ENC 1102 Author Note This paper was prepared for English Composition 1, taught by Professor Heredia. Are the High Prices of Attending to College in The United States Worth It? PAYING FOR COLLEGE 2 Abstract This paper spelled out the position of the millions of students that nowadays are struggling because of the higher prices of attending to college in United Stated.

1. ENC 1102 This paper spelled out the position
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ENC 1102 Author Note
This paper was prepared for English Composition 1, taught by
Professor Heredia.
Are the High Prices of Attending to College in The United States
Worth It? PAYING FOR COLLEGE 2
Abstract This paper spelled out the position of the millions of
students that nowadays are struggling
because of the higher prices of attending to college in United
Stated. The costs of a college
education have risen much faster than average inflation for
decades; indeed, college costs are
soaring in The United States. For parents, paying for their child’s
education is one of biggest
inversion they will ever made, and if they fail with this mission,
students will face the need for
loans. It is a fact that college education is required in any person’s
life, and in fact United States
offers the highest top ranked universities. While some readers
argue that the prices of attending
to college are just fine because it guarantees a better future, I argue
that colleges are taking too
many roles and doing none of them and that students are just not
prepared for the loans and debts
that will overcome them. PAYING FOR COLLEGE 3 “Why does
college cost so much?” is a question that seems to emerge daily in
conversations between families, classmates, and friends. It is a fact
that, gas, food, and life in
general are expensive. But, the costs of a college education have
risen much faster than average
inflation for decades; indeed, college costs are soaring in The
United States. Student loan debt is
approximately $1.2 trillion in the U.S. and is the subject of

2. continued discussions among state
and federal legislators, regulators such as the Consumer Financial
Protection Bureau and groups
throughout the country researching the impact of debt and the cost
of education on consumers. It
is important to mention that when we refer to cost, we are talking
about the amount of money an
institution must spend to provide education and services related to
a student, and when we talk
about loans, we are referring to the money that the students borrow
from the government, and
from private sources. As Smith M of the college board presents, the
average cost of tuition and
fees at a private, four-year university this school year was $41,000,
whereas in 1971-1972, the
average total cost was just $1,832 in current dollars. At public,
four-year schools, tuition and fees
cost about $9,139 this year. But, in the 1971 school year it was less
than $500 in current dollars.
For most Americans, paying for their children’s education will be
the largest financial outlay that
they will ever make. And if those parents cannot afford these cost
of college, young people
would find themselves with huge loans and debts. On other hand,
everyone knows that education
is the great equalizer here in USA. Even more, no matter where
you grew up or where you came
from, there is always a hope for everyone. But, are the high prices
of attendance to college really
worth it? While some readers argue that the prices of attending to
college are just fine because it
guarantees a better future, I argue that colleges are taking too many
roles and doing none of them
and that students are just not prepared for the loans and debts that
will overcome them. PAYING FOR COLLEGE 4 College should
be an intellectual expedition, a voyage confronting information and
new

3. ideas, and a cultural journey. College life itself offers more than
classroom experiences. Students
enjoy spending time in the company of others of their age,
participating in clubs and sports that
they would not easily have access to otherwise, and satisfying their
intellectual curiosity. It's one
of the many efforts under way nationwide to encourage more
students to earn a postsecondary
degree or work-related credential. President Obama's goal is for the
United States to be No. 1 in
the world by 2020 in the proportion of young adults who have
college degrees. To get there, the
nation needs an additional 8 million graduates. As the time goes,
college and universities have
found themselves in a constant race and battle with each other. As
students have become more
like costumers, in the sense that they are looking for commodities
instead of education, college
has become like a business trying to achieve students’ goals by
making recreation centers,
expensive dorms, and others exclusives areas that are not essential
to their academic mission.
Andrew Hacker and Claudia Dreifus have written a lucid,
passionate and wide-ranging book on
the state of American higher education and what they perceive as
its increasing betrayal of its
primary mission. In view of these experts, Hacker and Dreifus
(2010) mention in their book,
Higher Education? How Colleges Are Wasting Our Money and
Failing Our Kids- and What We
Can Do About It? the following passage:
Colleges are staffed by casts of thousands and dedicated to
everything from esoteric
research to vocational training—and have lost track of their basic
mission to challenge
the minds of young people. Higher education has become a
colossus—a $420-billion

4. industry—immune from scrutiny and in need of reform. (Hacker
and Dreifus p. 180)
In other words, colleges, with their high prices, are not
accomplishing their goals, which is
mostly with all students’ academic affairs, and that is something
wrong that needs to be fixed. To PAYING FOR COLLEGE 5
conclude, it is a must to demonstrate as well as students as their
parents that universities and
college prices worth it, but nowadays this must have been
banished.
Another important factor in determining if college is worth the
high prices is that students
are not prepare for the loans and debts that they will be confronting
along their lives. Nowadays
student loans have become a lifetime sentence for strapped by debt
derived from student loans. A
survey recently conducted by American Student Assistance (ASA)
found that those with student
debt are delaying decisions to buy a home, get married, have
children, save for retirement, and
enter a desired career field because of their debt. As a current
college student, I constantly worry
about the amount of debt I’m incurring while studying for my
future. For example, Laura Perna,
in her article Understanding the Working College Student points
out that, “Students are generally
reluctant to borrow, question whether the benefits of borrowing
exceed the costs, and worry
about the need to repay loans. Students’ views of loans are
generally mirrored by their parents’
views and correlated with known examples of others experiences
with loans.” (Perna p. 601)
Basically, loans are a lifetime sentence that the student will be
paying over their life and this debt
could ruin someone for life. For many recent college graduates,
career choice is not an option as
those with debt are looking to get any job they can to pay the bills

5. and pay off their college debt.
This need to get a “job” rather than to start a career can have
devastating effects on both the
person and the population at large. For those who can find a job in
this recovering economy,
many find that they cannot afford to be too selective when it comes
to finding employment. The
current unemployment rate for recent college graduates with a
bachelor’s degree is 8.9%11 and
approximately 41% say they have had to take a job that doesn’t
require their college degree just
to pay the bills. A 2002 study found that 17% of student loan
borrowers reported their loans had
a significant impact on their career plans. Today, after the
economic downturn, ASA’s survey PAYING FOR COLLEGE 6
suggests that number has nearly doubled, as 30% of respondents
said their student loan debt was
a deciding factor or had considerable impact on their choice of
career. In addition, 52% said they
either strongly or somewhat agreed with the statement that their
“need to pay student loan debt is
hampering my ability to further my career.” One ASA survey
respondent commented, “I need to
have two jobs because of my student debt, and I cannot take
employment opportunities that will
not make enough money, regardless of the potential that they may
have in the future.”
While I am convinced that the high prices of college are risking
students’ life, others
argue that the prices of attendance to college in United Stated
worth it, because it guarantees a
better future and an excellent employment rate. After completing
college, students may be able
to anticipate other nonpecuniary benefits both inside and outside of
the labor market. For
example, recent evidence shows that even after controlling for
different measures of family

6. background and income, workers with more schooling hold jobs
that offer a greater sense of
accomplishment, more independence and opportunities for
creativity, and more social
interactions than jobs available to non-college graduates. Several
studies have also shown that
college graduates tend to enjoy better health outcomes on average.
For example, Philip
Oreopoulos and Uros Petronijevic in their article Making College
Worth It mention that
“According to a study by the Georgetown University Center on
Education and the Workforce, in
1999 an adult with a bachelor’s degree earned 75 percent more
over a lifetime than a high school
graduate; by 2009 the premium had grown to 84 percent.”
(Oreopoulos and Petronijevic p 45). In
other words, a college education is associated with higher labor
market earnings across all major
occupation sectors. Over and above the number of years one
attends college, possessing a college
degree provides an additional boost to one’s earnings. There is
some guarantee that if you
graduate from college or university the path of your future will be
bright and your earning would PAYING FOR COLLEGE 7 be
probably higher. While college and universities can provide a
better future for students, there
is not one reason about why the cost of attendance of it is so high.
And although college
graduates generally earn more than those who have only high
school degrees, their earnings vary
across occupations. In addition, student concerns about student-
loan debt is not that the college
doesn’t worth borrowing for, is about that over the past decade the
number of students that are
borrowing has increased compare with the decade ago. And
another important fact, is that
nowadays is more difficult afford the amount because is almost

7. impossible pay for it just
working while you are in the university. For example, Gerald
Graff, Cathy Birkenstein and
Russel Durst (2010) cited in their book the reporter Robin Wilson
(2009) who also cited the
professor Lauren J. Asher (2008) who said:
It used to be that, 10 to 20 years ago, if you went to a four-year
public institution, had a
low to moderate income, and worked a reasonable amount part
time in school, there was
enough aid. And public institutions were better financed, so you
could come out with no
debt. That same student now has to borrow to get their education, a
college degree is still
a good investment but the financial risk for the student has
increased. (Graff, Birkenstein,
Durst p 261)
Provided that, the last research shows that the prices are almost
impossible to afford and by
taking the advantage of loans could risk any person economic
stability. Debt costs you time in
savings, pushes back when and whether you can buy a home, start
a family, open a small
business or access capital. Where once college graduates would
leave school, and start their own
company, today they must take a job to pay off loans or they
simply cannot get the capital needed
for a business because of outstanding student debt. In fact, of those
interested in starting a small
business, 47% of borrowers in ASA’s survey responded that their
student loan debt affected their PAYING FOR COLLEGE
decision or ability to do so. Student debt burdens require these
individuals to divert cash away
from their businesses so they can make monthly payments. To
conclude, the lifetime debt is not
likely to any student, and the high prices of the attendance should
be reasonable instead of

8. soaring.
To summarize, high prices of attending to college, by making
students have debt the rest
of their life, are just prejudicing students and making their lives
more complicated that they
already can be. Of course, university degrees provide better future
and more opportunities for
people. But, none of those advantages can overcome the very basic
disadvantage that is the
lifetime sentence of student’s loans and debts. Student loans can be
the key to a college
education and a life of expanded career and earning prospects. But
it is worth boning up on the
potential effects of student debt to make sure you do not hamstring
your finances in the process.
If colleges and universities were just another consumer good, like
cars or clothes, we wouldn’t
worry as much about their cost. The rich pay more for the best
stuff; the poor pay less for the
worst. That’s the market at work. But higher education is both an
individual and a public
concern.