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College Tuition Cost Essay

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A simultaneous groan can be heard across the country by every college student as a new semester begins. Everyone knows how expensive college can be and a lot of students fresh out of high school don’t have enough money to pay for it. In 1980, when taking into consideration the cost of both private and public universities, the average four year college tuition cost was $23,000 (Melchor). Recently, the average four year cost can be $70,000, and the average debt per student is $27,000 (Melchor). Because of these rising numbers, there has been an increase in research ways to lower these costs. An analysis of raising college tuition reveals one challenge facing college administration and students: finding infallible solutions to lower the cost of …show more content…

The repayments could also be based on sliding percentage based on what the student earns later (Cohen). For example, a teacher would pay less far less than a student who later becomes an investment banker (Cohen). Of course this solution does not necessarily lower college tuition cost, it makes it possible for students to not have to pay interest and colleges still get the money they would normally get, only later. The issue with this solution is that, at first, colleges would not immediately get as much money as they usually would. But a few years in, the amount of money colleges receive will be the same as before. Simply the kick-off of this solution is what mainly changes things.
Even though America’s universities have raised their tuition fees five times faster than inflation within the past 30 years, colleges can still be heard begging for money from alumni and philanthropists (“How to make college cheaper”). Derek Bok, a former president of Harvard University, once stated, “universities share one characteristic with compulsive gamblers and exiled royalty: there is never enough money to satisfy their desires” (“How to make college cheaper”). Nonetheless, these colleges …show more content…

Steven Pearlstein, a researcher and writer on the Washington Post, firmly believes that this would reduce the need to hire lecturers and adjunct (Pearlstein). Even so, Noah Smith, another researcher, points out that, if research was in fact not needed, then less professors would be needed, and far more lecturers should be hired. Smith also mentions that there is a reason we have researchers do research. He says, “In science and engineering, university professors are one of the main forces behind the U.S.'s innovative edge. They produce important basic research and pioneering technologies, and attract top talent from all over the world. If you replace research professors with lecturers in science and engineering -- or force professors to forgo research for teaching, which is the same thing -- you remove a long-term driver of America's competitive advantage and productivity growth.” So Pearlstein’s pitch to helping college spending decrease may not be as beneficial as one would hope, because research conducted at universities under college professors has greatly impacted the country’s

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