11/2/16

Dear Mr. President:

Hello, I am a 9th grader at Central High School. I am writing this letter to you because I feel that college tuition is way too high and it’s not that hard to take out a loan. My parents both went to college and were fortunate enough to work their way through to pay tuition and my sister is one of the many students that took out a loan.

My parents both went to a private college as well. It was very expensive however, they worked full-time jobs to help pay for college. They didn’t want to fall into the trap that so many students today fall into which is to borrow money for college. It took them twice as long to finish college but in the end, they saved money and avoided taking out a loan. Paying for college on their own was expensive, so they had to take the money out of their retirement savings to pay it off when they finished. Now even though it was good for them to pay it off, they still haven't recovered from losing that much from their retirement. People think that it's fine to do that to pay off your loan or money you used for college, but later in life, it is hard because there is no more money saved. Now slowly they are getting back to what they had at the start but that might not be attainable for other people.

Ironically, my sister found herself in the same boat as my parents. My sister went through a lot to figure out how she was going to get enough money to pay for her college, she ended up spending $24,700 a year. She is one of the many college students that take out a loan to pay for school. She attends Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene, Texas. My parents told her that if she wanted to go there that she had to pay for it. She did every possible thing to figure out how to pay for it. At one point she was working 4 jobs at once. That meant that she was never home for anything, she even missed my birthday because she had to work. Even though some people might think that your parents could just pay for it, well my parents don’t have money growing on trees, and they just couldn't afford that college at the time.

It’s important to lower the cost of college tuition because some people can’t afford to go to college and are given the opportunity to borrow the money without realizing that after college it is a lot of debt that takes years to pay off. Even though my parents had to do some hard things to pay for college and my sister had to take out a loan they still made it. Lower tuition costs will allow families to send their kids to college and will allow a student to at least not have so much debt after they graduate.

Sincerely,

A 9th Grader