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Caitlyn Hilton
12 July 2015
Carolyn Holloway
English 2010
The Rise in College Tuition
With tuition always on the rise many people are unable to attend or complete college due
to the large amount of money that is now required to pursue higher education. I believe the rise
in tuition for college is an extremely important issue that we, as students, are being forced to face
when trying to plan for the future. My argument is simple, college tuition is too high. The
counter to my statement is not so simple, in fact, you would be hard pressed to find anybody
lobbying for higher tuition rates. Rather, colleges, and the government cannot seem to find a way
to lower tuition rates effectively. As a nation we strive to make advances in fields that require
education (i.e. medicine, science, psychology, etc.) and the lack of students that are able to pay
for college may result in a lack of graduated professionals that carry the degrees needed to make
such advances. In order to solve this problem, we have to look at several factors, such as: how
much tuition has actually increased by numbers over the years, where the money that is paid in
tuition is going, what factors have caused tuition to rise the way it has, and cost of materials
(which are generally paied for all out of pocket, adding to the money spent on education)
What does tuition cost?
While trying to make a decision on how to further ones education, we often let cost factor
in to where we are going to school or if we are going to school at all. Many people with
intentions to go to school end up changing their minds after they find out how much tuition will
be, and of those that do end up in college, many have to start at community colleges because they
cant afford to attend state and private colleges straight out of high school. Tuition is largely

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dependent on the type of institution you will be attending, but it has continued to rise across the
board. Universities and colleges can be divided into two basic groups: public and private, and
within the public and private schools you can attend either a two year or a four year school.
Private schools tend to be far more expensive than public schools and four year institutions tend
to be more expensive than two year. On top of that, if you are an out of state student, tuition will
be even higher. Because of the different types of institutions, the numbers I have been able to
provide were the average cost for all colleges for just one year of tuition. The current average
cost of college for the 2014-2015 year is a startling $20,403 (Statistic Brain, pg1). Ten years ago
in the 2004-2005 school year, the average cost of college was $13,793 (Statistics Brain, pg1)
meaning that the average cost of college rose around $6,610 in just ten years. As we continue to
look back through the cost timeline, we can see that in the 1990-1991 school year one year of
tuition cost merely $6,526, and in the 1980-1981 school year school cost almost half that at
$3,101 (Statistics Brain, pg1). According to CBS News, Tuition and fees increased 5.4%
annually above inflation in the decade since the 2001-2002 school year (pg1). Unfortunately,
even though tuition has risen and continues to rise, scholarships, grants, and financial aid have
not changed much. Because of this, students have to pay more and more out of pocket to afford
college, even with the financial help that services such as FAFSA (Free Application for Federal
Student Aid). As we pay out of pocket, and take out loans, one question that we are left with is:
where does our tuition go and what are we paying for?

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(Graph from fastcoexist.com showing the rise in tuition compared to other important issues)

Where is my tuition going?

While some of the places that our tuition goes are obvious, such as education, some were
very surprising and even a little bit shocking. Several places that I have looked mention sports as
one of the main drains of universities finances. According to USA today some schools spend up
to $91,936 per student athlete, and only $13,628 on regular students (Cliff Peale, pg1), though
athletes do not spend more on tuition. In order to keep up with all the money spent on the sports
programs, colleges rely on ticket sales, donations, and our tuition dollars. If a student has no
interest in sports, why are they forced to pay for them? A students tuition should have nothing to
do with sports if they am not playing them. If sports are such a major drain on resources, why are
many schools constantly adding to sports funds instead of making the much needed budget cuts.
Another place that tuition is going is into efforts to cosmetically improve schools and campuses
and to promote the schools name and brand. In order to get more students to attend their
university, schools spend money making themselves look appealing (Ryan Dallas, pg1). While
students may be more inclined to attend an aesthetically pleasing university, that has no bearing
on our education and is not something that we should be forced to pay for with our money.
According to an article in USA Today, there are several other places that tuition goes, such as:
paying teachers that are taking sabbaticals, funding research, and the pay of college presidents

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(Andrew Hacker & Claudia Dreifus, pg1). Tuition should be lowered to reflect the actual cost of
a students education, not a payment plan for the university to get new furniture.
Why does tuition keep rising?
It seems so obvious that nobody likes the high price of tuition, so why does it keep
rising? With the recession came a lot of pricing changes, and college tuition was no exception.
However, now that colleges have raised their tuitions, it seems they have lost the ability to lower
them. According to the AEI (American Enterprise Institute) some colleges would love to lower
their tuition, but to do so in a way where all of them would benefit would go against the law (Ike
Brannon, pg1). For competing organizations to get together and agree to all sell something, in
this case it would be admission to school, at a certain price is called price-fixing and there are
laws against this in the United States. While laws against price-fixing may be beneficial in many
situations, it seems to have backfired for colleges, seeing as it would be illegal if they agreed to
collectively lower tuition. Along with restrictions from the government, financial support for
universities is being withdrawn from both the state and federal government. CBS news reported
that Since 2008total public funding for higher education has declined by 14.6 percent (Lyn
OShaughnessy, pg1). With funds dropping, colleges are turning to their students to pay for
more to help support the college itself.
What else do I have to pay for?
There are many costs that go into paying for college other than tuition. As many college
students will tell you, one of the things that they miss most about high school is free text books.
With the average student spending roughly $1,168 on text books each year (Tyler Kingkade,
pg1), the price of textbooks has increased faster than inflation and show no signs of stopping.

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Other hidden college costs may include: paying for parking, joining clubs and
fraternities/sororities, lab and studio fees, transportation and food. All these costs add up to more
out of pocket expenses for students.

(graph showing the inflation of text book prices from www.huffingtonpost.com)

In the course of my argument I have explored many reasons why tuition has become
unreasonably high, and my argument remains simple: tuition is too high. Even after completing

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my research, the solutions still remains complicated; however, it does seem fair to say that in
many cases, students are being cheated out of their money as they pay for services unrelated to
their education. Until the time that we as a nation can shift our focus from student loans, to actual
students, we will be unable to solve any of the issues related to tuition.

Works Cited
Bidwell, Allie. "The Rise in Tuition Is Slowing, But College Still Costs More." US News.
U.S.News & World Report, 24 Oct. 2013. Web. 07 July 2015.
Brannon, Ike. "Why The Government Won't Let Colleges Reduce Tuition." www.aei.org.
American Enterprise Institute, 17 Sept. 2014. Web. 07 Sept. 2015.
Dallas, Ryan. "Oh Where, Oh Where Does My Tuition Go?" The Commonwealth Times.
N.p., 30 June 2013. Web. 07 July 2015.
Hacker, Andrew, and Claudia Dreifus. "Where Is All That College Tuition Money Going."
USA Today. N.p., 17 Aug. 2010. Web. 07 July 2015.
James, Patrick. "Charting The Insanely High (And Rapidly Rising) Cost Of College."
Co.Exist. N.p., 13 Nov. 2014. Web. 08 July 2015.
Kingkade, Tyler. "College Textbook Prices Increasing Faster Than Tuition And Inflation."

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The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 01 Apr. 2013. Web. 08 July 2015

O'Shaughnessy, Lynn. "Why College Tuition Keeps Rising." CBSNews. CBS Interactive, 25
Sept. 2012. Web. 07 July 2015.
Peale, Cliff. "Athletics Cost Colleges, Students Millions." USA Today. Gannett, 15 Sept.
2013. Web. 07 July 2015.
"Average Cost of College Tuition." Statistic Brain RSS. N.p., 07 Apr. 2015. Web. 07July2015