Over the years, college tuition prices have “nearly tripled over the last 59 years”. As colleges become increasingly more difficult to be accepted into, more expensive, and more of a stressful process overall, students need to know the best ways to tackle this challenge.
A question that many students have is ‘Why are colleges getting more expensive every year?’. Looking at it from an economic perspective, “Colleges, for the most part, they are a business. They need money to operate.”(Ms. Jones; College Counselor) There are many different ways to pay for college, such as taking out a student loan, searching for scholarships, or finding an affordable school. As previously mentioned, scholarships are a rewarding way to pay for college but they require lots of time and effort, and students shouldn’t rely on them. There has been huge debate over student loans over the years, specifically programs that implement loan forgiveness. Essentially loan forgiveness is when students are relieved of some or all of their debt from college, which is heavily criticized because it’s just masking the major issue of high college prices. There are helpful loans; “ loans that you can get from the Fafsa, the Free Application for Student Aid, those are really good loans if you need to take loans because they can be subsidized.”(Ms. Jones; College Counselor) With so much uncertainty in finding money for college, the smartest strategy is to start planning as early as possible. “Colleges have really great scholarships and grants, and students can be really strategic in finding ways to finance their education, whether it’s through grants, loans, scholarships.” (Ms. Jones; College Counselor) A savings account, such as a Roth IRA, is an effective way to save money over time, along with buying used textbooks, looking for student discounts, finding cheap transportation and maintaining a budget.
Overall, the process of paying for college can be very stressful, but if students prepare early it becomes ten times easier. College prices will only continue to rise, but with an abundance of information and resources on this topic for students to use at their disposal.
