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College Tuition Cost Benefit Analysis

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In the United States, a college degree comes with the promise of a bright future, but also the guarantee of an average of $33,000 in debt (Izzo). Many of us have hopes and aspirations to attend prestigious Universities across the country, but perhaps that dream may be more expensive than we envisioned. Costs of a college education in America have skyrocketed since 2005 (Izzo), and have left newly graduated students searching for help. In order to offer a helping hand to those affected by tuition costs, we must first look at the root issue: The high cost of tuition. Lowering tuition will not only save thousands of people from debt, but it will also boost the economy, and keep us competitive with other countries. The cost of attending college …show more content…

Currently, attending a college in the United states can cost anywhere from $9,000 a year at a public college, to as much as $30,000 at a private university (collegedata.com). However, those numbers are only averages for tuition, and don't represent the extreme prices that some colleges charge. As of 2014, America's most expensive school is Sarah Lawrence College, which comes in at a whopping $65,480 per year (Goldman). As stated by Phil Izzo,"From 2005 to 2012, average student loan debt has jumped 35%, adjusting for inflation, while the median salary has actually dropped by 2.2%." This means that not only has the amount of money needed to be payed increased, but the amount to pay it with has decreased. Student loan debts are extremely unfair, because in order to get a college degree, which can give the money needed to support one's self, an individual must first pay a ridiculous amount which will hold them back for several years. The only way to end this cycle is to remove the cause, high …show more content…

The results that I found shocked me. Not only was school abroad much more affordable than in the United States, but it was free in several countries. Yes, you heard that right, an education that would cost the price of a small house in the United States would cost you practically nothing overseas. According to Dorothee Stapelfeldt, a senator in Hamburg, Germany,"tuition fees discourage young people who do not have a traditional academic family background from taking up study. It is a core task of politics to ensure that young women and men can study with a high quality standard free of charge in Germany.” An enlightening look on education from a political standpoint, countries like Germany give us in the United States something to strive for in terms of education. However, if we are the so called leaders in education as we claim so often to be, why do we continue to charge? After all, if several international powers can offer free education, then why can’t

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