Unaffordable College Tuition

19 year old college dropout, Sam Puckett, complains that college is too pricey and unaffordable to attend. She attended the first two marking periods in NYU but decided to drop out due to the extremely high college fares. She has tried to get a full ride scholarship but has not been successful. Though she is doing just fine without college; she wishes she could have had the ability to continue her education. There are many students that can easily relate to the difficulties Sam has faced with her college tuition. I believe that to prevent further dropouts and other issues due to unaffordable college tuition, college should be free for all students or at least more affordable based on their economic status. With free or more affordable tuition, students will be more encouraged to attend college and pursue careers instead of living in constant regret about not going to college for reasons they couldn’t control.

Students should be able to go to college without worrying of high tuition costs. For this reason; I believe college tuition should be more free. Free or more affordable college tuition will encourage more students to enroll. Magazine journalist Chris Burt from University Business says that Nearly 70% of prospective and current college students say the price of attending institutions has altered their plans for the 2021-22 academic year. He also surveyed many college students with fee freezes last year and has found that 56% of those students were bracing for increases, 43% are having deep discussions this year about affordability, 60% of families who have been impacted by the fallout of COVID-19 through job loss or other financial loss have been talking with children about the costs of attending and only 6% said they weren’t bothered by the expenses. This clarifies that a lot of people had to rethink college plans and applications due to the consistently increasing tuition. While only 6% were not affected by the fare. Also, families who already had financial problems, were suffering even more with the thoughts of college. Many families had to sit their children down and talk to them about the possibility of not being able to afford college.

Some say that the tuition isn’t the issue and that students and families should work harder to pay for the costs, though not many would agree with that claim. It’s essentially the government and college’s responsibility to reduce high fares.

Students should be able to continue college instead of dropping out for something they couldn’t control. According to news reporter Jade Scipioni, 51% of college students dropped out of school due to costs. She also mentioned that according to the college board, the average cost of tuition fees for the 2017-2018 school year was $34,740 at private colleges, $9,970 for state residents at public colleges, and $25,620 for out-of-state residents attending public universities. This indicates that there is a consistent increase in college dropouts and the majority is because of money troubles since more than half of students dropout because of the unaffordable college tuition. Though some colleges are taking notice of these issues, the majority of schools aren’t.

Some argue that college students drop out because of irresponsibility or lack of potential. But there are many reasons and one of the most important is being overlooked. Schools need to understand that some of their best students are struggling with being able to continue due to unreasonable fares, and should do more to help.

Many people help these students by donating and fundraising for tuitions and scholarships. Anyone can fundraise and raise money for schools, they don’t need any specific qualifications to give back to the community. Students have tried to raise money for their tuition in ways such as having a side-hustle, getting jobs, or trying to get financial grants or scholarships. Only very lucky students are able to get a financial  grant or scholarship, and jobs are hard to manage alongside college. There are many organizations and gofund me accounts that raise money for schools and students tuitions. It is very easy to donate a few dollars a month to make a huge difference for one student’s education. Although the overall problem should be solved by schools themselves by making their tuition free or at least decreasing the fare. There are schools that have noticed a huge increase in student applications after cutting the tuition in half. Some students completely ignore colleges that are too expensive and look for cheaper ones without trying to find ways to pay for the tuition themselves; this causes schools to be in panic with a lot fewer students applying each time.