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Aron Silva
Professor Bevill
English 1302
07 April, 2015
The High Cost of Education
A quote form the twenty six President of the United States of America, Theodore
Roosevelt, presents the importance of education in todays society. A man who has never gone
to school may steal from a freight car; but if he has a university education, he ma steal the whole
railroad (Roosevelt). These words clearly shows Roosevelts point of view, he believes that
education is the key to succeed in life. However, it is extremely complicated for people to get an
education when prices for college tuition are tremendously high and shocking. It has got to the
point where college students feel obligated to leave their education behind and focus on different
life paths that will not bring the same succeed an education would. This is something that no one
should be going through. Therefore, a lower cost for tuition or no cost of tuition could be a great
solution for an issue that thousands of young and adults students are going through right now.
According to Megan McArdle, a college student, the investment in college education is
not worth it anymore. There is no point of investing in something that will eventually leave
people in a worse place than they were before. College costs have increased tremendously over
the last couple of years. Now, the question McArdly asks is if the education that todays
students are getting twice as good? or are new workers twice as smart? Have they become
somehow massively more expensive to educate? (McArdle). Perhaps the answer is no.
However, this has not stop college costs to increase faster than inflation in the last couple of
years. Since research shows that college tuition up to the mid-1980s were surprisingly only

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by 1 percent a year (McArdle). While, today it is rising 3 to 4 percent a year over inflation
(McArdle). In addition to that, over the past 10 years the cost of private college has jumped
more than 60% which set people to a $42,000 a year on average (Clark). However, public
colleges are not the only ones with rising prices. Statists shows that public colleges have shot up
even more with a $21,000 for in-state students, nearly three times as much as incomes as
incomes over the same period (Clark). These numbers are the reason why thousands of students
decided to stop their college education or some of them do not even star one. Which could led
this country to a horrible place, where every citizen will pay the consequences. A country where
people do not have an education, is a country that will not have succeed. Everyone needs a
lawyer, a doctor, a dentist a teacher and so much more, but there is no way anyone can become
any of this if they do not have an education. Also, as if it this was not enough, research shows
that by the year 2020 college bills will become even higher than what they are today. Which
means that by 2020 youre looking at a four-year bills thats likely to top $240,000 for private
schools and $155,000 at public universities (Clark). As it can be see by the statistics, todays
students are not the only ones with tuition problems, but future college students will also be
going through this issue. For example, according to the tuition page for Alvin Community
College, the costs of 1 credit hour for the summer 2015 semester goes from $283 to $553
depending on the statues of residency (ACC). Which gives an estimate of $44 per hour in
district and $88 out of district (ACC). Although, that is not the worst part, because the cost of
a non-resident is $134 per hour. It might now sound so bad right now, but after a brief estimate of
the cost of a complete career the numbers add up quick. Now, many people wonder about
financial aid and scholarships. For many parents and students, scholarships are the only way they

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can afford a college education. Well, according to numbers scholarships arent keeping up with
tuition inflation (Clark). And who could argue with that when college costs are rising so fast.
There are not many options for a student or their parents when it comes to affording the
payments of an education. Especially after the only option they had, scholarships, is not that big
of an option any more. At this point the only alternative is to find a job that will provide enough
funds to help pay a degree. Although, it is already enough responsibility for a person to worry
about a college education and now they will have to worry about a job. Unfortunately, this seems
to be the only option for many students. Unless they will like to try and ask for student loads,
even though that does not seems to be the greatest idea for many of them. Lets not forget about
the tremendous numbers of student loads people have to deal with. This is a solution that will
eventually become the biggest problem in a student life. So as stated before, if college tuition
continues to rise like it is now, there is no point of his investment. Students sacrifice much for a
better future and all they get back is a tremendous debt. According to Rachael White, national
student debt passed the $1 trillion mark in 2012 (White). Which led American residents to a
huge impact with Americans owing more on student loans than they do on cars or credit cards
(White). Also, according to Congressional Budget Officeundergraduate loans under the new
plan would still rise as high as 7.25 percent within five years (Taibbi). However, that is not all,
since graduate loans could reach an even more ridiculous 8.8 percent (Taibbi). The majority of
college students graduate with the idea of a better future and life. Unfortunately, they found
themselves with a tremendous debt. Which would eventually led students to believe that there is
no point in expending so much time and money on a future that will not have the results
expected. Therefore, a job at McDonalds flipping burgers or a job in any retail store does not
seem that bad anymore. Every penny earn will be use in their own future and not use to pay a

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debt of thousands of dollars that will take them years or even their entire lifes to finish paying.
With college debts growing so fast the only option left for many students will be to leave and
forget about their college education. And as everyone knows, a person with no education does
not have as many possibilities of a bright future. College tuition costs is an issue that thousands
of students are going through right now all around the globe, no matter what profession they are
going for.

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Works Cited
Bates, Tom. "Featured Items." Tuition. Alvin Community College, 2015. Web. 07 Apr. 2015.
Clark, Kim, and Penelope Wang. "Stop the Tuition Madness." MasterFILE Premier. EBSCO, Sept. 2011.
Web. 30 Mar. 2015.
McArdle, Megan. "The College Bubble." MasterFILE Premier. EBSCO, 17 Sept. 2012. Web. 30 Mar.
2015.
Taibbi, Matt. "The College Loan Scandal." MasterFILE Premier. EBSCO, 29 Aug. 2013. Web. 30 Mar.
2015.
White, Rachel. "The Debt Crisis No One Is Taling about." MasterFILE Premier. EBSCO, Feb. 2013.
Web. 30 Mar. 2015.