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Student choices fueling those ever-rising college costs
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Universities pass current economic woes onto students.
Once upon a time, the idea of spending $40,000 a year on tuition, fees and room and board seemed utterly preposterous. But as figures for 2009-2010 emerge, we are learning that the $40,000 figure is now routine.
A survey published by “The Chronicle of Higher Education” reveals that 224 private colleges topped $40K for the yearly cost of attendance for 2009-10. But even more amazingly, 58 schools this fall had crossed the next landmark, the $50K club.
Such prices make it easy to understand why so many people are beginning to question the value of a college degree. Shelling out more than $200,000 to earn a degree represents an enormous sum of money and raises honest questions as to the potential return on investment.
Still, most statistics reveal that a bachelor’s degree today puts a young man or woman in the position of greater lifetime earnings. Current data also indicates that it drastically reduces a young person's chances of losing their job during economic downturns.
In sum total, those numbers clearly indicate that there is great value in earning a degree. The issue instead, is the $40,000 or $50,000 yearly price tag, a tag that the average American simply cannot comprehend.
Potential students do have an option. There are numerous institutions of higher education that offer the chance to earn a diploma at a fraction of the cost of these high-priced private schools.
Both the community college network and the state’s public university offer excellent study options for those with an affordability mindset. In fact, the ideal situation from a cost basis is to begin one’s education at the community college level then progress on to the state system for the final two years of study.
Of course, the private institutions have cultivated the notion that they deliver a superior product. With strong marketing campaigns and excellent selling programs, they continue to attract students even as they raise prices beyond the means of Middle America.
The result, each year more and more students are mortgaging their future in the pursuit of higher education. And ultimately, it must be noted that the debt factor is at the heart of the potential on return debate.
A college diploma is a sound investment provided students make a realistic decision regarding education costs. Forgoing these high-priced private universities would go a long way towards reducing the greatest challenge facing young people as they pursue that coveted diploma: the debt they take on.
And it just might help begin to reign in the obscene amounts private colleges are inflicting on would-be students.
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