Tuition and student debt at colleges and universities in America have been rising far more quickly than inflation for over four decades. This is a trend that will continue without intervention. Student debt drastically affects students’ lives and decisions from getting married, to buying home, or to starting a business. The amount of debt held by students after graduating not only negatively affects the individual, but the economy as well. Loads of economic activity is currently halted by students working to pay off their loans. This is a consequential problem and the increasing number of student debt in America must be addressed.
While student debt has been an issue for quite some time, the steady increase annually is alarming. According to MarketWatch, The average amount of debt per student upon graduating in 2015 was $35,051; about $2,000 more than class of 2014 graduates. In comparison, the amount of debt per student in 1993 stood just under $10,000. In a report by the Urban Institute, a Washington, DC-based think tank that carries out economic and social policy research, the quantity of college graduates with more than $40,000 in student loans has increased by almost ten times in eight years. Not only is the amount of debt per student upon graduating steadily increasing, but also the amount of students requiring loans. Currently, the amount of students requiring loans to graduate stands around seventy percent; ten percent higher than class of 1997 graduates. These are
This report examines the increasing trends in the amount of debt students are graduating with. The purpose of this report is to prove why these trends need to be stopped, and how they can be stopped. After viewing the statistics from 1993 to the present it will be obvious that student debt is not rising at a steady pace, but that its growth is leading to large financial burdens by many students. Recommendations are given about the actions that can be taken by not only students, but everyone to help improve this dire situation. The changes that student loans have been through over the last couple of years will have a lasting effect on current students, prospective students, parents, and those who have graduated and
“Ensuring quality higher education is one of the most important things we can do for our future generations” (Ron Lewis). There are more students enrolling in post-secondary schools than ever before and consequently there are more students acquiring large debts. Once a student graduates, they enter a $33,000 or more student loan debt (Students Loan Resources). These student loans continue to place graduates into large debts, which is largely caused by their lack of knowledge of available resources, and this impacts their everyday lives and future generations.
The United States needs to look to other nations that have figured out the necessity of higher education to be at an affordable cost if not free. In 2015, college graduates are facing on average just north of $35,000 in student debt (Berman). In part, the government has reduced the federal funding that each college receives each year. Therefore, colleges have constantly raised the
Thousands of American University students are drowning in debt, furthermore statistics indicate student debt currently tops 1.3 trillion dollars and rising. Grads1st consider the unsettled debt currently exceeds outstanding mortgage and credit card debt.
College debt is becoming more of a drastic problem in the United States with the rising costs of college tuition. In “Why the Student Loan Crisis Is Even Worse Than People Think” Mark Kantrowitz expresses how the issue of student debt in America is to be blamed by the government’s lack of action. In “Is College Doomed?” Graeme Wood expresses the benefits of the new and innovative univeristy Minerva. A perk about this university is that it includes the cheaper tuition than other ivy league schools because of its lack of all the componenets of an average university. The government needs to be more involved in preventing future college students from graduating with overwhelming debt.
The hot topic amongst people entering college is student loan debt. With the average debt at tens of thousands of dollars, many people shy away from college, or at least do not get a full degree. As a result, many politicians have preached plans to make college free, and thus bring an end to student loan debt. However, those on the other end of the spectrum find themselves hindered in jumping aboard the free college mania, because, after all, nothing is free, everything comes at a price. And as they soon learned, what a price indeed. In fact, in order for the universities to pay staff and accommodate the student body without tuition being on the shoulders of the students, state taxes would have to be increased on the entire taxpaying population.
Student loan debt now averages nearly $33,000 per student, and almost 70 percent of students take out student loans. The student loan industry, with over $1.2 trillion in outstanding loans, is now competing with the mortgage industry for the number one spot in highest consumer debt. In fact, many 30-somethings, nearly a decade after college, are still having to choose between buying a home and paying off their student loans.
Students High in Debts Crisis "The only good thing about student loans is that the day I die my children will not have to pay for them” (Block). The problem with everyone not being able to go to college is the cost of it. Many High school graduates don’t even think about going to college because of how crazy expensive it is. Many students drop outs later on due to not being able to keep paying and the ones who do graduates struggle in paying off their student loans for years.
From the beginning of an education in preschool, to the time of graduation 14 years later, everything learned, interpreted, analyzed, understood, or even misunderstood has its effect in the future. The question is always “what do you want to be when you grow up?” As you age, the career dreams develop into a more mature answer. No matter how anyone is raised, there is always someone pushing at least one other person to go to college. Then, that silly career question is turned around on them, “how exactly do you expect me to afford college?” Roughly, about $809.6 billion is spent on college in the United States each year. Along with all the money spent, deb comes trailing along. Everyone can agree college tuition is not cheap, not to mention
Size. How large is the problem? Increasing or decreasing? What result can be expected if the problem is not solved? According to the Department of Education, federal student loan debt totaled $1.2 trillion this year, after skyrocketing from $55.9 billion in 2005 (Marcus). At public colleges, tuition has generally been driven up by increased spending from administrators, student support services, and the need to make up for reductions in government subsidies, according to a report issued by the Delta Cost Project, a nonprofit based in Washington, D.C.(Kim). Since the recession hit in 2008, students and graduates have been faced with the reality of unemployment after graduation. More often than not, graduates find themselves moving back home after graduation because high loan payments prevent them from being financially independent (Shabazz). If the cost keeps rising it can may
In the United States today, the number of students graduating college with student loan debt is quite astonishing. In the article titled, “How the $1.2 Trillion College Debt Crisis Is Crippling Students, Parents And The Economy”, we will examine and break down the student loan debt crisis by the numbers. Today, almost two-third’s of students graduating college are graduating with an average of $26,000 in debt. For most students, $26,000 is a lot of money when the average annual income for a first year graduate is only in the mid $40,000 a year range. According to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, student loan debt has reached a new milestone, crossing the $1.2 trillion mark (Denhart, 2013, Introduction, par. 2). With student loan debt levels
person or the government). A more narrow aspect of debt is student debt, which is the debt that a
College debt is hurting the life after college of students. Students who have graduated from college with a debt are experiencing a rough life. For example, debts can lead to students not being able to buy their own home or provide a sustainable life for their family. According to Washington statistics “2015 graduates with student loan debt: 57% Average debt: $24,600” (USA Today). If people were not in debt, they would be able to pursue the life they want, and be able to use their talents. Today, many students would not able to provide their talents to the public because they would be doing a job they did not want to pursue for financial reasons.. Without student debt we would have a better country, less people would be on welfare, due to
The cost of tuition at colleges and universities in the United States has seen a steady increase over last several decades. Since the 1980s, the list price for tuition has risen by roughly 7% per year, while the inflation rate has averaged 3.2% per year. The effect of this mismatch in the rise of the cost of tuition versus the average inflation rate has had monumental effects on the ability of students to afford a higher education. This, in turn, has forced more students to take out increasingly large amounts of loans, causing for the national student loan debt to grow to over $1 trillion dollars, more than total credit card
According to Marc Joseph, the average American leaves a typical 4-year college with over $37,000 worth of student loans that they have to pay back. To make matters worse, he mentions that if a student goes through any sort of graduate school, they are estimated to leave college with over $160,000 worth of student loans to pay. When accumulated across the nation, America’s outstanding balance of student loan debt is just over $1.2 trillion, and it is continuing to rise (Joseph). While this may not seem like much, this enormous amount of debt is doing nothing but crippling the nation’s economy. The economic growth is slowing, fewer jobs are being created, and interest rates are continuing to rise (Joseph). Due to the heavy amount of loans and the high interest rates, many students are entering the workforce owing more money than they are making. These people have high monthly student loan payments in addition to other life expenses that they will spend years, maybe decades, paying.