When it comes time to apply for college, what all students focus on is what schools they can get into based on their academic status and their financial stance. Society has kids convinced that college tuition is too high for anyone to afford which is wrong and someone needs to let them know otherwise. A nationwide Pew study finds that 57 percent of prospective students believe a college degree no longer carries a value worth the cost (Lindsay). College has not been a serious thing to do until the generation today and it is very important to anyone's success to go to college. The problem is when paying for college parents do not obtain enough information on tuition and a high percentage of parents are failing on paying it for their children because they think its not affordable. There are several different opportunities for students to pay off their tuition. Studies show that majority of students that go through higher education and have student debt usually end pay it off. In order to inform parents and students that college is affordable and convince them to attend we must; set up mandatory class to inform on the overall cost of tuition, notify students of scholarship opportunities early in high school, and create encouragement for students to follow through in paying loans.

The rate of college attendance has been affected from the cause of tuition of "being too high" (Horn and Chapman).  A major problem that runs along with it is that parents and high school kids are not obtaining enough information on college. One study showed that about fifty percent of juniors and seniors in high school only said yes to know about the cost of college. (Horn and Chapman). Shockingly, even the parents were at fifty percent, only having some sort of knowledge of the cost of college. Another study was made to have the parents and students estimate the first year tuition of a public in-state tuition. The majority of them estimated the tuition to be eight-thousand and over. Then the actual actual fees and and tuition were presented and it showed that zero percent of public instate tuitions are that expensive the first year. The average came out to be around three thousand. This proved the students and parents to be wrong on estimating the cost of first year tuition in college. Other results on a four-year tuition were very similar and proved that people's estimates were off. After looking looking at these results it becomes obvious that something needs to be done in these high schools for these students and parents. Lacking knowledge of the cost of college will give the people the idea of college to be unaffordable.

People may think a simple solution to this problem would be just to educate students on the topic. Its more than just educating students or parents, in order for them to fully understand everything, they must must do research and understand what colleges can be affordable to them. In one book about guiding high school students to college it says, "It's imperative that thinking about applying to college and how to pay for college need to begin before the 12th grade"       (Tierney 9)." The book also provides a solution that is, "Financial literacy about college affordability is an example of an activity that could occur as early as 9th grade" (Tierney 9). This solution could be made mandatory to all schools and would eventually convince students of affording college. Providing students knowledge on tuition must start early in high school and continue throughout. 

High school kids do not think of achieving high grades for scholarships when applying themselves in school. The problem of that is students do not realize the scholarship opportunities available for them, therefore they do not receive scholarships and blame not being able afford college because of its cost. All they think about is achieving high grades so they can be accepted into state colleges which should not be the only reason. There are ways to make it more affordable and scholarships are at the top of that list (Mroz). In South Carolina every high school students gets the chance to get a scholarship for an in-state college. There are three of them which is hope, life and palmetto scholarship. They each offer a different amount of scholarship based on how well a student does in the school. This is an easy way to earn a scholarship and reduce the amount of the tuition to be paid.  In order to financially afford college, they must maintain grades and have advance placement test score to receive scholarships.

Scholarships are can be easily obtained and will make a significant difference on college tuition. "In fact, scholarships and grants funded 30 percent of college costs for American families in 2013" (Mroz). They are available, but the issue is high school's students to put their focus toward getting into college rather than focusing on scholarships. Some of them are simple as writing an essay and getting few hundred dollars off the tuition. Schools need to make an effort to make students aware of scholarships and importance of them. To make them aware they could inform them on how getting scholarships is just as important as getting accepted. A solution could be for schools to require students to fill out a minimum number of scholarships throughout each year of high school. This would make them more aware and more students in the school would get scholarships which would encourage everyone to apply.

Low income families often worry about the cost to get into any in-state public institution and do not send their children at all. One report says, "The July 16, 2015, Urban Institute report speculates that too many low-income Americans mistakenly assume that college is too expensive for them" (Barshay).The problem is that by not sending their children to college because of the price then their children will no get a higher education that will enable them to have a high paying job in the future. They run into several different problems that prevent them from going to the college they want. 

College is affordable for the lower class because the government offers financial aid for any low-income family that fills out a Free Application for Federal Student Aid form. A solution to this is notifying the families about financial aid earlier on. People argue that if more low-income families were told about their likely financial aid packages, when their children are as young as 11 years old, then more families would push their children to take the demanding courses in high school that would prepare them for college (Barshay). Some may think that process is infamously complicated to begin with (Kolodner). Some also are uncomfortable with it because it requires a parent's tax return, proof of income and legal residence (Kolodner). However, it does not not take long to fill out the form and is an easy opportunity to get loans or grants to help get into college. Most people should not feel uncomfortable as well because nobody will notice and its worth to have the opportunity to have a high-income job. Students will be able to pay them off in the future once they have a successful career. 

Many students think if you are able to pay off college with loans or grants you will not be able to afford it in the future because of student debt. Some people don't bother going to college because of the student debt they do not want to pay off. People argue that if college can be affordable going through it then it would be unaffordable after attending it. Students who fear borrowing may not seriously consider the benefits of higher education (Burdman). If students do not fear the cost, then they will be able to get higher education and be able to pay off loans. This only because students that receive higher education usually get higher paying jobs and the majority of them will be able to pay off their student loans. One study showed that students that had higher education and borrowed to pay that tuition eventually paid it off in the future after they got a high-income job (Burdman).

Parents complain about sending their kids through college because it has gotten to be expensive but its worth putting their children through it because of what they get out of it.  The first of these historical trends has led some sociologists to argue that ones that graduate from college will have major positive socioeconomic impacts later in life (Pascarella).  It is affordable and even if it reduces these parent's bank account significantly it is worth it because of what their kids get from it. College is worth spending on and the the valued career their kid gets will be enough to pay off all what they paid for them. Higher education is a must. 

An argument that opposed the topic of college tuition being affordable is inflation. Over the past forty years' college tuition has doubled and tripled in some places (Davidson). Tuition grows eight percent more than inflation which means by the next generation the cost of college tuition may be three times as expensive as it is today. Also, In the past quarter-century, tuitions have risen 440 percent, roughly four times faster than general inflation over the same period (Lindsay). In the past quarter-century, tuitions have risen 440 percent, roughly four times faster than general inflation over the same period (Lindsay). If that trend continues then more people would be arguing that tuition is defiantly too expensive for anyone to afford. An example of this, is today, student-loan debt stands at slightly over one trillion, which, for the first time, exceeds total national credit-card debt (Lindsay). It has already made people to think of it being too expensive today. However, an average American family was making just under thirteen-thousand a year thirty years ago and today the average American family's income is about sixty-two thousand a year (Davidson). All this being said could argue the topic of college being affordable.

People argue that college tuition is too high today which is not true for several different reasons. They lack knowledge on paying for it, the scholarship opportunities out there, and fear of having too much debt from their tuition. If people were informed of all these different ways to afford their tuition then they would not be thinking of, "Is college really too expensive" and instead they will figure out on how college can be paid for. Not matter what any students does, college is an essential to getting a high paying job and a successful career. College is not what is like decades ago where someone did not need a bachelor's degree to live comfortably. Today, college should be something the parents pay for no matter the expense, its worth the outcome and not matter what people think, college is affordable for anyone that applies themselves.

