Category: College Tuition

The Rising Cost of College Education

In today’s world, having a higher education could dictate how satisfactory or unsatisfactory someone’s future will be. Whether it’s in business, medicine, technology or teaching, many jobs require some sort of degree to get hired and having that college degree shows hard work and experience in a certain skill. College also prepares students for the world that they will soon step into, by teaching them lessons and helping them develop skills to live independently. In addition, some people meet their best friends at college and even their partner for the rest of their life. Although there are many advantages from going to college, the high tuition costs have turned into a factor that scares students away from wanting to go to college. From costs for room and board, transportation, books, classes, enrollment fees; to usage of computer and internet, the average cost of college tuition has been increasing and is now at an all time high. These schools use the increase of population as a marketing strategy. They know that there will always be enough students who are smart, but also have money. So they increase their tuition prices in order to make more money and look prestigious.

The Impact of Tuition Costs on Students

The average college tuition costs have gone to extreme numbers. According to Farren Powell, an expert on college financial aid and Emma Kerr, a reporter on colleges, they state, “in-state tuition prices among public National Universities grew by 63% over a 12-year period from 2008 to 2020” (2). This means that students that are attending college are spending more money to get a higher education. Tuition has increased by over half its cost in just a short time. Due to inflation and changes in the economy, think about how much tuition would increase over the next decade. That’s a crazy increase in prices just to get a higher education. A report about average college costs by Sarah Goldy-Brown found, “For the 2017-2018 school year, tuition at a four-year private college costs an average of $34,740. Public universities charge in-state students $9,970 and out-of-state students $25,620” (Brown 2). For a student to attend a school outside of their home state, it would cost them around triple the cost for that student. This gives that student less opportunity because they would have to find a college in their home state, so they can afford going to that college.

The large price tags of tuition are made up of multiple payments all put together to one cost. In an article about the basics of college tuition by Ken Clark in the balance, “Tuition is the core of the college bill. It is the fee associated with taking each course, and it’s often calculated per credit. For example, a college may charge $300 per credit for undergraduate courses, which means that a three-credit undergraduate history course will cost $900. The average general education course is three or four credits, and college students typically take between three and five classes per term. (Clark 2). In addition to paying for each class, students must pay for room and board. Some students may try to skip out on paying for room by living at home, but “Many colleges require students to live in campus dormitories during their first year or two” (Clark 5). This would allow the student to fully participate in all campus activities, and help get the student into the school culture. Living on campus also makes everything more convenient as students can walk everywhere they need to go. However, this does make the tuition rise in cost, and instead of rising, college tuition needs to be decreased.

One reason why the prices should be lowered is because of the increased opportunities that would be presented to each student. College Atlas, an organization and website that offers guides to college and many resources around the topic of college states, “70% of Americans will study at a 4-year college, but less than ⅔ will graduate with a degree… Children from low-income households were 7.6x less likely to complete a Bachelor’s Degree than those from well-off households” (4). Basically, students whose family doesn’t have a very good source of money are seven times less likely to complete a full four-year college. This doesn’t give these students very much opportunity or motivation to try and get out of low-income. A decent amount of low-income students do attend the first few years of university, but according to an article by Jade Scipioni in Fox Business, “Each year, about 2 million students apply to banks to attain critical ‘last gap’ loans to reach graduation. Those without cosigners are rejected, and poor/moderate income students are disproportionately represented in this rejected cohort” (Scipioni 6). Since these low-income students don’t have a cosigner to guarantee that their borrowed money will be paid back, they get rejected from receiving a bank loan, explaining the “51% drop-out rate” (Scipioni 1). This gives students who come from a low income family less opportunity to find a good job, leaving them stuck in a disadvantage. This creates a cycle where their kid(s) can’t afford to go to college and then have to settle for a job that doesn’t pay very well. In the end, the student and their future family will have limited opportunities because of college tuition costs.

The Debt Crisis: Student Loans and Future Implications

To afford attending college, many students will decide to take out student loans in order to help them pay the costs of tuition. However, those loans and debt can sometimes cripple their future plans to buy a house or even make them work multiple jobs to try and pay back the debt that has been a burden to their future. A report by U.S. News found, “According to the most recent data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, total student debt now tops $1.3 trillion. It is the single fastest-growing segment of U.S. consumer debt, increasing by 170 percent over the past decade. Some 44 million Americans currently hold student debt – and 8 million of those have already defaulted on their loans” (U.S. News 1). Student debt is high and increasing, as “the average student now owes around $27,975 upon graduation” (Scipioni 4). Many students will have to take out loans because of the high college tuition prices, therefore leaving them in a lot of debt. This will lead to a build-up of stress and a lack of financial stability. That will then cause them to make less-sound financial decisions and be held back from financial growth. This suppresses growth for the economy, which holds back humans from making new advances.

In order for humans to make new advances, they’ll need education and a job. In an article from Forbes , “According to figures from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, the average annual growth in wages was only 0.3% between January 1989 and January 2016. That’s right, the cost to attend a university increased nearly eight times faster than wages did . While the cost of a four-year degree exploded to $104,480, real median wages only went from $54,042 to $59,039 between 1989 and 2016” (Maldonaldo 8). The cost to attend college has increased in cost over the average wage increase by eight times. For example, a student may decide to take some training to get a job that involves helping people. The training may cost $250, but they will get paid $5,000 for 3 summers. This person decides to take the training, because they know that what they get paid will exceed the cost of the training. If the training cost more than they get paid, then maybe that person would try a different job. College is like a training course, and the part-time student job is like the full-time job the student will work at if he or she graduates. But instead of the job exceeding the cost of the college, that training (college) costs 2 times more than the real job. Today, students are paying far more than what they are earning and to a lot of students, it is not worth it. So why is college so expensive?

Why Tuition Prices Are So High: Athletics, Faculty, and Campus Life

There many are reasons why tuition prices are so high. According to an article from Business Insider, “Higher enrollment has brought an expansion of financial-aid programs, a need to increase budgets for faculty pay and on-campus student services, and a decline in financial support from state governments” (Hoffower 6). College’s have been starting to spend more and more money on their professors and different faculty positions. They also spend a lot of money to improve the campus, making living on site feel comfortable and fun. However, this makes the prices of tuition increase and since there is a decrease in financial help from state governments, it costs students Another reason why tuition is rising is because of the expensive costs to fund college athletic programs. According to an article by Cathaleen Chen, “82 percent of college football programs lose an average of $11 million per year, and that universities spend nearly seven times as much on athletes as on educating students. Meanwhile, the average cost for tuition and fees has almost doubled since 2000” (Chen 2). This is implicitly stating that tuition for the entire university is affected, not just the player’s tuition. To add on, college football teams have increased by 20 players and soccer programs have increased by over 40 teams. In terms of athletic costs, golf costs have gone to over $20,000 per athlete. (Hacker 7). If the costs for golf athletes have gone so high, then the other programs must be also exponentially increasing to crazy prices. Colleges then have to even out the tuition costs of athletes and spread the costs to each student, so as athlete costs increase, then so do the tuition costs of every other student. In addition, colleges raise their tuition to try and stay competitive, by paying more for better faculty. Ivy League schools, Yale and Stanford have both seen a faculty pay increase of over 50% in the past 30 years. (Hacker 11 12). Colleges are spending more money on higher tier professors, but aren’t putting them to full use, which isn’t helpful for better education for the students. Instead, these colleges are hiring them to make it seem like they have the best of the best, keeping them competitive with other schools, which gives them a reason to raise their tuition.

In addition to a decline in support from state government, athletics and faculty, colleges spend a lot more money on services such as food, dorms, and the overall campus. An article in Student Debt Relief by Sarah Goldy-Brown found, “Students at four-year public in-state schools pay more for room and board than they do for tuition—$10,800. Their full cost then becomes $20,770. Out-of-state students pay the same $10,800 for room and board, so these students pay an average of $36,420. Private four-year colleges charge slightly more at $12,210, bringing the total annual cost to $46,950” (Goldy-Brown 3). Since the cost to live on campus is such a big portion of college tuition, students may choose to live at home and make a daily commute to school. In doing that, it gives the student way less choices, as they have to go to a college that is close enough to their home so they can make the daily commute.

Solutions and Alternatives: Lowering Tuition Costs

Overall, all of these factors drastically increase the cost of tuition, but they don’t benefit student’s education, and instead benefit the college. Schools try to better their campus and offer more “extras” to bring in more students. But these students don’t realize that part of their tuition is paying for those, instead of education. In order to stop tuition prices from rising, there needs to be a limit to the cost of college tuition. State governments could help fund certain areas of tuition, such as room and board or help pay faculty, then putting a cap on college tuition would be very possible. In addition, providing a flat rate for college classes would be helpful as in Ken Clark’s article, “Some colleges and universities provide a flat rate for tuition, which covers a minimum and a maximum number of units per semester. That can work well for a student who is committed to a full schedule of classes each term. For example, a college may charge $300 per credit but also offer a flat rate of $4,500 per term for at least 12 but no more than 18 credits. A student taking only 12 credits is paying $375 per unit, while the student taking a full load pays $250 per unit” (Clark 2).

International Perspective and Conclusion

There are many countries that decide to offer free higher education. According to an article by Max Eden, “More than half of the countries in the OECD offer free college. They tend to have higher levels of enrollment than the United States but lower levels of postsecondary educational attainment. The average attainment rate in the OECD countries with free college is 38%. In countries that charge tuition, the rate is 43%. Among the most developed nations, the G-7, those where students are charged tuition (Japan, 59%; Canada, 58%; United Kingdom, 48%; United States, 46%) all have higher levels of postsecondary educational attainment than those where tuition is free (France, 44%; Germany, 28%; Italy, 24%)” (Eden 4). This is saying that the countries that give free college have more people enroll, but more people drop-out before graduating. Some people may use this in their argument for why college tuition shouldn’t be lowered. However, instead of making colleges in America completely free, putting a cap on tuition to make the cost affordable. For students who come from a low income family, it would persuade them to try and find a part-time job, as the tuition prices will become affordable after some saving up, instead of completely out of their arm’s reach. And for all the money the colleges are losing, state governments could help fund college athletic programs, or help pay for room and board.

In order to stop the rising costs of college tuition, there needs to be a limit to the costs and certain areas of college should be paid for by the government. If these changes were implemented, each student would have more opportunities to get a higher education, whether they come from a low-income family or not. This would motivate students to do better in high-school or find a student job. Overall, the economy and workforce would (Opportunity for students, more motivation to do well in high school, get student jobs, better for economy and workforce)

Work Cited

1. Atlas, College. “U.S. College Dropout Rate: College Statistics.” CollegeAtlas, 29 June 2018, www.collegeatlas.org/college-dropout.html.
2. Clark, Ken. “The Basics of College Tuition, Room, and Board.” The Balance, The Balance, 14 Jan. 2020, www.thebalance.com/understanding-college-tuition-room-and-board-795382.
3. Goldy-Brown, Sarah. “The Average Cost of College in 2018 – Student Debt Relief.” Student Debt Relief | Student Loan Forgiveness, Student Debt Relief | Student Loan Forgiveness, 21 Oct. 2019, www.studentdebtrelief.us/news/average-cost-of-college-2018/.
4. Hacker, Andrew. “Colleges: Where the Money Goes.” Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 12 Sept. 2010, www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2010-sep-12-la-oe-dreifushacker-college-cost-20100912-story.html.
5. Hoffower, Hillary. “College Is More Expensive than It’s Ever Been, and the 5 Reasons Why Suggest It’s Only Going to Get Worse.” Business Insider, Business Insider, 26 June 2019, www.businessinsider.com/why-is-college-so-expensive-2018-4.
6. Maldonado, Camilo. “Price Of College Increasing Almost 8 Times Faster Than Wages.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 25 July 2018, www.forbes.com/sites/camilomaldonado/2018/07/24/price-of-college-increasing-almost-8-times-faster-than-wages/#26697b1c66c1.
7. Powell, Farran. “10 Strategic Ways to Pay Less for College.” U.S. News & World Report, U.S. News & World Report, 3 July 2018, 9:41 AM, www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/paying-for-college/slideshows/10-strategic-ways-to-pay-less-for-college?slide=3.
8. Scipioni, Jade. “51% Of College Students Dropped out of School Due to Costs, Study Finds.” Fox Business, Fox Business, 9 Jan. 2018, www.foxbusiness.com/features/51-of-college-students-dropped-out-of-school-due-to-costs-study-finds.
9. “What You Need to Know About College Tuition Costs.” U.S. News & World Report, U.S. News & World Report, 18 Sept. 2019, 10:01 AM, www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/paying-for-college/articles/what-you-need-to-know-about-college-tuition-costs.

The Burden of Student Loan Debt and the Need for Free College Tuition

45 million student loan borrowers are 1.56 trillion dollars in debt and growing (“A Look at the Shocking Student Loan Debt Statistics for 2019”). Imagine graduating high school with hopes of achieving a higher education and profession, only to be met with hundreds of thousands of student loan debt. You work your whole life to pay off this debt and support yourself and your family at the same time, only to be met with more debt. In 2016, 69.7 percent of high school graduates went to college (Thompson). Most of them were unable to pay for college tuition straight out of their bank account and were forced to find the money somewhere else, ultimately, putting them into debt that continues to grow and double overtime. Now imagine if college tuition wasn’t a problem, and people didn’t have to take out enormous student loans. Free college tuition would decrease student loan debt, help benefit the US economy and society, and provide more opportunities for people to gain a higher degree of education.

Benefits of Debt-Free College Education

Free college tuition would give students a chance to go to college and finish debt-free. As of 2018, “Student loan debt in the United States exceeds $1.5 trillion. 44.2 million Americans have student loan debt, and 10.7% of those borrowers are in default” (Singletary). Student loans are often the solution to college tuition because most people do not have enough money to pay for a year of college, let alone four years of college, by the age of 18 or 19. These loans come with interest, and interest never stops. Therefore, while you’re out in the world trying to make a living after college and paying for student loans at the same time, your debt is only increasing. Whether it’s an in-state college, out of state, or a private college, tuition is still a required cost.

Historical Success of Free College Tuition: The GI Bill Example

Past occasions have displayed that the U.S economy has benefited from free-college tuition. In 1944, Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the GI bill, an act that was made to help people in the military, veterans and other people go to college, tuition-free (Glass). This not only gave a large group of society an opportunity to go to college, but it also gave money back into the economy. According to the Debs-Jones-Douglass Institute, ‘cultural arm of the labor party’, “the GI Bill was a tremendous investment for the United States. For every dollar invested in the GIs’ higher education, the government and economy received at least $6.90 in return” (GI Bill of Rights: A Profitable Investment for the United States). The GI Bill helped the U.S make money and aided “22,000 dentists, 67,000 doctors, 91,000 scientists, 240,000 accountants, 450,000 engineers”, and many more people go to college tuition-free (Slack). Moreover, the GI Bill was a huge advantage for the United States, and a perfect example of how we could improve our society now. Millions upon millions of people could go to college, and if effectively planned, money could be put back into the economy.

Expanding Access to Higher Education and Reducing Poverty

Everyone deserves the opportunity to gain a higher degree of education and live a more comfortable life. A lot of Americans are unable to afford college, let alone the debt that would accompany it. As stated by Emily Deruy, an educational writer for The Atlantic, “Students from low- and moderate-income families are unable to afford as many as 95% of American colleges” (Deruy). If cost wasn’t a worry, this 95% would decrease by a large amount. Creating an opportunity for people to go to college and decrease the spread of poverty. College graduates, for example, have a lower unemployment rate and earn over 570,000 dollars more across the span of their life compared to high school graduates (Currier). Provided that America was to diminish the tuition for college, our society would be better off financially, and inevitably more content.

Albeit it is apparent that free college tuition has plenty of influential benefits, many arguments against it are presented. One analysis of free college tuition states that the money sponsoring it will have to come from somewhere. Another point presented is that younger generations won’t know how to finance and budget, causing an important skill to be lost. The terminal reason is that college may lose its importance.

The money to fund free college tuition is going to have to come from somewhere, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that America can’t find it somewhere it is being improperly given. There are a ton of things the government funds with money that are pointless and could be going to more important things. So rather than taking more money from taxpayers and cutting important funds, let’s take a glance at some of the things the government finances: $65,473 was spent to figure out what happens to bugs near a lightbulb, around $150,000 was used to try and decide why politics stress humans out so much, $48,500 wasted to do research on why Russians like to smoke so much, and multiple other reported grants and funds were given out by the United States government (“The Ten Most Ridiculous Ways the Government Wastes Your Money”). The problem isn’t whether America has the money to fund free college tuition, it’s whether we decide to stop funding unnecessary programs and put it to something more significant.

Addressing Arguments Against Free College Tuition

If younger generations will know how to finance when college tuition is free has also come into question. People believe that those given the opportunity won’t have to save and budget for college, causing them to not be prepared for other similar situations. Although this is a logical claim, the problem with people not being able to go to college due to high tuition costs isn’t based on improper budgeting. Most people don’t have the means to afford college tuition and loans, budgeting simply won’t change that. “Of the 2,000 colleges examined, nearly half (48 percent) were affordable to wealthy students from families with annual incomes above $160,000, the analysis found. More than one-third of the colleges were only affordable to students with a family income over $100,000. Students from lower income backgrounds, the analysis found, could only afford 1 to 5 percent of the colleges”(NASFAA). Therefore, as the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators demonstrates, worries of whether free college tuition will cause a lack of knowledge on budgeting or not, are unreasonable and invalid.

The final concern of making college tuition-free is whether the importance of it will lower. If anything, it will have the opposite effect on America’s society. With more opportunities to go to college, more people will be able to attend and will raise the value. Americans will see it as a more achievable matter and work harder to reach that level of education. Michelle Singletary, a writer for the Washington Post, states that “Student loan debt has risen 130% since 2008, and public college costs have risen 213% between 1987 and 2017” (Singletary). Prices for tuition and prices revolving around college are increasing every year, making it less attainable for high school graduates to continue their education. Adaptations will be made to compensate for how many people don’t go to college because they can’t afford it until the majority of society is only high school graduates. In the end, free college tuition will have effects contrary to what one may believe.

Conclusion: The Transformative Potential of Free College Tuition

Free college tuition would overall benefit our society and should be available to everyone. Despite arguments against free college tuition, such as finding where the money for funding is going to come from, financing issues, and college simply losing importance, it is evident that it would be constructive and profitable. Free college tuition could be easily financed by prioritizing government funding and putting it towards a more influential cause. It would also give high school graduates a chance to go to college without all the debt of loans, and a chance, as well, for those who can’t afford it. On top of that, the importance of college wouldn’t lessen but increase due to the greater opportunity for higher education. Free college tuition would change millions of lives, leaving an imprint on society and reformation of the level of education spread across the U.S. It would give people the chance to achieve their goals and overall better the population.

Works Cited

1. “ADD TO FAVORITES.” NASFAA, www.nasfaa.org/news-item/11623/Report_Low-Income_Students_Cannot_Afford_95_Percent_of_Colleges.
2. “By the Numbers: 1 in 3.” National Archives and Records Administration, National Archives and Records Administration, obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/blog/2012/04/18/numbers-1-3.
3. Currier, Erin, et al. “How Generation X Could Change the American Dream.” Trend Magazine, trend.pewtrusts.org/en/archive/winter-2018/how-generation-x-could-change-the-american-dream.
4. DeRuy, Emily. “Measuring College (Un)Affordability.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 23 Mar. 2017, www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2017/03/measuring-college-unaffordability/520476/.
5. “GI Bill of Rights: A Profitable Investment for the United States.” Debs-Jones-Douglass Institute, www.djdinstitute.org/h_gifact.html.
6. Glass, Andrew. “FDR Signs GI Bill, June 22, 1944.” POLITICO, 22 June 2017, www.politico.com/story/2017/06/22/this-day-in-politics-june-22-1944-239693.
7. Melchior, Jillian Kay. “The Ten Most Ridiculous Ways the Government Wastes Your Money.” National Review, National Review, 3 Dec. 2015, www.nationalreview.com/2015/12/top-10-wasteful-government-expenses/.
8. Singletary, Michelle. “Perspective | U.S. Student Loan Debt Reaches a Staggering $1.53 Trillion.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 4 Oct. 2018, www.washingtonpost.com/business/2018/10/04/us-student-loan-debt-reaches-staggering-trillion/.
9. Thompson, Van. “What Percentage of High School Students Attend College After Graduation?” The Classroom | Empowering Students in Their College Journey, 10 Jan. 2019, www.theclassroom.com/percentage-high-school-students-attend-college-after-graduation-1423.html.
10. “U.S. Student Loan Debt Statistics for 2019.” Student Loan Hero, studentloanhero.com/student-loan-debt-statistics/.

College tuition has been increasing at a rate surpassing what people believe to be sustainable. That has led to overwhelming student debt in America, reaching so high that some call it a ‘Student Loan Crisis’. Many people blame greed on the part of colleges and student loan providers for the high prices. However, it also has a lot to do with the simple laws of supply and demand as they relate to the supply of and demand for a college education, increased money to pay for school, and competition for students between colleges.

Introduction

One of the largest problems American students are facing today is the ever-increasing cost of attending college. The issue of student loans and repayment of those loans is a very polarizing political issue in the United States today, as the total student loan debt pushes ever higher, reaching $1.56 trillion as of February 2019. There are over 44.7 million borrowers today, who each owe amounts ranging from $1 to well over $200,000 (Friedman, 2019). People push for various solutions, ranging from keeping things the way they are to having college tuition completely covered by the government. With tuition increasing year after year, often at a pace surpassing inflation or the consumer price index, many people are left wondering how to possibly pay for college, needing to turn either to ever larger, unescapable student loans, or being unable to attend college. Neither of those options is preferable, with large debt delaying the time that people can afford to make large purchases, such as homes, or invest and save money for retirement, and not having a college degree leading to many people never being able to capitalize on how much they would have been able to make in their lifetimes.

The question arises, then, what made college so expensive? With so many programs around today to help people afford college, such as federal grants or work-study, scholarships, state need based grants, and more, why are people increasingly unable to afford college? This isn’t a one cause issue, as there are many things that have helped lead to the snowball of debt people have to put themselves into to afford college. Some may say that it’s the fault of colleges for being greedy, even if they aren’t a for profit college. Others say that it’s the fault of borrowers for taking out more loans than they could handle and perhaps not working enough during college to avoid that mistake. Instead of pointing fingers, it’s better to find the degrees of truth within people’s claims. College tuition has increased dramatically due to increased demand, the rise in lenders, and college competition for prospective students.

Increased Demand

Two basic concepts of microeconomics are that of the laws of supply and demand. Simply put, the law of supply states that as price goes up, suppliers will offer more of a product. That is a positive correlation. On the other hand, the law of demand states that as price goes up, consumers will consume less of a product, which is a negative correlation. Typically, a rise in both demand and supply will increase the quantity of a good supplied, while the price remains somewhat stable, and at times indeterminate. There isn’t an unending supply of spots however, so more room must be made, or more colleges built. This requires more highly educated professors, a small group of people who can demand higher wages.

William Baumol and William Bowen, in their 1966 book Performance Arts: An Economic Dilemma, wrote about a process known as “cost disease”. The basic premise is that service prices rise rapidly because they are following the trend of service industry costs rising faster than the cost of producing most goods. College professors, being unable to produce at a higher capacity, cause cost to go up over time (Archibald and Feldman, 2001, p.39). As there is a higher demand for college professors, they are able to charge more for their services. In addition, because of their limited production capacity, colleges must hire more teaching assistants to assist professors. While a cheaper option than hiring more professors on an individual basis, cumulatively they work to drive up the cost paid in salaries to a college’s workers.

Students want a quality education, and so to attract high quality professors, colleges often have to have high salaries offered for those professors. In Tuition Rising, Ronald G. Ehrenberg writes about how “central administrators want their [professors] to be paid generously” in order to both “attract and retain high quality faculty”. However, “in the absence of a willingness to cut the number of faculty and staff at an institution, there is an inevitable tradeoff between the administrators’ efforts to moderate the rate of tuition increases… and to provide generous salary increases for the faculty” (Ehrenberg, 2002, p.113). The increase in demand leads to a necessity of more professors, which can saturate the market, so to appease staff, salaries are bumped up, which in turn bumps up tuition.

A college education wasn’t always within reach for many people. In The Student Loan Mess, Joel Best and Eric Best explain how schooling, even primary and secondary education, was seen as “a private, individualistic affair; if you wanted your child taught, you paid… all the way through college” (Best, 2014, p.25). However, a more knowledgeable population is more beneficial for society. “More education reduces all sorts of social problems: educated people live longer, are healthier, have more stable families, are less likely to get into trouble with the law… more education benefits individuals at the same time that it benefits the community” (Best, 2014, p.25). And so, as time passed, state and federal governments began building public schools, and required schooling up to a certain point, at first only to eighth grade, and by today until the age of sixteen or seventeen in most states.

Many people were being educated to a certain level that got higher as time progressed, but college remained elusive to those not rich enough to afford it or the private tutors needed to attain the grades for entry. That was set to change however, and the event that contributed the most to the rise in college enrollment was the passage of the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944, more commonly known at the GI Bill, by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Benefits for veterans wasn’t a new idea. In The GI Bill, Glenn C. Altschuler and Stuart M. Blumin write about what veteran’s received in the past. “Veteran’s benefits laws stretched back at least as far as the measure adopted by the settlers of Plymouth… to maintain for life any soldier maimed in the colony’s service. Virtually every military conflict… has produced at least one veteran’s benefits law” (Altschuler and Blumin, 2009, p.13). The difference is that those benefits almost always took the form of pensions. They were also only paid out to soldiers who were disabled during their service, or to the families of soldiers who died. The GI Bill allowed all veterans access to benefits once they left service, from healthcare to affordable housing to access to a college education through subsidies. 120 Years of American Education, a study conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics, shows the monumental leap in bachelor’s degrees conferred by higher education institutions. There is a small rise in the 1920s, as “young people [complete] high school and consequently [become] eligible for college admission”, but the true rise comes right as the GI Bill is passed (Snyder, 1993, p.67). Between the 1945-46 and 1947-48 school years, the number of bachelor’s degrees handed out doubled, from 136,174 to 271,186, and it continued to rise quickly (Snyder, 1993, table 28). Occasionally, it would slow during wars, but it would always come back, and stronger than it had left. America now had more access to college than ever before, and the college fever wasn’t going to die down any time soon.

The Rise of Lenders

Many students resort to taking out loans to pay for their schooling, as the cost is often too high to pay out of pocket. Loan borrowers have undoubtedly heard of Sallie Mae, one of the largest student loan providers in the country. It was started as a government-sponsored enterprise back in 1972. Their purpose was to provide students with loans since “students rarely have an established credit record or sizeable assets”, making them unattractive to commercial lenders (Connell, 2016, p.43). A market had opened, with millions of people looking for money, and Sallie Mae swooped in to fill that gap.

Early on, Sallie Mae had access to low interest rates from the Federal Financing Bank until 1984, and when that dried up, they replaced that advantage with the Treasury Department allowing Sallie Mae access to variable interest rates for terms up to 15 years. These advantages, among others, helped Sallie Mae’s capital to rise rapidly, from $300 million in assets in 1975 to $39 billion by 1990, a monumental rise of 13,000%, while the S&P 500 and United States GDP rose only approximately 470% and 341% over that same period respectively (Connell, 2016, p.44-45). Eventually, Sallie Mae transitioned over to a private entity, and took along with it the massive amount of cash and name recognition that it had acquired over the years.

A problem that lenders faced early on was the risk of borrowers declaring bankruptcy to clear the debt they had accrued. In Student Loans in Bankruptcy, Duke Chen writes “the reason most often cited for making student loans nondischargeable is to prevent fraud. The legislative history of the 1978 Bankruptcy Reform Act contains warnings that making student loan dischargeable would be ‘almost specifically designed to encourage fraud.’” (Chen, 2007, p.5) To ease lenders’ fears of non-repayment, “In 1976, Congress amended the Higher Education Act of 1965 by forbidding borrowers to discharge students loans through bankruptcy during the first five years of their repayment periods; in 1990, the ban was extended to seven years” (Best & Best, 2014, 74-75). However, as credit card debt rose, bankruptcies continued, and so Congress passed the Higher Education Amendments of 1998, which “made [governmental] student loan debt non-dischargeable through bankruptcy unless the debtor could clear the relatively high bar of demonstrating undue hardship” (Best & Best, 2014, p.75). Chen writes that “in 2005, Congress passed the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act (BAPCPA) which amended [the Higher Education Act of 1965] to make private educational loans nondischargeable, when in the past it had only applied to governmental loans.” (Chen, 2007, p.5) With the passage of that amendment, borrowers now no longer had their loans treated as unsecured loans, but as secured obligation, such as alimony, child support, and criminal fines (Chen, 2007, p.5)

More Fun, More Funds

As more and more people are vying to go to college and have access to the money to go to those colleges, colleges are now having to compete to get those prospective students. While there is still an admissions process, and not every student can get into the college that they want, students have more options now. As a result, colleges must now do whatever they can to look more attractive. In American Higher Education in Crisis, Goldie Blumenstyk briefly discusses the beginning of the U.S. News and World Report’s college ranking publication, starting in 1985. “As critics of U.S. News have noted, its ranking are heavily driven by factors that are tied directly to how much colleges spend. For example, by spending more on merit aid for top students, colleges can improve the academic profile of their student body, which helps them in the rankings” (Blumenstyk, 2015, p.53). There are other places to find rankings about colleges, such as Niche, but U.S. News is seen as “the most influential [ranking] of America’s colleges”.

In his book Breaking Point, Connell says that colleges suffer from an “amenities war” (Connell, 2016, p.29). Even throughout the recession, college spending on building infrastructure has increased dramatically. “When averaged together, the cost of college infrastructure projects has increased… an average annual increase of 25 percent… since 1997” (Connell, 2016, p.30). Those are increases on spending for buildings like libraries, science buildings, and residence halls. And while these buildings may be necessary, as they are constructed and renovated throughout the years, it adds on tremendous cost to each student’s tuition.

Those costs aren’t in vain however, as prospective students want to know about a college’s educational standing compared to its peers, as well as the cost of attendance. This leads to the rise in infrastructure spending along with the increased competition between colleges. Beyond spending on academics, colleges have also ramped up spending on more ‘luxury’ items that are unrelated to the quality of the education they offer. As stated in Breaking Point, these include such items as “student activities, cultural events, intramural athletics… intercollegiate athletics… and college stores” (Connell, 2016, p.32). While these may not seem like items with big ticket prices at first glance, they often require much larger and more expensive buildings to accommodate them, such as various sports facilities for intramural athletics and intercollegiate athletics. These buildings help pile on to the already higher cost of infrastructure that colleges seemingly need to have in order to compete with others in their peer group.

Students value a quality education, but that also coincides with a value placed in the extra things that a campus has to offer. In a study conducted by the Delta Cost Project, the authors attempted to determine how students value “academics, costs, and social amenities” in a college setting. They found that students tend to “value institution’s spending on consumption attributes… but do not value spending on instruction” (Connell, 2016, p.31-32). This explains why although colleges may be increasing spending on academic factors, they are also increasing spending on non-academic factors. As many colleges now offer the same degrees, one factor that can set a college apart from the rest is the size and scope of their facilities. However, many of the facilities that colleges spend money on are unrelated to academics. While some might say that having buildings like gyms are a good thing for the students, others are calling the phenomenon a “‘country-clubization’ of the American university” as colleges spend tens of millions of dollars on facilities completely unnecessary to academic purposes, such as a “$10 million renovation project to include an ‘Olympic-sized swimming pool, co-ed sauna, juice bar, golf simulator, and rock-climbing wall’ at the University of Pennsylvania, or a “new $130 million ‘super dorm’” at George Washington University (Connell, 2016, p.33). While those extra things are undoubtedly a nice feature to have, they don’t contribute to how well students do academically, and are in place solely to attract prospective students to those colleges.

Possible Objections

One objection some may have to bringing up collegiate athletics as unnecessary spending for a university is that those sports games can create a positive revenue stream for the colleges. The idea is that broadcasting deals, team merchandise sales, and other revenue streams typical of professional sports teams would help colleges not only recoup the cost of the initial investment for the facility, but also for continuing costs. However, this is rarely the case. “Data that is regularly compiled by USA Today and Indiana University’s National Sports Journalism Center show that of the 228 public universities that operate Division I programs, only twenty-three took in more from tickets, licensing, broadcast deals, and donations than they spent on athletics in 2012. And even among those that generated surpluses, sixteen still received subsidies from other university funds… Data from USA Today and federal sources… showed that athletics spending per athlete grew faster than academic spending per student from 2005 to 2011. (Blumenstyk, 2015, p.82-83). So, not only do sports programs often create an outflow of cash, they also take money away from the education part of colleges. That’s not to say that colleges should do away with sports programs, because many students enjoy participating in them. It is simply important to understand the truth behind collegiate athletics, as many people may think that they are more profitable than they truly are.

Conclusion

College tuition has been driven up by the same market forces as other products in competitive markets. Its price hikes are helped along due to it being a good that many people view as a type of necessity for success in life, and therefore something that must be acquired, somewhat regardless of the financial cost. This allows colleges to justify prices because of high demand, but the rise isn’t only caused by colleges. College being so accessible to the middle and even working class is a rather new reality not seen before the 20th century. The desire for students to have facilities that contribute to a more enjoyable college experience than is strictly necessary for a good education also leads to higher prices.

Conservative: “Free” College Tuition

For many years both liberal and conservatives have debated over the controversy about whether or not college tuition should be free. Statistics have shown that the controversy is still taking precedence today. Presidential candidates such as Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders have taken the stance that college tuition should be free. However they do not realize the impact that free college tuition would have on the economy of the state it is taking place in. In order to make college tuition free for a public institute we would have to increase taxes severely, which would cause the poor to become poorer and a continuous cycle of families becoming reliant on the free college tuition. Taxes would have to increase significantly in order for the ability to be able to send every high school graduate to college. If no one is paying tuition and every school is reliant on taxes the schools would have no money to pay the electricity bill, the heating, teacher salaries, dorm necessities, and etc.

Direct and Indirect economic implications of “Free-College”

Not every student graduates high school and decides to go to college because of factors such as not having enough money or choosing a different choice for their future along with colleges ability to refuse a student due to their academics and other factors. This means that not every graduating student will be spending the money on books, tuition, and dorm necessities, but if all of these would be handed to them at no cost, the amount of students attending college would increase. While this seems like a good thing because they are furthering their education, it brings a negative possibility that the colleges will not be able to afford all of the qualified students attending their campus. The amount of dorms will have to increase at certain colleges in order to accommodate all the students. Where will the schools get the money? If there is no money being made from the tuition, there will be no money to pay for all of the college necessities because the taxes will have a limit on how much they are able to increase.

Citizens are not going to want to pay higher taxes just to send students to college especially if the kids are not their own. Parents may be the only supporters of this increase in taxes while people without kids are getting no benefit from paying these taxes. What about the people that have already graduated college and have been paying off their student loans, are they now going to have to help pay for a new students tuition as well, on top of their own debt? What about the senior citizens that are having to pay these taxes during their retirement, they are not going to want to help pay for every students tuition when they could be focusing on whatever they wish to spend their money on with their retirement fund, let alone maybe pitching in to help send their grandkids money for college. Along with alumni and senior citizens not willing to pay these tuition taxes, adults that have no children aren’t going to want to spend their money to send children that aren’t their own to college. Tuition taxes that states will have to enforce to be able to send students to college for free, will be deemed unreasonable for over half of the population.

The three main problems surrounding the aspect of free college tuition include the academic record of the amount of community college students, the negative effects that would result in the financing of free-college, and issues involving the fairness of getting free-college. College tuition brings a negative aspect to not only the universities but to the families and the communities as well.

Community college tuition for 2 years is already cheaper than the prices of a 4 year university. With this said, the amount of dropouts from students attending a community college is 47%, this amount of dropouts only leaves 27% of students that will actually graduate and the rest will continue in school. Creating a free-college economy would be negatively impactful because it is suggested that the amount of students that have dropped out will only continue to increase. The question asked here is “why would dropout rates increase.” Well this is because the incentive that students have going into college to not fail their classes is due to how expensive these classes are. However if the classes are no longer costing the students family any money the same incentive won’t apply because they could in a sense retake the classes as many times as needed at no cost to them.

The economy will only continue to be impacted because small colleges won’t have as many students commit because they’ll be able to get into their “dream college” for free. As a student, I personally would like to get into the most prestigious college I can with the grades I have but money always plays an important factor. If I were to get into my school of choice, Western Michigan, but it is more expensive than a school like CSU where I can get instate tuition and possibly a pretty good scholarship, right now I would choose CSU because it is the cheaper option. However if I could go to either school for free I would choose Michigan because money is no longer a factor for me. Taking this into account, how would it be decided what students get free tuition? If I want to go to an out of state school that has free tuition for their state, would I also be required to get the free-college or would I have to pay because it isn’t my state? Would the rule change depending on whether the institution was public or private? Would there be enough room to house everyone? These are all main questions that have to be addressed before free-college can really be seen as a legitimate option.

Government role in regulating “Free-College”

Similar to the points addressed in the previous discussion above. The government would play a huge role in not only the decision making of if college would be free but also how we would pay for each student and who would be paying. Public universities are primarily funded through state taxes already but to ensure every child goes to college, those taxes would have to be raised by the government and their funds. If the government has to pay so much of the tuition costs, our government will continue to increase our debt. On the other hand, private universities are reliant on the tuition students pay and the endowments and donations from others. For this reason, private schools are a lot more expensive than a public school because they don’t receive money from the government. With this said, if college tuition does in fact become “free” (which is a term we use very lightly due to the fact that nothing will ever be free, someone will always be left paying for it) the government will end up paying a lot more money to ensure these private institutes are free as well. When calculated, it is deemed that “free” college will cost the government 79 billion dollars per year which will cause the taxes to sky rocket higher than ever before. Our national debt will hit an all time high and will leave future generations drowning in debt that will never be able to be paid back and places such as China will have no remorse and will sooner or later cut the U.S. off.

What Would Happen To Colorado’s Economy

If tuition was free for all Colorado seniors the state would have to pay for the average 80% of students that graduate high school. In 2016-17 year, there were 724,015 students that graduated, meaning the state of Colorado would have to come up with tuition for every single person who wanted to go to a Colorado College. CU Boulders average in state tuition is around $29,000 and CSU’s tuition is around $24,000 meaning if all 724,015 students wanted to go to CU Boulder or CSU the state of Colorado would have to come up with around roughly $19,186,397,500. Not to forget if tuition was free the graduation rate would increase, while that seems like a good thing and it is the universities can’t house that many students at once and once students reach their second year at the college they most likely will want to move out of the dorms and this raises the new issue housing. While this is good for the economy because housing prices will most likely increase they will have to build more housing near the schools causing overpopulation and simply ruining the beauty of the areas where the colleges are. Most college students want to work to be able to go out with friends, live comfortably, and simply be able to provide for themselves. Overpopulation is a huge issue. Jobs would be harder to get and even harder to keep. Free tuition would have to be paid by someone there’s no such thing as free, the money would come from the taxpayer.

Historical, Political, Social, and Cultural Impacts

If we were to have free college starting in 2020 would students who have already been in college start getting free tuition? Would they get the money back they spent? Or will they just lose that money. These are all things we need to consider when we start making things “free”. Politically Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are two political advocates for free college. They believe that everyone should be able to get into college for free. Bernie Sanders also wants to solve the other issue of the $1.6 trillion of former student debt. 45 million Americans have student loans as I’m writing this. Sanders has called the costs of higher education a “national disgrace.” While senator Elizabet Warren also wants to provide debt relief she caps it to anyone whose household income is greater than $250,000. US colleges are run at the state level meaning the states would have to buy into the programs. Sanders proposal similar to Warrens requires the different states to agree with the federal government.

If everyone was equally educated would somebody want to be a garbage man if they have the same education as a doctor who makes over ten times as much? This would raise the demand for these types of small jobs at an all time high. So does this mean in order to keep the world running and stop it from becoming a dystopia we would need to raise the salaries for the lower income jobs that nobody wants to do? Our current world debt is already at $23 trillion. Raising these simple jobs that currently make around $30,000 a year is not possible unless we plan on handing over the debt to future generations making it harder for them.

Do you like watching March Madness? Do you like to relax on your weekends by turning on the TV and watching college football? How do you think those programs get their money? If you were to go to a student athlete and ask them if they would rather give up the sport they worked so hard in to get to the college level if they would be willing to give it all up so everyone can have the same education, what would they say? For some of these kids the only chance they have to make it in life is to get to the professional level. If we were to give everyone free tuition college sports most likely would be obsolete. College sports are also a way for the universitys to make money and make their school desirable. As we stand right now the kids in college sports don’t even get paid for advertisements the school uses on them. If we were even to pay the kids for their popularity most schools would have to quit funding for sports not as popular like women’s basketball and most women’s sports. Private colleges also use this as a way to keep their heads above the water and maintain that “private” name.

Supply, Demand, and Economic Growth

Supply and demand take a huge part in why we cant have free tuition in colleges. Most universities already have issues with supply and demand and that’s why you might not be able to get into your dream school. In the admission process for schools right now they have to go through thousands of applicants a day to decide who would be the best candidate for their school. If everyone was able to afford all of the top schools like UCLA, Stanford, Clemson, or others it would result in mass amounts of applicants. Simply making it harder for people who deserve to go to those colleges harder. It would make kids work less hard to get into those prestigious universities and colleges knowing everyone had the same chance. With these top schools admissions are already higher. The schools don’t have enough room to house all of the students they would like to as is. If college tuition was free they would have to work ten times harder to house, feed, and educate all of these students. The demand for a higher level education would be way more than they can supply. Would we have to open up more schools? Or would we have to turn community colleges into actual universities? People go to community colleges to save money and nobody would want to go to them if they could go to any university for the same price.

Greater college attendance instead of helping economic growth actually hurts it. Specialists have run hundreds of regression equations on the relationship between state higher education spending and economic growth. But not to surprise the relationship is always negative. If we were to raise taxes on private sectors to fund the price of education would be forced to raise prices to buffer the cost of the new tax burden. This would have an inflationary effect on the overall economy. This would be bad because it would drive prices on everything up. Not everyone needs to go to college. Currently there is a huge shortage of tradesman labor and a surplus of college graduates looking for jobs that don’t exist. There is a huge positive relationship between population and taxes. If the taxes were to increase it would drive small businesses into the ground and make people move out of the states to get away from the tax burden. While this might seem like a good thing due to rapid population growth we would see more monopolies happening and creating a complete government controlled environment.

Opposing Teams Arguments

Almost everyone agrees that college tuition should be less. About a century ago high school was becoming a necessity and not a luxury to the rich now today it’s turned into college becoming a necessity and not so much a higher income luxury. If K-12 is already available and free because it’s good for society and that person himself why shouldn’t college be free? Recent studies have come out that a college degree is the pathway to a better future in ways that they are better financially stable and have a better life, this is also proven that kids that struggled in high school don’t have to go and manage a fast food restaurant their entire lives. Studies show that there is no better investment one can make in their entire lives than to go to college. One study shows that spending money on new public colleges would be grown by the amount of new students it would draw in and this would increase economic activity more so than a tax reduction. It also showed that college graduates smoke less, commit fewer crimes, take less on social welfare programs, and overall generate more taxes. In Tennessee where they just passed free colleges, the campuses are now hiring more teachers and faculty members than ever.

Why is there such an alarming rate of people who don’t go to college to get the well-needed schooling and preparation? With prices constantly inflating in today’s society, the answer’s pretty clear: they don’t have enough funds to sufficiently pay for it. Due to expensive tuition fees and living expenses, taking up a secondary education could make the difference between someone being impoverished and making a comfortable living . “Not only do people skip college because of the cost of college tuition, but a number of students switch majors from a career they love to a career that will pay off the debt from their degree” (Josephson 2016). This problem could be fixed easily by just getting rid of tuition fees. This seems like a an ideally simple explanation to a major issue. However, there is still a large number of people who obnoxiously believe college tuition should not be free for everyone. They look at what could go bad instead of paying attention to what can be good for society. Good things such as; a heavily large increase in the number of people who will go to college, a decrease in the amount of debt students may potentially gain during and after college, and positive effects on the economy. College tuition should be free because it would create more opportunities for students, universities and potentially the economy.

One positive effect is that free college tuition would generate a boost in the percentage of people who go to college, instead of missing out and working a stand still occupation. For example, “enrollment for German universities rose twenty-two percent after tuition became free” (Marcus 2016). However, Germany isn’t the only country to experience a rise in enrollment after getting rid of tuition fees. Scotland, for example, had an increase in enrollment by seventeen percent after jettisoning, or dropping, tuition fees. This increase in the number of people who enroll for college would happen for the United States if it too, were to demolish tuition costs. “In fact, Georgetown University’s Center for Education predicts that university enrollment in the United States would increase thirteen percent if it too were to take a tuition free stand” (Marcus 2016). “This boost in enrollment means more people would receive a wider range of knowledge and skills, which are necessary as more and more jobs require a postsecondary education” (Bergeron 2015). Therefore, removing tuition fees and imptoving enrollment rates would help more people both secure and be able to keep a job. With this in mind, free tuition seems like a high reward. In addition to higher enrollment rates, free college tuition would help numerous college students decrease the amount of debt they graduate with. “Even though, countless college students already have a large amount of debt from living expenses, such as rent, books, supplies and transportation” (Marcus 2016). For example, “Claudia Niessler, a college student in Germany, who has free tuition, still has to work a minimum of twenty hours a week at a supermarket just to make enough to cover the average living expenses mentioned above” (Marcus 2016). With a college tuition fee is added to the average living expenses, students get in so much debt that it takes them years to pull themselves out of it. With this in mind, it is apparent that college tuition should be free of cost.

Although the solution to making college tuition free may seem like a given, there are still some people who are unconvinced due to the fact that they believe that free tuition would badly impact the economy. “They have these beliefs because free tuition would take away control over what people study, as they would no longer need to worry as much about their financial issue and allow them to get a degree for something they are passionate about, instead of something practical” (Josephson 2016). They ramble on to connect this to a blemished economy due to an absence of control. Nevertheless, what most of these critics also fail to acknowledge is how giving students free tuition, and more choices about their future career, would in effect relieve the economy and not hinder it. For example, “most jobs require, or are going to require, a higher-level of knowledge, skills, and abilities best acquired through a college education” (Bergeron 2015). “However, with the large number of workers that skip college due to it is too expensive, the United States will end up paling in comparison to other countries with workers who are better educated and prepared to deal with what the twenty-first century requires”(Bergeron 2015). This means that the less educated the American population is, the worse off the United States economy is. If college tuition was free, then more people would go to college and get the degrees needed for them to thrive and help the economy thrive. Also, “the country’s productivity and GDP would increase as more people found more suitable and higher- ranking jobs”(Josephson 2016). So, in contrast, making tuition free wouldn’t cripple the economy, it would make it better.

If a student wants to seek a for higher education to better their self, then he or she should be able to receive the education needed. For example, if a student taking a series of doctoral courses , they are going to need at least six to eight years of education, which is can be very expensive. If the cost of the qualifications were removed, that person would be able to take up jobs on a beginner’s basis and take more time to gain more knowledge skills for their qualifications in a more comfortable manner. Instead of having to waste time as a low-income student while accumulating outstanding debt, the student would be able to spend longer time on a qualification and work while studying so that he or she can enjoy a more favorable college experience. It seems unfair that people who have less money than others are going to miss more opportunities. Ethically, opportunities should be available for all people no matter what status nor ethnicity. Though the availability of an opportunity shouldn’t guarantee that a person receives that opportunity, the opportunity shouldn’t be ruled out. For example, all people should be able to become qualified to work at a job that only requires cutting wires, even though an impaired person would rarely be guaranteed a job position, the opportunity shouldn’t be ruled out by default. Free higher education could open up to plenty of opportunities that some people would otherwise have no choice but to enjoy.

Conclusion

In conclusion, tuition should be free because it could create countless positive effects. Free tuition wouldn’t just only help students trying to get degrees, but it could also benefit universities and the economy. There may still be some people that find these statements inaccurate, however, they are in fact mistaken their selves. People who hadn’t even looked into going to college or a postsecondary education as a possibility would finally be able to consider and potentially prepare for it. With all the people finally getting a better education, the United States economy would be better. Also, there wouldn’t be so many people looking for a job because they can’t find one due them not meeting the preferred standard of having a college degree.

As the consultant to evaluate the best course of action to improve college enrollment, I will analyze the validity of the Admissions Director, for a President of liberal arts and college. I will also review the pattern and results of other colleges that have modified their tuition assistance and financial aid. According to Brickley, Smith and Zimmerman, (2016), there was a college that lowered their tuition fee by 22% which resulted in a decline in students’ enrollments (pg. 138). In addition, Brickley, et al., (2016), also states that there have been several colleges that increase their tuition assistance and every single one received an increase in enrollment.

Therefore, it leads me to believe, that enrollees are making a correlation between the college tuition cost and the college quality. It seems as if they believe that if tuition is higher the school must be better, and if the tuition is discounted or lowered then the school must be of less quality or value. Which is the opposite from the norm, meaning that consumers are usually drawn to make a purchase for goods in services that carry a lesser cost rather than a higher price. This is all part of elasticity and understanding how this affects different products and services. Demand elasticity is known as “the percentage change in quantity demanded given a percentage change in its price” (Brickley, et al., 2016, pg.138).

Based on the historical data provided by the school admissions director, when tuition price was $15,000, this resulted in an attendance of 400 enrollees, and therefore, it is expected to see that if the tuition price increase by $10,000 to $25,000 that the enrollee’s numbers will increase by an additional 200, bringing the total numbers of enrollees to 600. The following equation is a representation of elasticity as it relates to the above information.

Elasticity of Demand = Percent in Quantity / Percent in Price

%Q = [(Q1-Q2) / (Q1+Q2)/2] ÷ %P = [(P1-P2) / (P1+P2)/2]

%Q = [(400-600) / (400+600)/2] ÷ %P = [(15,000-25,000) / (15,000+25,000)/2]

%Q = [(-200) / (1,000)/2] ÷ %P = [(10,000) / (40,000)/2]

%Q = [(-200) / (500)] ÷ %P = [(10,000) / (20,000)]

%Q = -0.4 ÷%P = 0.5

Elasticity of demand = 0.8

“If the elasticity is greater than or equal to 1, the curve is considered to be elastic. If it is less than one, the curve is said to be inelastic” (Hayes, n.d.). Based on what Hayes has stated (n.d.), for this particular scenario the curve is inelastic, and therefore, when there is a small increase in price, then an improvement in revenue occurs. There is no data backing up the assessment provided by the admissions director that lowering or discontinuing financial aid, would result in revenue. It is necessary to “develop effective tuition pricing strategies to recruit and enroll students across different financial need levels, academic abilities and demographic categories” (Chen, 2018).

References

1. Brickley, J., Smith, C., & Zimmerman, J. (2016). Managerial economics and organizational architecture (6th ed.). New York: McGraw Hill/Irwin.
2. Chen, J. (2018). The impact of tuition pricing on freshman enrollment decisions in a private, four-year, nonprofit higher education institution (Order No. 10760667). Available from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global. (2001147637). Retrieved from https://saintleo.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.saintleo.idm.oclc.org/docview/2001147637?accountid=4870
3. Hayes, A. (n.d.). Economics Basics Elasticity. Retrieved from https://www.investopedia.com/university/economics/economics4.asp

Many students look for different ways to fund your college tuition depending on their families income level and others. The best way to manage the cost is by aiming at a scholarship or a grant which are need based aids. Especially when you are a high-achieving student and may not qualify for a financial aid, the merit scholarship comes into picture. The best part about getting a scholarship is, you are not required to pay it back. This article addresses the merit scholarship, how you can get one, eligibility, application and much more.

Merit scholarships are awarded to students based on the achievements, academic excellence, talent and performance on the standardized tests in various fields such as academics, athletics, art or special interests. Colleges aim at selecting the best eligible candidate among the diverse applicants and mainly blind towards factors such as financial background. Students offered with merit scholarships could use it to cover tuition, room and overall expenses at the college.

Check for Your Eligibility for the Merit Scholarship

There are eligibility criteria to get the merit scholarship and it depends vastly on the type of scholarship you are applying for:

1. You are required to have a strong cumulative GPA which varies on the scholarship you apply for. For example, you could qualify for a SHRM Foundation’s Graduate Scholarships with a CGPA of 3.5 on a 4.0 scale.
2. You must have high academic excellence and be preferred to have topped at the previous educational institution.
3. Score highly in competitive exams like SAT or ACT.
4. Be a citizen or an eligible non-citizen of the United states.
5. Must be a permanent resident at any of the states of U.S.
6. Must have applied for an accredited college or university program.

Ways to Apply for the Merit Scholarship

Getting a scholarship could be confusing as well as overwhelming, but must always follow certain steps to get closer to the winning one.

1. Start while still in school. Winning a scholarship is highly competitive and requires special educational skills and achievements to stand out of the crowd. Usually you must present consistent improvement and accomplishments you earned during your freshmen, sophomore year and high school years. Starting early and investing in yourself will help your application be unique and outstanding.
2. Focus on what you choose. You must plan and begin to aim at the merit award while you are still a high school student. Focusing on which field you want to excel in is very important. You could get merit in academics by topping the class, athletic or artistic merit rewards are given to students through their excellent performance. To qualify for a merit-based reward in a college, you require a strong GPA and high test scores. Your grades could determine your entry to the college as well as the scholarship. You could start researching early on the scholarships you could gain on The College Monk, which has an extensive list of Merit scholarships detailed for you.
3. Be a self motivated individual. You must be consistent and persistent in the efforts you put towards your achievements. Being self motivated to gain excellence in the fields of interest could help in demonstrating yourself as an eligible candidate for the merit scholarships. Working on overcoming weaknesses and challenges helps in becoming well versed in the field. You could initiate to get guidance from professors and coaches to improve on your assignments and move closer to your career goals. This might also help in getting a good letter of recommendation for the scholarship application.
4. Score well in ACT/SAT. Your performance and scores in the competitive exams such as the SAT/ACT tests plays an important role in qualifying for the merit scholarships. You must start preparing for the exam as early as possible by taking mock tests, solving previous years papers, planning a study schedule, learning on the guidelines to the test helps you in getting better results. A high SAT/ACT score gets you higher chances of getting the scholarship as it mainly depends on the academic performance.
5. Find a scholarship that fits with your career goals. Every scholarship has vivid requirements and guidelines. You must find out whether those scholarships you are willing to apply are a good fit for your goals. As the application process of a scholarship is lengthy and time consuming, you may effectively spend time on the ones you have higher chances of getting selected in. You must research thoroughly on the scholarships, eligibility criteria, application process, guidelines and deadline. Here are a few websites such as Fastweb, Studentaid.gov, CollegeBoard to guide you through the various scholarships and their requirements to qualify for financial assistance.
6. Create an outstanding application. Your application is a documentation that represents all your achievements, skills gained and achievements to make a good impression while applying for a merit application. After listing the scholarships you want to apply for, you could start preparing your application to stand out among the applications. A strong application helps in maximising your chances of winning the scholarship and it mainly involves a letter of recommendation, a unique essay. Your score and academic details. You could get a few people to go through your application for any missing information, charity and mistakes before submitting it. It is always best to submit the application prior to the deadlines to avoid any technical issues.

Top Merit Scholarships

Searching for the scholarships based on merit and your eligibility may be challenging. Here are few scholarships that are listed to help you: Pure Merit Award; National Merit Scholarship; Ronald McDonald Scholarship; Coca-Cola Scholarship; Merit with Financial Need Scholarship; Gates Millennium; Horatio Alger Scholarship; Jackie Rominson’s Foundation Scholarship Program; Engebretson Foundation Scholarship; Jack Kent Cook Foundation College Scholarship Program; Elks National Foundation Most Valuable Student Competition.

Conclusion

Students are offered various opportunities to manage their finance and to cover their tuition. This helps them to pursue their career goals and attain their dream job. The first option for students is to aim at getting the scholarship which is not required to pay back. Then comes other financial aids such as the student loans. Finding the right scholarship always helps in making your way easier and cutting down the overall cost on college. Earning a scholarship is always overwhelming with the reduced costs on the college bills.

Is college for you or against you? The cost of a college education greatly affects a family’s financial situation. Students often accumulate a large sum of debt and end up working to pay it off for years down the road. Roger Scruton, author of “The Idea of a University” informs readers despite the cost, universities are an irreplaceable value. However, there is no denying that college costs have catapulted over the past decade; as the costs of tuition continue to rise, the argument for free college remains disputed amongst politicians and the like. Although investing in the future may be scary as there is no warranted reward for the expense of college, the future may be in the hands of those that act now to mold the expense into something easier to manage.

It is no surprise that college tuition costs have been changing substantially, and there are numerous reasons to blame. Inside “The Rise and Fall of College Tuition Inflation”, Brent Bundick and Emily Pollard document the alterations of the costs over time and attempt to give an explanation for the long rise and sudden fall in college tuition inflation. They say that “Changes in supply-side factors, such as rising wages in the education sector or declines in state appropriations for higher education, may cause colleges and universities to pass changes in their costs and revenues on to students in the form of higher tuition” (Bundick & Pollard 1). Furthermore, changes in demand factors, like a rise in available student loan programs, can additionally increase tuition by making it more desirable and thereby raising demand. The cost of college tuition increased exponentially quicker than the price of other goods and services between 1980 and 2004 then slowed near 2005. “After peaking near 10 percent in 2004, college tuition inflation has trended down over the last decade and averaged about 2 percent during 2017 and 2018” (Bunduck & Pollard 2).

When mentioning the costs of higher education, some politicians believe the answer is quite simple: make college free. Bryce Covert, a journalist and contributor at The Nation and op-ed writer for The New York Times, wrote an article titled “The Free College Try.” In this article, he addresses how today, money from the government primarily flows to well-off students. After student loans, the largest chunk (more than half) of student aid is provided through the tax code. Covert explains that “Instead of pouring money into higher education through the tax code, where the rich soak it up, or subsidizing school through loans and grants, the government could make public college free.” (Covert 5). Included in his work is a bar chart that depicts that the households with the lowest quartile income receive the least amount of tax aid, whereas the households that have the highest quartile income receive the most amount. This raises the problem that the students who get the most tax aid need it the least. Covert proclaims that the U.S is financially capable of the move “we [the government] have the money” (Covert 5). The government spends billions of dollars on subsidizing higher education. To provide data for that statement, Covert presents that in 2017, $76 billion was spent on public tuition and fees, and the federal spending on financial aid for college was $160 billion. He concludes with a statement that compares college to K-12 and how free education should not end subsequently after graduation from K-12.

In contrast, Jason Delisle, writer of “The Cost of Free-College Plans” discusses the free-college plan proposals that politicians argue for and what impact they would have on the U.S. Advocates of free-college plans argue that it is the fault of state governments for cutting funding to universities to offset students’ college spendings, forcing them to raise tuition prices. However, there are more contributing factors, and in fact, states have slightly raised funding for colleges. Delisle analyzed a trend in sticker prices of universities and found that “students from high-income families have experienced tuition increases about nine times larger than their low- and middle-income peers at public universities” (Delisle 28). Although, it is important to note that this statistic should be taken with a grain of salt because high-income families frequently do not qualify for the types of aid that keep increasing tuition prices in check for others. These students are also more probable to attend more expensive institutions. This information could give the reason why “the narrative about sharply rising college prices dominates popular discussion despite what the data show for low- and middle-income students at in-state public universities” (Delisle 28).

Alternatively, Philip DiStefano, the Office of the Chancellor at the University of Colorado and author of “Colleges Must Innovate to Lower Costs”, writes that it is up to universities to lower the cost through innovative means. DiStefano claims that “We are gambling with our nation’s future by pricing its brightest young minds out of higher education” (DiStefano 46). He stands for the cutting of financial obstacles so students can graduate with minimal debt. According to a 2016 study, students have seen a 95 percent rise in fees at four-year universities from the year 2000. DiStefano claims that “It’s up to America’s universities, as models of innovation, to make higher education accessible and affordable as an investment in the nation’s future” (DiStefano 46). He points at the University of Colorado Boulder for taking steps in the right direction. In 2018, the college adopted the removal of the program and course-related fees, which created an estimated family savings of $8.4 million a year. Through scholarship funding, the college has decreased student debt by 14.5 percent from 2013. Not only that, but the college provides open educational resources to cut down on textbook costs. The hope is to provide teaching materials at a tremendous discount to students. He hopes that this trend translates to other colleges to keep costs down for students and not deter them from getting a college education.

Despite the claims of the previous articles, a report written by Cyril Josh Barker, a writer for the New York Amsterdam News, exclaims that a study found “Despite rising college costs, a clear majority of families believe higher education is well worth the investment and most students and parents are willing to stretch themselves financially to make it happen” (Barker 29). This report and evidence are in agreement with “The Idea of a University” by Roger Scruton. The article discusses the value of attending college, and this report provides evidence to back up the claims. According to the report, the national study discovered “66 percent of college-going families believe they are getting a good value for the price they’re paying… and 20 percent say college is worth every penny” (Barker 29). Raymond J. Quinlan, chairman, and CEO of Sallie Mae, the company behind conducting the study, says that “‘Families resoundingly shared that college is worth the cost, and their resourcefulness made it more affordable”’ (Barker 29). This report discusses that students are taking classes over a shorter time period to graduate quicker and are cutting back on spending, ultimately implying that it is up to families to make college affordable.

In conclusion, these contradicting views represent largely held arguments behind the increasing cost of college tuition. Between college tuition being better handled by the government, universities working to lower the cost, and treating college as an investment and preparing for it ahead of time, it remains undetermined what the solution will be until action is taken on the matter.

Many students look for different ways to fund your college tuition depending on their families income level and others. The best way to manage the cost is by aiming at a scholarship or a grant which are need based aids. Especially when you are a high-achieving student and may not qualify for a financial aid, the merit scholarship comes into picture. The best part about getting a scholarship is, you are not required to pay it back. This article addresses the merit scholarship, how you can get one, eligibility, application and much more.

Merit scholarships are awarded to students based on the achievements, academic excellence, talent and performance on the standardized tests in various fields such as academics, athletics, art or special interests. Colleges aim at selecting the best eligible candidate among the diverse applicants and mainly blind towards factors such as financial background. Students offered with merit scholarships could use it to cover tuition, room and overall expenses at the college.

Check for Your Eligibility for the Merit Scholarship

There are eligibility criteria to get the merit scholarship and it depends vastly on the type of scholarship you are applying for:

1. You are required to have a strong cumulative GPA which varies on the scholarship you apply for. For example, you could qualify for a SHRM Foundation’s Graduate Scholarships with a CGPA of 3.5 on a 4.0 scale.
2. You must have high academic excellence and be preferred to have topped at the previous educational institution.
3. Score highly in competitive exams like SAT or ACT.
4. Be a citizen or an eligible non-citizen of the United states.
5. Must be a permanent resident at any of the states of U.S.
6. Must have applied for an accredited college or university program.

Ways to Apply for the Merit Scholarship

Getting a scholarship could be confusing as well as overwhelming, but must always follow certain steps to get closer to the winning one.

1. Start while still in school. Winning a scholarship is highly competitive and requires special educational skills and achievements to stand out of the crowd. Usually you must present consistent improvement and accomplishments you earned during your freshmen, sophomore year and high school years. Starting early and investing in yourself will help your application be unique and outstanding.
2. Focus on what you choose. You must plan and begin to aim at the merit award while you are still a high school student. Focusing on which field you want to excel in is very important. You could get merit in academics by topping the class, athletic or artistic merit rewards are given to students through their excellent performance. To qualify for a merit-based reward in a college, you require a strong GPA and high test scores. Your grades could determine your entry to the college as well as the scholarship. You could start researching early on the scholarships you could gain on The College Monk, which has an extensive list of Merit scholarships detailed for you.
3. Be a self motivated individual. You must be consistent and persistent in the efforts you put towards your achievements. Being self motivated to gain excellence in the fields of interest could help in demonstrating yourself as an eligible candidate for the merit scholarships. Working on overcoming weaknesses and challenges helps in becoming well versed in the field. You could initiate to get guidance from professors and coaches to improve on your assignments and move closer to your career goals. This might also help in getting a good letter of recommendation for the scholarship application.
4. Score well in ACT/SAT. Your performance and scores in the competitive exams such as the SAT/ACT tests plays an important role in qualifying for the merit scholarships. You must start preparing for the exam as early as possible by taking mock tests, solving previous years papers, planning a study schedule, learning on the guidelines to the test helps you in getting better results. A high SAT/ACT score gets you higher chances of getting the scholarship as it mainly depends on the academic performance.
5. Find a scholarship that fits with your career goals. Every scholarship has vivid requirements and guidelines. You must find out whether those scholarships you are willing to apply are a good fit for your goals. As the application process of a scholarship is lengthy and time consuming, you may effectively spend time on the ones you have higher chances of getting selected in. You must research thoroughly on the scholarships, eligibility criteria, application process, guidelines and deadline. Here are a few websites such as Fastweb, Studentaid.gov, CollegeBoard to guide you through the various scholarships and their requirements to qualify for financial assistance.
6. Create an outstanding application. Your application is a documentation that represents all your achievements, skills gained and achievements to make a good impression while applying for a merit application. After listing the scholarships you want to apply for, you could start preparing your application to stand out among the applications. A strong application helps in maximising your chances of winning the scholarship and it mainly involves a letter of recommendation, a unique essay. Your score and academic details. You could get a few people to go through your application for any missing information, charity and mistakes before submitting it. It is always best to submit the application prior to the deadlines to avoid any technical issues.

Top Merit Scholarships

Searching for the scholarships based on merit and your eligibility may be challenging. Here are few scholarships that are listed to help you: Pure Merit Award; National Merit Scholarship; Ronald McDonald Scholarship; Coca-Cola Scholarship; Merit with Financial Need Scholarship; Gates Millennium; Horatio Alger Scholarship; Jackie Rominson’s Foundation Scholarship Program; Engebretson Foundation Scholarship; Jack Kent Cook Foundation College Scholarship Program; Elks National Foundation Most Valuable Student Competition.

Conclusion

Students are offered various opportunities to manage their finance and to cover their tuition. This helps them to pursue their career goals and attain their dream job. The first option for students is to aim at getting the scholarship which is not required to pay back. Then comes other financial aids such as the student loans. Finding the right scholarship always helps in making your way easier and cutting down the overall cost on college. Earning a scholarship is always overwhelming with the reduced costs on the college bills.

Is college for you or against you? The cost of a college education greatly affects a family’s financial situation. Students often accumulate a large sum of debt and end up working to pay it off for years down the road. Roger Scruton, author of “The Idea of a University” informs readers despite the cost, universities are an irreplaceable value. However, there is no denying that college costs have catapulted over the past decade; as the costs of tuition continue to rise, the argument for free college remains disputed amongst politicians and the like. Although investing in the future may be scary as there is no warranted reward for the expense of college, the future may be in the hands of those that act now to mold the expense into something easier to manage.

It is no surprise that college tuition costs have been changing substantially, and there are numerous reasons to blame. Inside “The Rise and Fall of College Tuition Inflation”, Brent Bundick and Emily Pollard document the alterations of the costs over time and attempt to give an explanation for the long rise and sudden fall in college tuition inflation. They say that “Changes in supply-side factors, such as rising wages in the education sector or declines in state appropriations for higher education, may cause colleges and universities to pass changes in their costs and revenues on to students in the form of higher tuition” (Bundick & Pollard 1). Furthermore, changes in demand factors, like a rise in available student loan programs, can additionally increase tuition by making it more desirable and thereby raising demand. The cost of college tuition increased exponentially quicker than the price of other goods and services between 1980 and 2004 then slowed near 2005. “After peaking near 10 percent in 2004, college tuition inflation has trended down over the last decade and averaged about 2 percent during 2017 and 2018” (Bunduck & Pollard 2).

When mentioning the costs of higher education, some politicians believe the answer is quite simple: make college free. Bryce Covert, a journalist and contributor at The Nation and op-ed writer for The New York Times, wrote an article titled “The Free College Try.” In this article, he addresses how today, money from the government primarily flows to well-off students. After student loans, the largest chunk (more than half) of student aid is provided through the tax code. Covert explains that “Instead of pouring money into higher education through the tax code, where the rich soak it up, or subsidizing school through loans and grants, the government could make public college free.” (Covert 5). Included in his work is a bar chart that depicts that the households with the lowest quartile income receive the least amount of tax aid, whereas the households that have the highest quartile income receive the most amount. This raises the problem that the students who get the most tax aid need it the least. Covert proclaims that the U.S is financially capable of the move “we [the government] have the money” (Covert 5). The government spends billions of dollars on subsidizing higher education. To provide data for that statement, Covert presents that in 2017, $76 billion was spent on public tuition and fees, and the federal spending on financial aid for college was $160 billion. He concludes with a statement that compares college to K-12 and how free education should not end subsequently after graduation from K-12.

In contrast, Jason Delisle, writer of “The Cost of Free-College Plans” discusses the free-college plan proposals that politicians argue for and what impact they would have on the U.S. Advocates of free-college plans argue that it is the fault of state governments for cutting funding to universities to offset students’ college spendings, forcing them to raise tuition prices. However, there are more contributing factors, and in fact, states have slightly raised funding for colleges. Delisle analyzed a trend in sticker prices of universities and found that “students from high-income families have experienced tuition increases about nine times larger than their low- and middle-income peers at public universities” (Delisle 28). Although, it is important to note that this statistic should be taken with a grain of salt because high-income families frequently do not qualify for the types of aid that keep increasing tuition prices in check for others. These students are also more probable to attend more expensive institutions. This information could give the reason why “the narrative about sharply rising college prices dominates popular discussion despite what the data show for low- and middle-income students at in-state public universities” (Delisle 28).

Alternatively, Philip DiStefano, the Office of the Chancellor at the University of Colorado and author of “Colleges Must Innovate to Lower Costs”, writes that it is up to universities to lower the cost through innovative means. DiStefano claims that “We are gambling with our nation’s future by pricing its brightest young minds out of higher education” (DiStefano 46). He stands for the cutting of financial obstacles so students can graduate with minimal debt. According to a 2016 study, students have seen a 95 percent rise in fees at four-year universities from the year 2000. DiStefano claims that “It’s up to America’s universities, as models of innovation, to make higher education accessible and affordable as an investment in the nation’s future” (DiStefano 46). He points at the University of Colorado Boulder for taking steps in the right direction. In 2018, the college adopted the removal of the program and course-related fees, which created an estimated family savings of $8.4 million a year. Through scholarship funding, the college has decreased student debt by 14.5 percent from 2013. Not only that, but the college provides open educational resources to cut down on textbook costs. The hope is to provide teaching materials at a tremendous discount to students. He hopes that this trend translates to other colleges to keep costs down for students and not deter them from getting a college education.

Despite the claims of the previous articles, a report written by Cyril Josh Barker, a writer for the New York Amsterdam News, exclaims that a study found “Despite rising college costs, a clear majority of families believe higher education is well worth the investment and most students and parents are willing to stretch themselves financially to make it happen” (Barker 29). This report and evidence are in agreement with “The Idea of a University” by Roger Scruton. The article discusses the value of attending college, and this report provides evidence to back up the claims. According to the report, the national study discovered “66 percent of college-going families believe they are getting a good value for the price they’re paying… and 20 percent say college is worth every penny” (Barker 29). Raymond J. Quinlan, chairman, and CEO of Sallie Mae, the company behind conducting the study, says that “‘Families resoundingly shared that college is worth the cost, and their resourcefulness made it more affordable”’ (Barker 29). This report discusses that students are taking classes over a shorter time period to graduate quicker and are cutting back on spending, ultimately implying that it is up to families to make college affordable.

In conclusion, these contradicting views represent largely held arguments behind the increasing cost of college tuition. Between college tuition being better handled by the government, universities working to lower the cost, and treating college as an investment and preparing for it ahead of time, it remains undetermined what the solution will be until action is taken on the matter.