Higher Education Is Expensive but Worth It

Imani Harris

Composition II

Stephanie Williams

04/14/17

Introduction

Higher education is vital to the nation's future, yet every day brings news about the crisis.

Everyone needs a college education, but few people can afford it. Students are drowning in debt.

Our nations total outstanding student loan balance is now more than $1 trillion, and a high 11.5

percent of this massive amount is 90-plus days delinquent or in default. That is the highest

delinquency rate among all forms of debt, including credit cards, mortgages and auto loans.

Things might be tougher than normal for todays college graduates, but rest assured things are

even tougher for those with no college education. Rising costs and high unemployment among

recent graduates are no reasons to doubt the value of a college education. A college degree is

worth a million dollars more than a high school degree over your lifetime. Being well educated is

priceless. I guess the risk of adding to your debt may be worth the reward of being a strong

contributor to our economic future. In all honesty, the world needs more college students. We

need more students getting an education to show the new generations the right path to take. Our

new generation needs more guidance than ever before. Did you know? Alone a bachelors

degree is $26,600 in student debt. Im probably going to be the average college student but thats

okay my education is going to be well worth it in the end. There is nothing like an educated
person in this world today. To conclude this, getting a higher degree is expensive but evidence

shows that it is all worth it in the end.

Body

I attend the University of Arkansas At Little - Rock and before I came I was clueless about what

exactly was the real reason of college. I was told that you need to go to college to get this certain

job and make this certain amount of money. You should have this degree to have this certain kind

of job. That's what they told us in high school and what we assumed it was true. Things are

changing for this matter because a college degree is required for those big firm jobs that we

dream to have and it's no longer a bachelors degree they prefer you to have a Masters degree

now. Higher education is basically earning a college degree. It can be community college which

is a two-year institution and or a university which is usually 4 years but you can always go back

to get your masters if thats your preference. Economists refer to this as the human capital

theory of education, and for the past twenty or thirty years it has gone largely unchallenged. If

youve completed a two-year associates degree, youve got more human capital than a high-

school graduate.

If youve completed a four-year bachelors degree youve got more human capital than

someone who attended a community college. Once you enter the labor market, the theory says,

you will be rewarded with a better job, brighter career prospects, and higher wages the biggest

issue with getting a degree is for the average American it can be expensive which leads to debt.

Despite the increasing costs and the claims about a shortage of college graduates the number of

people attending and graduating from four-year educational institutions keeps going up. In the

2000-01 academic year, American colleges awarded almost 1.3 million bachelors degrees.
A decade later, the figure had jumped nearly forty per cent, to more than 1.7 million. About

seventy percent of all high-school graduates now go on to college, and half of all Americans

between the ages of twenty-five and thirty-four have a college degree. Thus, parents feel more

pressured to send their children to college.

(http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/09/07/college-calculus)

First, the public educational system that has evolved in America is widely perceived to be a

failure. Efforts to assist low-income families and students have largely failed, and academic

performance has not benefitted from present priorities. Which will prove that low income

students suffer the most while trying to receive a college education. This causes retention, low

grades and drop outs. (Kirkpatrick, David W. Choice in schooling: a case for tuition vouchers.

Chicago: Loyola U Press, 1999. Print.) Knox stated that students are confronted with major

financial decisions as they enter college, and yet they have little experience with personal

finance. Their decisions, if not well made, could adversely affect them throughout their lives.

This book is meant to uplift students at the beginning of their financial lives with straightforward

information on managing bank accounts, creating spending plans, determining how much they

can afford to pay for college, making student-loan decisions, establishing a credit history, and

other money-management options. This will help me explain exactly how we can manage our

money as college students to keep from going broke and bringing more debt to the situation.

(Knox, Susan. Financial basics: a money-management guide for students. Place of publication

not identified: Ohio State Univ Press, 2016. Print.)

To continue, College tuition has risen four times fast in the past two decades. While faculties like

to blame the rising costs on fancy athletic buildings and bloated administrations, professors are
hardly getting the short end of the stick. Spending on instruction has increased twenty-two

percent over the past decade at private research universities. This proves that we are paying for

more than an education. Were also paying for the campus, buildings, and professors are getting

the bad end of the stick just like the students (Schaefer, Naomi. The faculty lounges: and other

reasons why you won't get the college education you paid for / Naomi Schaefer Riley. Chicago: :

Ivan R. Dee Distributed by National Book Network, 2011. Print)

Next, Tuition at a private university is now roughly three times as expensive as it was in 1974,

costing an average of 31,000 a year; public tuition, at 9,000 has risen by nearly four times. This

is a painful bill for all but the very richest. For the average American household that doesnt

receive a lot of financial aid, higher education is simply out of reach. For young adults from

educated, middle class families the people who will find a way to get through college despite the

costs even though rising college tuition is a personal challenge. But the great national crisis is the

fact that too many other young adults are not going to college, if they do they dont graduate due

to the cost. If colleges and universities were just another consumer good, like vehicles or

clothing we wouldnt worry as much about their cost.

https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/13/magazine/is-college-tuition-too-high.html?_r=0>

This is where my field research came to play. I asked the ladies on my hall in a floor meeting

how much a semester did they have to pay out of pocket. 10 of 20 girls said they pay less than

100 due to scholarships and the other 10 which includes myself pays 5000 or more with a

scholarship. That is just ridiculously to expensive for me and my parents. I have already taken

out almost a 10,000 loan and its just my freshman year of college. I am the average college

student.
From here on, colleges raise tuition so they have more leeway to tailor financial aid packages to

attract the most desirable students. Usually this means the most academically desirable, but it can

also be used to attract accomplished athletes and well-rounded student leaders. In economic

terms, since everyone pays a discounted price, but everyone's discount from full tuition is

different, colleges discriminate to extract the most revenue from each student. It's like flying on

an airplane where everyone has paid different prices for the same ticket. This leads to tuition

growing faster than inflation, but remember, most people are not paying the full price.

http://www.wcu.edu/20070122.pdf Students are borrowing enormous amounts of money to

attend college; considers whether the cost of higher education is simply too high, and if there

should be a cap on how much money students can borrow. It also explains what is contributing to

the rising rate of borrowers defaulting on their loans and predicts whether the student loan

bubble is in danger of popping. (Elliott, William, and Melinda K. Lewis. Student debt: a

reference handbook. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, An Imprint of ABC-CLIO, LLC, 2017.

Print.) This supports my last statement when I was doing research. We do not pay the same

amount for college tuition. Every students amount is different. This can be a good or dreadful

thing because it can go either way. As of mid-July 2016, outstanding U.S student debt loan was

almost 1.4 trillion and by some estimates is expected to reach 2.5 trillion by 2025.

For this reason, Student debt is the second largest household debt behind home mortgages.

Rising student debt is the result from rising tuition and easily available loans. Rapid tuition

increases are the main reason for the student loan problem. Just as easily available mortgage

loans students take out student loans just as easy. (Unburdening the debt for youth in America)

Thats when the question should arise. So, if the cost of providing an education has remained

stable, why does the price students pay keep rising? The reason say, researchers, is that deep
budget cuts in the state funding for public higher education and shrinking subsidies at private

schools have pushed a greater share of the cost onto students and their families. This article states

that millions of American students and their families still believe it is and many experts pointing

out that college graduates on average do make more money than those just with a high school

diploma. Many students and their families are wondering why tuition keeps rising, and how

much higher it will go. This article proves that students with a degree makes more money than

the average high school graduate. (Why Does an Undergraduate Degree Cost So Much)

Does student aid increase college attendance or simply subsidize costs for infra-marginal

students? Settling the question empirically is a challenge, because aid is correlated with many

characteristics that influence educational investment decisions. The evidence suggests that aid

has a 'threshold effect'. A student who has crossed the hurdle of college entry with the assistance

of aid is more likely to continue schooling later in life than one who has never attempted college.

This is consistent with a model in which there are fixed costs of college entry. Finally, a cost-

benefit analysis indicates that the aid program examined by this paper was a cost-effective use of

government resources.

After all the information, we have learned about tuition in the previous paragraphs we get that

college tuition is expensive and varies depending on the student. We know that it is rising as we

speak. The cost of higher education is expensive but can we find a way to make it less of a

burden. . Improving higher education means focusing on the quality of a students relationships

with mentors and classmates, for when students form the right bonds, they make the most of their

education. This will help me when I prove that college debt doesnt ruin a college experience it

just sets back the improvement on their education. (Chambliss, Daniel F., and Christopher G.

Takacs. How college works. Cambridge, MA: Harvard U Press, 2014. Print)
Maybe we should understand whats available to us students before we get ourselves into

something such as debt. The reality is that such scholarships represent less than 5 percent of all

the aid that is available. Many people also assume that the price of tuition is the same for every

college but the price ranges differ. This source will help me prove that students with no financial

aid struggle more than students who do have it. We all thought we were paying the same amount

but thats by far from true. (Chany, Kalman A., and Geoff Martz. Paying for college without

going broke. New York: Penguin Random House, 2016. Print)

Conclusion

To conclude, tuition may be high but that doesnt mean dont go and get your education.

Meaning that regardless of the debt in America receiving a college education is the only way to

success in todays world. (Restoring trust in higher education: making the investment

worthwhile again) Higher Education in the United States is what Smith calls the Big Business,

just as it has become essential to receive a college degree for development of a successful career.

To succeed along the path through college you have to know lessons, or you will become another

victim in an extremely competitive environment. This will prove that there is ways and strategies

to get out of having to take out student loans. This shows that scholarships and grants are

important regardless of your income situation. (College without student loans : attend your ideal

college & make it affordable regardless of your income) Getting an college education is essential

to life and is the only key to success in this world. I am grateful to have shared the importance of

an education period to my audience. Despite the cost of college, everything eventually falls into

place after you graduate.

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