More Affordable College
Students are often stressed about where their college funds will come from, so finding a way to lower these prices would come as a huge relief for many students.
October 14, 2016
Dear Future President,
As someone who will soon be out of high school, I find the thought of getting enough money to afford college to be a big stressor. This is mainly because college is very expensive, and I know that I will most likely have to get financial aid or student loans, which will put me in debt, just to pay for it. I have talked to some other students at my school, and most of them have the same stress about paying for college. So if there are students in my school with this stress and fear, I am sure that a lot of other students across the nation are faced with this same problem. So Mr. or Mrs. President, I ask you to do all you can to lower college prices.
The prices might not look like all that much at first, but $9,410 at in-state public colleges (CollegeData.com) is not that easy to acquire as a new adult. And the out-of-state public tuitions and private schools are even more, at $23,893 and $32,405 respectively. And those prices are only for one year, and college is usually a four-year program at its base, with more levels of education that you can get over more time. 43 million people have taken out a loan, leaving the average 2016 graduate $37,172 in debt (StudentLoanHero.com). This debt means the average monthly loan payment for 20-30 year olds is $351, on top of other bills such as insurance, mortgage, rent, car payments, etc. All I ask is that you find a way to lower these prices so that people don’t get too stressed or have to put nearly all of their paycheck into paying off debts.
I am under the legal age to get a job right now, which means that I will have about two years to make as much as I can to pay for college tuition. Two years at a minimum wage job is not enough to pay $9,410 for at least four years. One of my cousins graduated from SDSU last year, and his job has a $55,000 salary. He is still paying off his debts more than a year after graduating, and some people end up paying for five or ten years after they graduate.
If you could find a way to make college more affordable, that would relieve a lot of stress from many people across the US. You could make a law which limits college tuition prices based off enrollment, daily costs to upkeep their campuses, size of the college, etc. If this is not possible, maybe you could make more colleges that would be lower costs to the public.
Sincerely,
Jordan Taylor
San Diego, California