Dear Next President,

    I believe that college tuition is a very big problem in the United States. When students finish college, they have a ton of student loans. I think that it is a problem because not every person can pay them off. CNBC, a website that I stumbled upon, Schoen was talking about why college tuition was so high and why it was going to continue to rise. It really got me thinking. Why is college tuition so high?

    I decided to research more on tuition. I found a website called College Data, I looked at an article they posted called "What's the Price Tag of College Education?" They began to talk about the college tuition. I found out that college tuition only includes the education you get, it doesn't include the housing, meals, books, personal, and transportation expenses! The average tuition at a four year private college is $32,405 a year! For a public four year in state college, the tuition is $9,410 per year. For a public four year college out of state, the tuition is $23,893. These are all averages, so the prices can be higher or lower. Also, the tuition can vary depending on the major that you choose! On top of all of this, the average cumulative cost of housing is $10,138 at a public school and $11,516 at a private school. The books have an average cost of $1,298 at a public school per year and $1,249 at a private school per year. All of the meals, personal expenses, and transportation expenses are also all on you! No wonder why a lot of people have decided not to go to college!

    To get more in depth, I wanted to see what students thought about tuition. I found a story on the Michigan Journal that interviewed students at UM-Dearborn on their thoughts about the rising tuition. The article was written by Amanda Grannam. 

    Mohamad Farhat, a student at UM-Dearborn stated, 'I think that it is great that they are increasing our tuition, because I like spending money." Right after he said this, he clarified he was just kidding. He did not care for the rising tuitions. 

    Feras al-Hourani also stated, "The longer we are in school, the closer we are to graduating. Along with everyone else, I don't like how it is increasing but I think that it is something I am going to have to put up with. 

    Safa Kassab commented, "I think that tuition increasing is going to have a negative effect on the schools and education systems. More and more people are not going to be able to afford coming to school."

    Michelle Hattar agreed with Safa. She added, "Like they say, you have to spend money to make money. But do we really have to spend more and more money each year to achieve our goals? Continuously increasing tuition makes it harder for some to continue going to school, which is unfair, seeing that everyone is supposed to have equal opportunities to get an education and achieve the American dream. I feel that high and increasing prices put pressure on students to know what they want to do is right as they enter college. It makes us feel unable to make mistakes because it turns out to be so outrageously expensive if someone decides they want to change their program."

    As you can see, college tuition is a huge problem that can be changed. It is making students decide not to attend college. Also, people are being discouraged like Michelle Hattar suggested. When you, next president, take office, I hope that one of the first things you change is unaffordable college tuition. I'm not saying that it has to be free or cheap. I'm saying that it needs to be more affordable to more people. Not many people can get out of college without student loans. I also believe that if college is less expensive than it is now, more people will choose to go to college. This will create a more educated environment in the US. By having a more educated society, problems can be solved faster and a lot more easily. I am hoping that when you take step into the Oval Office, this is one of the first things you consider.

Sincerely,

Gracie Finn

Works Cited:

Ghannam, Amanda. "Student's Voice: How do You Feel About Tuition Increasing?" Michigan Journal, michiganjournal.org/2014/02/04/students-voice-how-do-you-feel-about-tuiton-increasing/,February 4th, 2014.

Schoen, John W. "Why Does a College Degree Cost So Much?" CNBC, www.cnbc.com/2015/06/16/why-college-costs-are-so-high-and-rising.html.,2016

"What's the Price Tag of College Education?" College Data, www.collegedata.com/cs/content/content_payarticle_tmpl.jhtml?articleid=10064