Growing up, my older sister was extremely driven and was passionate about going to college to pursue her desired career path in business and marketing. She worked very hard in all areas of high school to ensure her acceptance into a promising college; she devoted her time to countless hours of volunteer work, participating in several extracurriculars, and even to maintaining a 3.9 grade point average. Her drive quickly came to a halt upon graduation when she realized she was awarded very little scholarship money.
A low amount of scholarships granted to my sister unfortunately meant she could not afford to enroll in college. My sister’s worst nightmare had become her reality when she realized her hopes and dreams were unattainable. Not only was this a major loss for my sister that stripped her of an eagerness to get an education, negatively affected her self-confidence, and left her unemployed, but the business and marketing field was denied a promising candidate. This is the same nightmare high-school seniors across the country face each year. Several young adults are robbed of their opportunity to further their education due to the cost to do so, and for that reason it should be 100% free to attend college/universities for high-school graduates.
There is a clear disadvantage that students of low-income households are faced. Students in this situation are at a drawback due to their inability to pay for post-secondary schooling. Statistics from an article on USnews.com shows that 3.9 million students that come from low income households dropout and don’t seek further education due to financial issues. A student coming from a wealthy household is proven to be more likely to go to college because they aren’t faced with the burden of not having funds to contribute to college tuition.
Tuition for college can range anywhere from the average $15,000 per semester to even an outstanding $70,000+ per semester.. A low-income household doesn’t bring in enough money annually that would allow college tuition to be accounted for, especially considering many tuition prices are projected by the semester and not annually. Colleges must adhere to the fact that low-income individuals should be granted an equal opportunity to attend university as an individual coming from a high-income household.
If high-school graduates were able to go to college tuition-free, there would be a larger amount of people getting an education than there is now. Many people struggle from not having a degree because that can correlate to how much, or more accurately, how little they are able to get paid. Not only does this have a negative effect on one personally, but this affects the entire country poorly. It’s statistically proven that number of people gaining a higher education has a direct correlation to a healthier economy, a higher GDP rate, and making us a fiercer competitor against other countries.
Many countries have already adopted the idea of allowing all high-school graduates to go to college free of tuition. The fact that so many other nations are successfully practicing this shows how much of a disadvantage our entire country is faced with by doing things any other way. This financial strain placed upon going to college in this country isn’t aiding to improve the lives of U.S citizens but acting against us. If paying the hefty price for college isn’t an issue, more people will go to college; thus, people will be able to make enough to live a healthy lifestyle, the workforce will be full of well-educated people who are passionate about their work, and the quality of the country will improve significantly.
Because some career paths require a special degree and many young adults are rightly determined to work in such fields, students turn to taking out student loans. After completing the necessary years to do the work they desire, student loans automatically leave them drowning in debt. The hard-earned money they earn living out the dream a student worked tirelessly to achieve, is tossed over to a never-ending pit of debt. Racking up debt is usually associated with doing something wrong or making decisions irresponsibly. Going to college is one of the most right, and notably responsible decisions one can make, so to fall into debt for something so commendable is a disservice.
It takes long years of dedication, and hard work to reach such a self-fulfilling point as completing college. Being indebted to a country in which your work serves a necessary purpose is cruel and counteractive. One should not endure the punishment of having to deprive themselves of wants and needs well into adulthood because they’re obligated to pay back massive loans to the government. About 75% of college students have to pay back some amount of loans immediately after graduation. This instance becomes especially taxing when, like millions of Americans, you have trouble landing a job in the career field you went to school for. It’s a struggle to focus on the work you seek to do and enjoy life itself with the system that’s currently set in place. Offering free college tuition to high-school graduates would eliminate this problematic cycle.
Most potential students not only want to attend a university, but also want to live on campus. Living on a college campus isn’t covered by the cost of tuition, so there’s an added pressure to allocate funds toward a living situation. If living on campus is nothing more than a want that can be done without then some of the pressure may be relieved, but many students don’t have that luxury. Millions of students’ situations either mean they’re located either hours away, out of state, or are getting admitted to colleges that require students to live on campus for a certain amount of time after enrollment. These things are common knowledge to most universities, so it seems as if they’re aiming to increase the price to cost students the most money possible. After tuition and books, you must also account for the additional thousands of dollars it will cost for room and board fees. If a student who is forced to take out student loans must live on campus, they’re automatically in a deeper pit of debt. Every aspect of going to college creates a heavy financial burden that should be relieved.
If tuition is free for high-school graduates to attend universities, one would likely wonder how the school is expected to make money and stay open. A viable solution would be to raise the taxes, get big businesses to sponsor colleges, continue to capitalize the athletics, charge more for school activities, and offer necessary educational supplies/programs that cost money where a student has an optional choice to enroll and benefit from them. Amongst each offered solution, raising taxes is the most debatable claim because it’s easier said than done. Raising taxes is opposed by hundreds of millions of U.S citizens and has a negative connotation associated with it.
Even still, the idea could be campaigned as a solution that’s beneficial for all and would result in our country raising the literacy rate and number of people in the workforce and Americans would be impartial to the change. Paying the extra tax money would cost overwhelmingly less than the price of paying tuition each semester and struggling to chip away at a mountain of student-loan debt. The quality of life would improve drastically- more people would go to college, more people would study to be in a field they’re passionate about, lower the unemployment rate, strengthen the workforce, and avoid millions from accumulating billions for the country’s student-loan debt.
There are several reasons tuition should be free for high-school graduates to attend college. This topic is important because not only will it positively affect one student’s life, but it’d positively affect hundreds of millions of students’ lives. Without the opportunity, many people won’t be able afford school; this means they’ll either drown in student loan debt, won’t be able to find jobs/careers, or they must live a sad reality where their educational experience reaches a dead end on a path they hoped was endless.
The experience of your hopes/dreams abruptly becoming off limits should remain unimaginable, yet too many young adults know it so well. If all high-school graduates had the opportunity to begin life on their own in such a special, educationally inspired way as going to college free of charge, more people will excel throughout the course of their life. Making this change matters. Graduating high school is only the beginning, and the best thing one can do after graduation is to go to college. Each person living in this country- and all around the world, should have the best in the most fair and inclusive way, and the best means having free college tuition for all high-school graduates.
Work Cited
- Bidwell, Allie. “ADD TO FAVORITES.” NASFAA | Report: Low-Income Students Cannot Afford 95 Percent of Colleges, 23 Mar. 2017, www.nasfaa.org/news-item/11623/Report_Low-Income_Students_Cannot_Afford_95_Percent_of_Colleges.
- Hess, Abigail. “Bill Gates: US College Dropout Rates Are ‘Tragic’.” CNBC, CNBC, 10 Oct. 2017, www.cnbc.com/2017/10/10/bill-gates-us-college-dropout-rates-are-tragic.html.
- of the price.
- Hess, Abigail. “Here’s How Much the Average Student Loan Borrower Owes When They Graduate.” CNBC, CNBC, 15 Feb. 2018, www.cnbc.com/2018/02/15/heres-how-much-the-average-student-loan-borrower-owes-when-they-graduate.html.
- “What’s the Price Tag for a College Education?” COLLEGE data, www.collegedata.com/cs/content/content_payarticle_tmpl.jhtml?articleId=10064.
- Nova, Annie. “Why Your First Job out of College Really, Really Matters.” CNBC, CNBC, 2 July 2018, www.cnbc.com/2018/06/25/why-your-first-job-out-of-college-really-really-matters.html.
