Op-Ed | College Tuition
By Logan Culp
College tuition is something that is on a large number of students’ minds at all times. Whether they’re just thinking what type of school that they will attend - public, private, or vocational school, the financial aspect will need to be considered. Tuition costs have been skyrocketing over the past decades to the point where students who do attend college or university will most likely be trapped in debt for a large portion of their lives. Many people moving on to college before the year 2000 however, had little to no struggle with paying off their debt, even before finishing college.
The cost for a four-year school has been rising steadily since 1980, and today will cost about $19,000 on average for a public school, and $40,000 on average for a private university. The average cost of attending a four-year school (about $26,000) has doubled from 1989 to 2016. The average growth per year during that period was 2.6%, which compounds and builds up over a short amount of time.
An easy explanation for the average growth per year of the average college tuition growing could be wages also growing. It is seen that wages were actually rising during the period shown, but not as much as it would take to compensate for schools becoming more expensive. The average growth per year of wages was a mere 0.3%, which is only an eighth of what the tuition costs are rising by.
Possible reasons college has become almost unbearably expensive over the years is because of the increasing demand as population grows. Supply and demand plays a massive role in making universities more expensive. Colleges also offer many services to their students, and incentives such as this can easily bump up the tuition costs by a significant amount.
With lasting debt on your record, maintaining enough money to acquire basic needs becomes a
struggle for most students and former-students in financial holes. It is important that if students want to make the decision of pursuing college that they have a purpose and a goal in mind.
The cost for a four-year school has been rising steadily since 1980, and today will cost about $19,000 on average for a public school, and $40,000 on average for a private university. The average cost of attending a four-year school (about $26,000) has doubled from 1989 to 2016. The average growth per year during that period was 2.6%, which compounds and builds up over a short amount of time.
An easy explanation for the average growth per year of the average college tuition growing could be wages also growing. It is seen that wages were actually rising during the period shown, but not as much as it would take to compensate for schools becoming more expensive. The average growth per year of wages was a mere 0.3%, which is only an eighth of what the tuition costs are rising by.
Possible reasons college has become almost unbearably expensive over the years is because of the increasing demand as population grows. Supply and demand plays a massive role in making universities more expensive. Colleges also offer many services to their students, and incentives such as this can easily bump up the tuition costs by a significant amount.
With lasting debt on your record, maintaining enough money to acquire basic needs becomes a
struggle for most students and former-students in financial holes. It is important that if students want to make the decision of pursuing college that they have a purpose and a goal in mind.