COLLEGE DEBT
The Globe examines how the dramatic increase in college tuition over the last 15 years has left many Americans drowning in debt.
$
103,456. That’s three times the median-annual salary of an American adult. That’s half the cost of the median-valued home in the U.S. That’s four times the amount an adult must make annually to live above the poverty line. $103,456 is the average cost to attend four years of college in the United States. Going to college in America is expensive, and it isn’t getting cheaper. In the past decade or two, college tuition has skyrocketed, whilst the salaries of US citizens have not grown fast enough to keep up. The rise in the cost of college education is disproportionate to the earnings of the majority of Americans. Millions of adults across the nation depend on student loans to navigate the steep prices. As a result, millions of graduates are starting their adult life drowning in debt. According to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), tuition has recently increased the most at public and private non-profit institutions, for which tuition has gone up 65% and 50%, respectively, since 2000. At Washington University in St. Louis, the undergraduate tuition in 2005 was a total of $31,100 for the academic year. During the 2021 school year, tuition totaled at $57,750. In contrast, the average family income was $55,832 in 2005, and $67,521 in 2020. In less than 15 years, the tuition of Washington University almost doubled, whereas the average household income only went up by 17.21%. This radical disproportionality is making college education a more unrealistic option for lower income families, widening the chasm of socioeconomic inequality. “I qualified for taking out loans with FAFSA , but I chose not to because the
interest rates are incredibly difficult to deal with,” said Fiona Galinsky. Galinsky is a college freshman at Barnard College where the current price to attend is $78,044 annually. “I don’t think any education is worth this much money,” Galinsky said. “The fact that there are so many people that leave college with so much debt that they cannot support themselves, shows how big of an issue this really is.” The tuition at private universities is decided by the university itself, and no legal price restrictions exist. This means that the sky’s the limit when it comes to tuition prices. Recently, a few different methods of managing expenses have grown in popularity. Financial aid is a common resource that most universities offer, allowing students to attend college with a tuition more proportional to their income. According to The Education Data Initiative, 86% of college students in America benefit from some form of financial aid. “Of students receiving aid, our average scholarship is $50,000, and to put things in perspective our tuition is almost $60,000.” said Mike Runiewicz, assistant vice provost and director of student financial services at Washington University. On average, Wash U students that receive financial aid are granted almost full tuition. With a contribution that sizable, the opportunity for a private education is much more in reach for its applicants. “At Wash U we would never ask for any student to take more than $5,500 in student loans,” Runiewicz said. “And for any student who receives a Federal Pell grant or comes from a family of $75,000 or less in income, we wouldn’t provide loans for that student at all.”
PHOTO FROM WIKIMEDIA COMMONS
16 FEATURE
