Rebecca Costanzo

Writing 2010
Jennifer Courtney

Contribution Paper

The cost of attending college or a university is a topic talked about every day.
Whether it is school officials deciding to raise tuition or not, parents speaking about how
to pay for college, teenagers making the decision to go to a university or journalists writing the newest story for their informative article; the topic stays the same. However,
subtopics change all of the time. The conversation goes from the high prices of tuition
benefiting the school, to parents and students not being able to pay for college, to the
benefits of higher education not being enough for the price and to debt growing faster
than inflation (Web. J. Lorin). The bottom line is, the cost of attending college or a university is too high and it it causing students to find other ways of furthering themselves
after high school.
Paying for college is not just forking out the cost for tuition, it is all of the extras
that cause it to be so expensive. For in-state students, the average cost for one semester is $10,000.00; less than half of that is tuition. What makes up the other half?
One college level text book can cost up to $300.00, imagine having to buy five or six of
those. Parking passes at the University of Utah range from $119.00 to $190.00, and on
top of that putting gas in your car is never cheap. Computers, notebooks, pens, calculators and binders are all expensive items that contribute to the cost of attending college.
To end this list, housing has the highest price tag of all. On an average of $600.00 a
month for rent and utilities, students say NO WAY!.

Rebecca Costanzo
Writing 2010
Jennifer Courtney

After considering these prices, arguments begin to strike. Parents wonder about
paying for college, students wonder what the cheapest way of furthering their education
is, where the money that is paid to the school is going and the biggest one, the debt that
pulls students into a hole, even after they graduate. These are the questions that turn
kids away from attending college.
Starting at a common conversation that is held mostly between parents, is how
does one pay for the outrageous price tag of higher education? The ideal way to make it
through the four years of college would be to use the savings account that most parents
have been building for years with no student loans and no second job. Unfortunately,
this goal is no longer achievable due to the drop in the economy that America faced a
few years ago. This is causing families to get student loans, second jobs or not go to a
university at all.
After hearing parents talk about price and how to pay for college, students begin
to make decisions. An option chosen by many is to attend a community college for the
first two years after high school and then transfer to a four year college and finish off
their degree. With the lower costs of tuition at community college, some say that this is
the way to go. Although, this does not always save money. A lot of the times transferring
to a university after attending a two year school costs the same amount, if not more.
The reason being, at a community college you have the risk of taking classes you do
not need or not taking enough classes to finish your major. This causes you to take
summer classes or continue school past the normal four years. Paying for more

Rebecca Costanzo
Writing 2010
Jennifer Courtney

semesters will add up to the same price or maybe more than if a student were to start at
a four year college and stay at that same school. Once parents or students realize how
expensive this route is, students drop out or make the decision to not go to a college at
all.
With the price tag of $10,000.00 a semester, students are also considering not
attending a college or university at all after high school. More and more kids are getting
full time jobs, having children or staying at home with their parents instead of furthering
themselves after high school. Unfortunately this is a trend that is on the rise, just like tuition prices.
Finally, the most talked about issue for parents, students and school officials is
debt. Debt for the school and debt for the students. When parents do not have a savings account, parents can not get a second job or students can not get a second job;
the last option is to pull out a student loan. This causes a large issue in kids futures because student loans are not something that will go away easily. If the average students
pulled out $10,000.00 a semester, at the end of their four year college experience, their
debt would be over $80,000.00, not including interest. That alone would take decades to
pay off, following students far into their adult years. Its with these debt rates that students are leaving college and furthering themselves in other ways than education.
Schools rack up their own debt at a more rapid pace than a student in college
would. A new building can cost over $1,000,000.00, forcing the faculty of a college to
pull out loans. Their solution to paying the debt back is raising the tuition. Already laid

Rebecca Costanzo
Writing 2010
Jennifer Courtney
out above, raising tuition creates several different problems in the deciding factors for
students and parents to pick a college or university to attend, if they attend one at all.
Instead of building so many new facilities, why not expand on the ones the school already has? This would immediately lower the price of the build, lowering tuition for students to pay. Another solution could be to hire more graduate students as part time
teachers instead of hiring professors with doctorate degrees and paying them high
salaries. This would also lower the prices that college officials have to pay and lower the
rates of tuition. Hopefully bringing more students into the school to further their education.
All of these camps can be talked about from different perspectives. A teacher, a
parent, a student, a government official or any outside party would have a different
take on all of these topics. A teacher may believe that tuition prices are outrageous, but
that same teacher will not complain too much about. Mainly because of what i mentioned above, tuition is what their salary, benefits, classroom and office is all made up
of.
Politicians may believe that high tuition costs are completely fine and reasonable.
As a government official it is their duty to keep the debt rates at an all time low. If high
college tuition rate helps achieve that goal, their happy. Regardless of the students and
parents that have to pay it. Or the students and parents that have to make the decision
on whether to go or not.
Parents see the cost of attending a college or university as outrageous but want
all the best for their children. According to What Shapes Assessment of Ability to Pay

Rebecca Costanzo
Writing 2010
Jennifer Courtney
for Childrens College Education by Kim Youngmi, parents are willing to do whatever it
takes for their student to gain an education. Most parents are actually focusing on price.
If the college is private, out of state and more expensive, they believe it has the best
quality of teaching. Compared to a public, low priced school in their home town. Although these accusations are not always true, most parents find a way to fork out the
cash for higher education.
Students on the other hand look at the price of college and run the other way.
The thing that government officials, teachers, and parents do not realize is that when
student loans are pulled out, it is the student that is going to pay for that loan for years
to come after graduation. One more thing that kids tend to dwell on is working full time
while being a full time student. If this same teen worked during high school, they know
how hard it is to stay on top of homework, social life and work. College is going to be
much harder and more expensive. Turning them away from attending a university or a
community college.
The cost of attending a college or university is too high and causing students to
find other ways of furthering themselves after high school. Students can not afford tuition, books, materials, room and board and gas money. They are then forced to attain a
job while juggling school and after school having to pay off debt. So students work the
best job they can get right out of college and most college graduates are working jobs
that have nothing to do with their major. Students are now wondering if college is even
worth the price that school officials are asking for. All of these arguments will be laid out
in further detail as the essay continues.

Rebecca Costanzo
Writing 2010
Jennifer Courtney
Student debt is the biggest issue that will be presented to anyone looking to further their education after high school. Questions about student debt typically include;
how much will a student collect? How long will it take for a student to pay off the loan?
Or, is there any better way to pay for college without pulling out student loans that cost
so much to pay back? Students and parents can find all the answers to these questions
below.
How much will the average college or university student need to finish all four
years? As I mentioned above, the usual, in state, college semester costs $10,000.00.
Not even half of that includes tuition. To cover this cost and other expenses a loan of, at
least, $10,000.00 must be pulled out all eight semesters. Adding all up to be over
$80,000.00. This number has the trend of turning students, parents and donors away
from the college route.
How long will it take for a student to pay off their student loans after graduation
form college? As noted above, the average price for a four year college is $80,000.00.
After careful calculations, if one adult was to pay $340.00 a month towards their student
loan, $80,000.00 would be paid off within twenty years after graduation. If one adult
was to pay $270.00 a month, $80,000.00 would be paid off in twenty five years after college commencement. Finally, if a student paid $225.00 a month, their loan of
$80,000.00 could be paid off thirty years after graduation. Those are high prices to pay
every month for twenty or thirty years. Turning students away from attending a college
or university.

Rebecca Costanzo
Writing 2010
Jennifer Courtney
Is there any better way to pay for college without racking up high amounts of student loans? The most efficient way to make the best of a college experience would be
to pay for it with a savings account that has been built for years by the parents of a future college student. This dream is not achievable for everyone, unfortunately. So the
answer is yes, there are other ways of paying for college. But better? Not always. Jobs,
grants or donations are all ways that someone could pay for college aside from pulling
out a student loan. These might not be attainable for everyone, turning students away
from school.
Whether paying for college or a university is worth the benefits or not is also an
issue that pushes students away from furthering their education. A new trend that has
grown immensely is adults with a degree working in a place or a position that has no
relation to their major at all. This scares people away from going to college because if
they pay all of the money for tuition, books, materials, room and board and gas they
want the education that they receive to be worth the high price tag.
Aside from money, college is not easy to get through. Essays, exams, going to
class and study time does not come easy, hard work must be put in. Several people
struggle with motivation to put in this hard work. So students ask themselves why try if
the end result is an accounting major working at a Walmart store as a customer service
representative? Too often the answer to that question is, it is not work the effort, might
as well not attend college.
With the high prices of attending a college or university, parents savings accounts are not covering the price. Incoming college kids are being forced to work a

Rebecca Costanzo
Writing 2010
Jennifer Courtney
full time job, nothing to do with their major, and many tend to fall behind on school work.
This is an argument that is causing students to stray away from attending a college or
university.
Working a full time job as a full time student causes several problems. If one is
working thirty to forty hours a week, where does the thirty to forty hours of studying and
homework fit in? Students stay up late, wake up early or consume their weekends of
homework just to stay on top of school work and their outside jobs. The stress gets to
students faster than homework does.
This trend of working full time and going to school full time presses more issues
than just falling behind on school work. What about a social life? Extracurricular activities in college are what make the experience so much fun. Gymnastics meets, chess
clubs, debates, guest speakers, dances and intramural sports are all things that are fun
or interesting to attend on a college campus. If a student has no other time to complete
homework or studying other than the weekend, they will miss out on all of these activities that their friends are going to.
One major thing that is lost when a university student is working and going to
school full time is sleep. If an essay is due on Monday at midnight and that same student has a class at 7:30am on Tuesday, there will not be much sleep in between that
time. After a few weeks of that in a row, the loss of snooze will take a toll and cause
health, academic and social issues.

Rebecca Costanzo
Writing 2010
Jennifer Courtney
The cost of attending college or a university is growing by the day. School officials are talking about it, parents are talking about it, students are talking about it and
teachers have it on their mind. The topic of cost always stays the same, but the subtopic
changes with who is talking. To the rising tuition being just right and what schools need,
to the prices being too much for ones bank account and to the cost being too high but
exactly what the school needs. Unfortunately the cost of attending a college or a university is too high and forcing students to find other ways to further themselves after high
school.

Rebecca Costanzo
Writing 2010
Jennifer Courtney
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