to lead to financial stability later in life causes families to use nearly one hundred percent of their revenue in a given year to continue the cycle for their kin. The main culprit in this treacherous cycle is, you guessed it, the government. According to Paul F. Campos in his article “The Real Reason College Tuition Costs So Much” he cites Sandy Baum saying, “it’s not that colleges are spending more money to educate students, it’s that they have to get that money from someplace to replace their lost state funding — and that’s from tuition and fees from students and families.” (Campos). Essentially, the government has been cutting funding over the last decade due to various reasons. The recession in 2007 was a major contributor to this loss of funding. In fact, Lynn O 'Shaughnessy writes in her article “Why college tuition keeps rising”, “Since 2008, when the recession hit, total public funding for higher education has declined by 14.6 percent.” (.O’ Shaughnessy). Public funding is a lifeline for middle and lower class families when it comes to sending their children off to college, with such devastating cuts it is nearly impossible for …show more content…
As The “Progress of Education Reform” suggests, tuition discounting is major contributor to the rising cost of college in the sense that while it provides a tuition discount to the one particular student receiving the grant or scholarship it places a heavier burden on the majority demographic that attends the university without such discounting. (The Progress of Education Reform” 1). In contrast to popular opinion, scholarships and grants which are normally regarded as blessings are ironically a contributing factor to rising tuition prices. Basically, the universities have to make up for the money they lost by awarding the scholarships so the majority of the student population who did not qualify feel it in their pocketbooks. A final cause of this ludicrous tuition spike is the shift in university budgets to cater to the administration departments of the schools. Jobs in this department are non-teaching jobs that provide student services ranging from student safety to counseling and wellness programs. These jobs are definitely
The second chapter of this book advocates students to attend college, even if they must take on a moderate amount of student loan debt. They give statistics showing the tremendous gap in wages between a college graduate and a non-college graduate. The third chapter of this book argues the opposite viewpoint of the second chapter. The author states that the cost of college today is too high and that there are too many college graduates flooding the job market causing many of them to go unemployed or seek low level jobs that do not pay enough to pay off their student loans. Both of these chapters will help me to show the two main ...
The skyrocketing price of college tuition is causing a tremendous concern over whether higher education will be a viable financial concept to the average citizen over the next decades. Some families have opted to explore different means of obtaining a higher education for their children as these costs escalate. There is overwhelming evidence that colleges need to restructure the way they are run because tuition prices are increasing at a rapid rate causing changes in the way students fund their education and in the way the government provides educational subsidies.
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
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.
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.
Although a college education grows more and more expensive every year. People begin to question whether college is a good idea to invest in or not. “As college costs continue to rise, students and their families are looking more carefully at what they are getting for their money. Increasingly, they are finding that the college experience falls short of their expectations”(Cooper. H Mary). Many people believe that the cost of a college degree has outstripped the value of a degree.Studies show that a college degree will increase your earning power. A lot of people say that a college degree now is worth what a high school diploma was wor...
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...
For at least a century, tuition at selective private colleges and universities has risen annually by two to three percent more than the rate of inflation (Ehrenberg 1). Tuition increases at public colleges have slowed slightly, but the cost is still out of reach for low-income students. Financial aid has dwindled. A select group of colleges and universities are cutting their tuition; (Carapezza, 2013) however, student debts can stick with a person, even after graduation. Due to a university’s cost, a handful of tuition is passed down to the students. With college follows the higher cost of living. Incomes are limited due to low paying jobs. During my first week in college, everything about college was an adventure. From what to expect in college, to the adaptation of the college environment, the college experience seemed nerve wracking at first. However, the lessons from college proved to be beneficial towards my life. At that moment, not only have I learned about the college experience, I’ve also learn about the burdens of college tuition, how it can impact a person’s life, and as well as being a successful college student. Also, college tuition has escalated my worries toward the future. To help pay for higher education, the federal government offers tuition tax credit programs (College Board, n.d). Anyone who can afford to pay for thousands of dollars can usually ignore it. As for everyone else, when every penny counts, questions will be raised about where every penny is going. If tax dollars were to be invested to either the national health care or the military, for one, transferring taxes to health care will ensure the public's health; however, since taxes was invested in health care, there will be fewer doctors towards a m...
College has gotten increasingly more expensive in the United States as time has passed. Today, many, if not most, college graduates come out with a degree and a complimentary heaping mound of debt. The estimated average debt is believed to be in the proximity of twenty-five thousand United States dollars per college graduate. Essentially, most people that pursue their goals and attain a higher education are being punished by starting life in the “real world” with a crippling tower of debt. So many college students that have to pay for their own college expenses have to learn how to budget their money through a trial by fire. There is another group in which I belong, the group that has their parents or other family members pay for their college
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.
In the article of “The Reason College Tuition Costs so Much,” Paul F. Campos finds that a large fraction of the increase in tuition can be explained by increases in subsidies. Over the course of the past few decades, administrators have said that the cuts in public funding is the reason why universities raise tuition year after year, which in turn, is the reason why the millennial generation is forced to take on crushing educational debt loads (Campos 1). Yet, contrary to popular belief, public investment in higher education in America is vastly larger today, in inflation-adjusted dollars, than it was during the supposed golden age of public funding in the 1960s. According to Campos, “the military’s budget is about 1.8 times higher
The choice of whether or not one should attend college has been a great topic of interest over the past few years with the increase of college tuition. This increase of college tuition questions whether attending college will pay off in the future since numerous amounts of students are left with an excessive amount of student loan debt. Stephanie Owen, a former research assistant at Brooking’s Center and current research associate at the Urban Institute, alongside Isabell Sawhill, co-director of the Center on Children and Families and a senior fellow in economic studies at Brookings, wrote Should Everyone Go to College? In an attempt to answer that question. In their report they breakdown the cost and benefits of going to college often relying
From the time they enter high school, American students are conditioned to believe that pursuing a higher education is necessary to their success. Advanced classes and extracurricular activities are justified as being preparation for the future. However, as colleges continue to raise costs, it has become practically infeasible to expect young adults and their families to pay for an education out of pocket. Although student loans are available, they are extremely difficult to pay off quickly, so students are leaving school with thousands of dollars in debt, often without employment. Receiving a college education, a vital tool in today’s society, now presents an economic crisis to recent graduates in the form of student loan debt that threatens the financial security of the future workforce as well as the rest of the American population.
Students not being able to go to college based on social status, making low yearly income, jobs requiring certain degrees to work, and decrease in business efficiency can all be main factors that can be affected by high cost of tuition. Do you want to be thousands of dollars in debt the rest of your life? If not let’s fight to lower the cost of tuition to make the dreams of many a
The federal government must do more to reign in tuition costs at the public colleges, that educate more than 70 percent of the nation’s students. The cost of four-year public college tuition has tripled since the 1980s, outpacing both inflation and family income. The increase in the tuition burden is largely caused by declining sta...