College? Ha Not My Kid
Let’s pretend you are a twenty two year old kid walking across the stage smiling ear-to-ear reaching for your Bachelor’s degree, graduating from the University of Texas in the year two thousand and three. Things are looking bright, you are finally done with school and the world just isn’t big enough to hold the potential you possess. Fast-forward six months, things are still ok and you’re managing, but your six-month grace period has ended and here comes your first loan payment, and you are not prepared to take on such a thing.
Paying back loans is something that no student looks forward too. In the teen years you are supposed to make a decision that will influence how comfortably you live for the rest of your life. Do you attend a private school or a state school, can you afford to live on campus or will you commute, will you eat thirteen meals a week or seventeen. These decisions could determine whether you eat one meal a day when you graduate or if you eat three, if you’re able to buy a house or have to rent. As exciting as the college acceptance process can be the notion that you will “pay this off into the grave” crushes the dreams of kids across the country. As a parent putting a senior through their last year of high school you begin to have nightmares about the piles of tuition bills you will be receiving for the rest of your life. Colleges tend to leave the lasting impression “why on earth do they have to cost so much”?
Through the past decade one thing you could count on is the price of college tuition to rise and continue to do so. From the 2002-03 school year the average price of tuition in todays dollar was $12,014, today the average is above eighteen thousand, showing that the cost of tuition rose fifty three percent. Throughout the recession alone it has risen twenty six percent. Why are tuitions costs ever increasing?
There are multiple reasons for inflation but a few standout above others, inflation, demand, scholarships, as well as class availability. “The inflation of college costs has not been so gentle, averaging 4-6% annually. In other words, a college education costing $10,000 this year will likely increase by $400-600 next year. In a nutshell, this means that college costs are doubling every 12-18 years, compared to everything else in the economy doubling in cost every 32 years” (Clark). The demand for college, more commonly known as “expecting to attend college” is increasing just as the tuition prices are. We are living in an era where college more socially applicable and mainstream.
With anything in the world the higher demand the more valuable it is and in turn the more people will pay to receive it. With the increasing number of people attempting to receive a college level degree of some sort, there is the increasing number of scholarships that are awarded as well as the increasing amount of money scholarships are granting. Due to this the students that are not fortunate enough to have received a scholarship are being forced to make up the money the institution has given away. Last but surely not least the availability of classes is adding to the overall cost of tuition. It is becoming a trend to hang around for more then the traditional four years and space your classes out. Sometimes it is just not possible to complete the required courses in that set amount of time, thus adding an additional year to what you have to pay as well as limiting the college from adding a person in your place. Which leads colleges to expand and always continue to grow, again hiking up the prices to accommodate these expansions.
“College costs are increasing faster than most of the other areas of life, and show no signs of slowing. For parents or students within a year or two of starting school, this can mean that your last year of college may cost 15-25% more than your first year. For parents or students that have a number of years until college begins, it means your savings plan