The pure joy I felt after receiving my first college acceptance letter was a feeling I will never forget. It seemed all of my hard work paid off until I looked at the price tag for the university I applied too. $62,000 per year was listed on the schools website. That’s more money than both of my parents make in a year. How can colleges expect students fresh out of high school to pay for this kind of education. The schools I applied to are fantastic colleges that have been around for over 100 years, but unfortunately most of them carry a steep price tag. How is it that college tuition for prestigious universities have been increasing?
The demand for such prestigious colleges generally seems to be highly inelastic. Schooling in general is usually inelastic because the price gets higher but the schooling or education stays the same. As time went on upper level education has steadily increased in price creating mountains of debt for students. The problem in many of the universities is quality of education has not increase only the price has. The government has increased the demand for higher-level schools, but the supply has not been able to match the demands.
I believe another issue society has burdened the teenager with is the idea of “ivy greatness”. Who knows what colleges really look for in students, but I believe society has put the idea in my head that the Ivy education is the best education. I’ve grown up thinking “the ivy’s are the best” and if you don’t go to one you won’t be successful. This in fact isn’t true, its more up to the individual than the school. With prices, being so outrageous to attend Ivy’s is it even worth to attend if you’re going to be in debt for 15 years? While reading the Forbes article “The Reason Why College is so Expensive is Actually Dead Obvious” I discovered universities roughly cost the same amount anywhere you go. Some colleges give out more aid than others equaling the tuition of a college that doesn’t give out as much. The supply of education is inelastic in comparison to the price, but the government doesn’t take control of this.
In almost all of Europe all education is free. That is pretty incredible. All of my cousins in Croatia and Slovenia do not have to pay for a college education. Many colleges might be better in the United States, but why can’t the government reduce the prices to be a bit more affordable so middle class can have a high education too. My parents have been hit hard by the recession, but I’m not the poorest of the poor so getting complete aid for college is pretty tricky. Almost finishing high school, I’ve come to terms with the fact I don’t have to go to an Ivy League $200,000 program in order to succeed. As for tuition increasing in the future, I believe it certainly will. Tuition seems to rise along with inflation and age. I feel poorly for my brother, he’s 13 and his college education might be over 70 grand a year. How could an education possibly be so expensive. It’s pretty tragic so many people with outstanding potential wouldn’t be able to get a higher education because of money.
The Econ Diaries 