Rising Cost Of College Essay

Rising college tuition costs is an issue that hits close to home for many of us. Being a student, will always coincide with money struggles. During ones college search, numbers are all we are told to focus on. These numbers include ACT scores, GPAs, AP tests scores, and the biggest number of all, the cost of college itself. The rising cost of college has three main effects; debt through student loans, less people attending college, and an increasing number of college graduates moving back home. Raising tuition year after year will cause a drop in applicants and affect current students’ retention rates. That is because tuition is already at an all-time high, making it harder for underfunded students to even think about entering higher education. Overtime students have grown increasingly frustrated with tuition rates. That is because in the past 20 years, "tuition increased twice as fast as the overall cost of living”

According to the New York Times, “about two-thirds of bachelor’s degree recipients borrow money to attend college, either from the government or private lenders, according to a Department of Education survey of 2007-8 graduates.” On average since 1980, college tuition prices rise 7% a year. In comparison, the inflation rate is just 3.2%. But we have to remember that as long as the demand for higher education continues to rise, the price will also rise. In order to pay for the absurd prices of higher education, students should not have to end up turning to loans. The phrase “education being worth it no matter the cost” has been drilled into students as well as their families. This has led to student loans eclipsing a total of $1 billion every year, and in total reaches more than $1 trillion. While most loans don’t have to be paid off until after graduation, many students aren’t able to find jobs to subsidize the loan payments once they have