Cost Of Higher Education Essay

College tuition has skyrocketed over the past decades making the pathway to college less accessible to low-income families. According to the

lot of dollars for an unemployed family man or woman with little or no income.

In 1976, the average cost to attend a four year public university was $2,175; today, the average cost to attend a four year public university is $25,000 (Snyder). This means it is 1150% more expensive to go to college in The United States today than it was 30 years ago. This obviously would create a problem on how we as people are going to pay for our higher education. Today college has become almost a necessity to have a satisfactory life, and with these rising prices some individuals believe student loans are the only option. There are many reasons as to why the prices have risen, but the one undeniable fact is that this has created a problem within our country. Which, is known as the student debt crisis, and it has been on the rise the past couple years. This problem is affecting people all around the United States, and is causing multitude of problems for them all because they wanted to pursue higher education. Wanting to better your opportunities by bettering yourself is not something that needs to be punished, and sadly that is what is happening. This problem is something that needs to be fixed for the sake of Americans and our economy, but will also take time and a multitude of steps to correct.

Student debt can socially affect a person’s life for years after graduation. Taking out thousands of dollars in loans causes a negative effect in student’s lives. In reference to Natasha Yurk Quadlin and Daniel Rudel, who has a Ph.D. in sociology and both work at Indiana State University, student loans affect persistence and completion for undergraduates. There is a correlation between how students do in their classes, the amount of time spent on their work, and the amount of time working in a job to pay off debt. Students become so stressed that they do not complete their college courses and enter their path of a new career. (Quadlin, Rudel, 2015). When students do not perform well in their classes, they tend to want to compensate for it. However, they cannot because they have to go to their jobs, to help pay off the thousands of debt that they owe and for their everyday necessities. Due to the amount of stress that they have to handle, it affects their personal health. Katrina Walsemann, in a representative study on student loans and early adult mental health, argues that “We are speculating that part of the reason that these types of loans are so stressful is the fact that you cannot defer them, they follow you for the rest of your life until you pay them off,” (Blake, 2015). It also mentions that the students with higher levels of debt incurred, have had higher levels of depressive symptoms. A college student’s overall health is

An increasing cost in tuition prevents some students from pursuing a higher education. Such high college tuitions are unfair to the lower and middle classes who may want to receive a higher education. Preventing the financially unstable from receiving a higher education weakens the development of society in the United States. You should not have to be rich to receive a respectable education.

High costs of college tuition has been a rising concern for many future and former college students. There are college graduates who are concerned after graduation if they made the right choice paying for a college degree. There are also future students who are not as tempted to attend college because of how expensive it is. While there are certain majors that pay well, many of the majors in college do not pay remotely enough considering what it costs to obtain the degree it takes to do the job. This debt is harder to pay off for this very reason which creates difficulty for graduates to move on in life. To make this situation better for future college graduates, tuition needs to be adjusted based on a scale where what the students are putting

The cost of college is becoming outrageous because they are rising tuition, trying to make their campus more appealing to the students that attend as well as incoming students, and government loans have astronomical interest rates. Students are having to come up with all of the money themselves. It is hurting the students after they graduate because they are in so much debt before they even start their career. Some students wonder if going to college is worth it or if finishing high school would be enough for them. The amount of debt students are accumulating by going to college makes others wonder if they want to start a career already thousands of dollars in debt. Going to college may seem like a no brainer for some, but others struggle with the thought of “being in the red” right out of college and trying to find a high paying job that will help them pay back their loans and borrowed money, especially in the economy now.

The need for a baccalaureate degree has become more crucial in the ongoing era of an

Today, more than 94% of students take out loans (.......). That is up from 1993 when 63% of students of students had to take out loans. (....) This leaves a great deal of the younger generation trying to come up with ways to pay back their debts for years, sometimes even decades, after college. While this is happening, people are trying to travel, get married, and have kids. The burden of student loan debts could hinder one’s ability to do these things and move on with his or her life. This could create strains in relationships with one’s friends, as expensive social outings can’t happen, one’s family, as it costs money to visit them, and one’s love relationship, as having a kid or a wedding would be a big financial burden when large monthly payments still need to be paid on student loans. In a study conducted by Lange and Byrd (1998), higher debt was linked to lower self-esteem. This creates a more secluded society. Studies show that college kids who are debt-free are more likely to go to parties, engage in extracurricular activities, and create friendships that last far beyond college (.....). This is compared to kids with loans, who spend the majority of their time studying alone and do not take the time to form any relationships or interact with others. “Student debt can also affect students’ mental health; Cooke et al. (2004) find that students in with higher student debt experienced significantly higher rates of stress and anxiety.” (http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/research/files/papers/2014/05/student%20loan%20debt%20rising%20gale%20harris/student_loans_rising_gale_harris_09052014.pdf) Also, more and more students are choosing alternative methods when they find out about the loans they will be tied to. Some kids choose to not go to college, or to work for minimum wage for many years until they have more

    The price of college leaves families without the ability to send their children to college, or support their families, or even purchase a house after college. The amount of debt students are

Would you like to become a well educated person? Would you like to have a stable job? Would you like to make enough money to be able to do leisure activities as you please? Do you want to be able to support a family someday? All of this requires getting a higher education and attending college. The already high and rising cost of tuition makes affording college extremely difficult for most people. This expensive tuition has spiraling effects. These include high school graduates choosing to not attend college, college graduates left in debt for many years, and a troubling effect on the economy.

The Burden of debt causes heavy stress and inconvenience adding to the existing challenges any individual faces on a day- to-day basis. Worse mental health impacts on the student population due to economic-induced stress are becoming a social concern. Students generally have higher stress levels on their financial burden such as student loans, and foreseeable employment in the job market. Guo, Yuh-Gen; Wang, Shu Ching; Johnson, Veronica

College’s prices keep on rising every year. This makes it harder and harder for people to go to college because they may not be able to afford it. In a 2005 study it found that 90% of people who attend college will need help with either, scholarships, grants or loans. This means that people are having a tough time as it is. This also means that without these scholarships and loans many people would probably not be attending college because they could not afford it. Some people may have to get two jobs to be able to pay for classes and books. That could be hard finding time to fit college

Student debt affects career choice, the ability to start a family, and can affect even the ability to just be able to purchase basic necessities (“Life Delayed”). Since many are dependent on loans to receive higher education, this can affect their career choice. Students may have to choose a career in which they will finish school the soonest in order to be in as less debt as possible or they may choose a career that will pay well after graduation but they will be stuck in a career they do not like. This sets up a vicious cycle that if the recent graduate doesn’t have a decent start after graduating, they may never get out of debt and

All of the articles included relevant background information pertaining to their own studies that either supported or compared in contrast to their results and arguments. The conclusions and ideas of these texts all demonstrate and support that large amounts of student debt have a negative impact on the mental health of students.