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Benefits Of Increasing Student Loan Debt

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Is college really worth the multiple years of schooling paired with the ever-increasing debt that students have to repay after they graduate? A record 18.4 million students applied to colleges in the U.S in 2009. Tuition, however, typically rises each year at a rate that surpasses the rate of the Consumer Price Index. Critics find it unfair that students have to pay tens of thousands more for an education than people did decades ago. Most students will use some type of loan for an average of 23% of their education, despite the fact that loan distributors are closing at an alarming rate. Some students will even resort to using credit cards to repay their debt, and on average, 66% of graduates have outstanding debt. In addition, unemployment …show more content…

In 2008, the average graduating student owed $23,300 on their student loans. This figure shows a 25% increase over the same data from 2004, which also suggests the alarming rate at which debt is growing. In 2009, the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers reported that “more than 65% of college registrars admitted noticing an increase in unpaid tuition bills during the 2008–09 school year.” (“Is College Tuition a Sound Investment?”) Some schools have started offering more financial aid to students in an effort to help students cope with the debt crisis. In the meantime, other schools are also re-adjusting their budgets to give out more grants and financial awards which do not need to be paid back. Despite this, most schools, including public and private, are cutting back their spending. Not to mention, private-loan industries are slowly dying out. The economic recession caused loan lenders to become much more wary about lending out money for large student loans. College Board estimates that the private loan industries have decreased nearly 50% since 2007. With the loan industry drying up, some students have even resorted to paying part of their tuition with a credit card. This is a terrible financial decision, and will only lead to even more debt for students in their futures. Likewise, some students will have an even harder time …show more content…

Three good reasons why college is not worth it are because of tuition costs constantly rising, the several years of debt afterwards and lastly, a job is not even a guarantee once you have your degree. Colleges provide inadequate educations and do not properly prepare students for the real world, meanwhile hiking up the cost of tuition without providing a better learning environment. Should students and families really continue to sacrifice their time and money for a sub-par education for these for-profit colleges that just make money off of them? The better solution is to step back and think about if college is actually worth

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