week 12 reading
When I picture a student who is receiving financial aid, the words that come to mind are everyone, basically everyone, the majority, and the average student. The images that come to mind are my friends, my siblings, myself. I am a part of that picture because I too receive financial aid. I feel like receiving financial aid has become a norm in society when it comes to college. The cost of getting a college education has increased dramatically and most likely will continue to increase if something within the system is not changed. This picture relates to the descriptions conveyed in this week’s reading by explaining how students now “encounter a price so high that it has changed what it means to attend college.” College is now a huge expense and you must plan accordingly in order to be able to finish.
Our professor also explains that the rising cost of college is due to Americans deciding that college was now essential, no longer just an option, so now as states spend less on public education while increasing the price of college at the same time. An important point though to reiterate from the reading is that even with financial aid, the cost of many colleges are still too much. In my personal experience, this has led friends of mine to opt out of going away to college and instead they stayed home to attend our local community colleges or the close in-state schools. This is not to say these schools are not acceptable but it does make me sad to think their options were extremely limited due to the outrageous costs of their dream schools or out of state school options.
For the part of the reading that focuses in on the financial aid system and how college prices relate to the student’s ability to pay, I came across multiple pieces of information that I was unaware of. For starters, I did not know that for any person under the age of 24 it is very challenging for them to gain independent status so that their own parental resources don’t affect their aid eligibility. I did not think that the age would go all the way up to 24 and I did not think that the parents had to be involved if that student wished otherwise. What shocked me is aid officers being quoted as saying “no matter how much we give them, they want more.” Wow. This clearly shows how out of the loop people are about how much it really costs to be a college student today.
A statistic that does not surprise me but is a new piece of information for me is that in the 1980s and 1990s, the price of college generally matched the growth in family income, but in the current century it does not. All this information is certainly upsetting to college students now and all others who hope and look forward to attending college in the future. To me, these extreme costs for a college degree are unjustifiable and are clearly a huge deterrent for those who want to attend college but can’t afford it. How can we make something “essential” in this country but make it basically inaccessible to thousands? Something is not adding up. It has basically become part of our culture to be in debt from student loans. No one is surprised by this information and honestly people would be more surprised to hear you are not in debt from student loans. How sad is that. If something doesn’t change I feel like the idea of what education is and furthering your education with a degree will change for the worse and many more will continue to be negatively impacted by this unjust system, inevitably causing them to ditch the higher education route completely.
