Will the rise in University college tuition reduces enrollment? The rise in college students debt have been blamed often on college’s high tuition. Many students who enroll into a university often end up with a lot of loan they have to pay back for, even financial aid doesn’t help cover everything. Many students are also afraid to borrow such a large sum of money because they don’t want to have to worry about paying back after finishing college. For the average American household that doesn’t receive a lot of financial aid, higher education is simply out of reach.
For the middle-class families that can find their way through paying for college; many students don’t go to college or if they do they simply don’t graduate because they can’t afford it. Tuition has drastically increased over the time and a lot of the time only the lower-class gets financial aid, the wealthy can afford college while the middle-class struggle to try and find a way to afford the high tuition. A lot of the time, students have to take full time jobs to cover the expense which may interfere with their academic performance. Many students also drop out of college because of not wanting to take loans and having no scholarships.
Even scholarships are hard to get because many students are competing for that as well. Signing for scholarships also takes extra time out of the students time to write essays or do a big project just to get the scholarship. What’s even worse is if you spend your time writing essays and doing projects for the scholarship and end up not winning the money; it can be a very big disappointment and also be very time consuming. Community colleges are the only lifeline to success for those who can’t afford to go to University. They are close to homes and doesn’t require much, for example: the SAT and ACT scores.
It’s also a much more cheaper alternative, however, many wants their children to get a higher education which can result in lots of loans and having to move far away. Many still question if more students would not enroll into a college if the tuition won’t decrease; “The two professors, Dr. Steven Hemelt and Dr. David Marcotte took data from over 600 four-year, public college universities in the United States. This experimental study showed data that an increase of tuition of $100 would bring a decrease in enrollment of . 25%, and an increase in tuition of $210 would result in an enrollment decline of about 57 students (Woods 2015)”.
Some may say that, if college tuition gets higher, more students will either drop out or won’t enroll into a college. Saying that, the average american does not make enough money to fully pay for their child’s college tuition without taking a large amount of loans. What many students don’t also consider is that tuition still increase once they’ve enrolled which can keep them from graduating. “According to the National Center for Education Statistics, when college cost are adjusted for inflation, the average cost of a year of college in 1981 was $3,101.
In 2011, however, the figure was $18,497 (Thompson 2015)”. The rising of college tuition can hit those with financial struggles really hard and because of this, many students end up working either a full time job or two to three jobs so they can pay for their tuitions. Therefore, this can cause a huge factor in their academic performance such as: not having enough time to finish their homeworks and essays, not having enough sleep, not having enough time to study and can’t take all the classes that they need.
It can be really hard because many students only thought of the enrollment tuition the one set of financial assumptions only to find out that there’s more to it than what they really know. Let’s say a student should complete their bachelor’s degree within six to eight years, if they’re working full time or a part time job only a quarter of them would actually finish their bachelor’s degree and some may even have to push back their graduation date. Even though college tuition are high, many families will do anything to get their children to a higher education such as taking out a large amount of loans.
Many parents these days are also pulling out their retirement money just to pay for their child to go college and that probably isn’t such a good idea. Some may feel like high college tuition can help students become a more responsible and mature person of paying back loans and working hard. Also, regarding the decrease of 57 students; “Even though these 57 students were essentially “lost”, the institution is not losing money because they increased their tuition rates so that money lost from the 57 students is being made up by the other students attending the university (Woods 2015)”.
The colleges high tuition covers for those who drop out or doesn’t enroll in a college therefore they don’t actually lose as much students we think they would. Therefore, this doesn’t have a huge impact on universities. Also, both the rich and poor families don’t pay tuition fees directly but use a ‘tuition fee loan’ which doesn’t affect if the student is able to afford to go to college or not. However, if the government chooses to decrease the tuition for the poor and or raise the tuition for the rich then it would be a discrimination.
It may be surprising to some people that the high college tuition hasn’t stop students from enrolling in a college. Many families only way to success is sending their children to college; In fact, “… applications have reached near record levels at many top schools this year, with big names like Harvard and Yale receiving in excess of 30,000 applications (Staff Writers 2011)”. Even though college cost are high, young students still see college as a way to success and are willing to go into debt to get their degree.
Many can say that high college tuition is okay because it’s helping the economy grow, helping to overcome the recession. Some can even say that by increasing the tuition fees less student will most likely get their career because of less competition. In conclusion, a decrease in tuition: in prediction can create more enrollment, however the rise in tuition doesn’t necessarily affect a large decrease in enrollment. Although, the rising cost of tuition for University schools have many students enrolling into community colleges that has risen drastically.
Also, many students who can’t afford to pay for college tuition have also started other ways to pay it off for example, starting their own business. Many young grads have started business of their own and it’s nice to say that their own share of entrepreneurship has been growing steadily. It’s a great way to make money and a way to become mature and responsible from it. However, many students who graduated end back with living with their parents because of the heavy loans they borrowed. Those who don’t get a job after they graduate may suffer a lot from this because the loan is just too much for them alone to pay back.
A lot of the time, many can’t even afford to buy their own place to live because of the thousands of debt and saving money isn’t just an option anymore. There are many sides to this, many can say tuition need to be reduce especially for the lower and middle income families while some may say it doesn’t need to be reduce because it’s a great help to make our economy stronger. Although the rise in college tuition can cause many students to think again and run away, it doesn’t create a huge black hole for Universities.
