Through my research so far on college tuition, it is quite prevelant that something is wrong with the system. So the question began to arise of why is college tuition so high? This question has sparked a lot of interest among many people throughout the country, even attracting the attention of President Obama and other congressman. It has been shown throughout history college tuition has climbed significantly. Of course this has to do somewhat with inflation, however college rates have been climbing tremendously more than inflation can back up. Adam Davidson talks about this issue with college rates rising more than they should, saying that college tuition rates have rised almost four times what they were back in 1974, which is nowhere near the rates of other items such as cars and houses. Yes family income has increased over time as well, but not at the rates that can match what college tuition has come to. It is a pressing problem now in the United States that needs to be fixed.

There are many other discussions about college tuition as a whole, such as the discussion in our government today on community college. President Obama and candidate for 2016 elections, Bernie Sanders proposed a bill for free community college throughout the country. This is a huge debate right now as it is seen as something that can benefit the country as a whole and potentially advance us even further, by giving great minds who don't have enough money an opportunity at higher education. It will also help to lower student debts and give people time to gather enough money to pay for another 2 years at a public or private university. The problem that arises from free community college, however, is that the money has to come from somewhere. This where the debate begins, the funding for this program would come straight out of tax payer dollars. Another tax that Americans do not want or need right now. Although taxes are a concern, a few states have taken initiative and set up this free community college system; Oregon and Tennessee. Since this is the first year of these states sta1rting this system, there is very little data on how it is working so far. This could be a good way to narrow my essay though. I could aim part of it specifically at this idea of community college being free and showing hoe it is improving academics in the states that have passed this law, comparing it to states that have not done so to this point.

The other way that I can take this essay is through specification of state. At this moment I do not have any specific data on a state such as South Carolina, that I can use to compare private and public school costs and see how one or the other can be more affordable. But with the specification, I would also be looking at the question, How can college be made more affordable? There are many answers to this question, which can help to develop into a good paper and help push my ideas even further. It would also help tie together the idea of free community college with that of public and private universities. Through scholarship money that is awarded every year and loans that are given out, it does make it possible to attend college, but that is where the question of is it worth it comes to be. Another specification to guide my research towards. This is where most of my topic can fall under, and I could even change that to my research question, just make it a little more revised.

Overall, the rate in which college tuition has reached today is a major concern, not only for individuals, but for the country as a whole. It is beginning to receive the national attention that it deserves, and helps us as a country see that it needs to be fixed. We are pushing in the right direction and soon it could just be a problem of the past.


This is a major problem with me because I am attending college right now. I am the first from my immediate family to be going to school, and I see the struggle that my parents and myself are having with money and how to pay for this. The cost of university today is absolutely insane. The fact that so many people are falling into a debt that they may never be able to climb out of, or if they do it will be years down the road when they already have their life started. Student loans are a major issue today and it is something that needs to be fixed in this country. The reason why I am qualified to write about such a topic is because I am living through it right now. I have to figure out how much debt I am going to accumulate just from going to school and trying to better myself. If it truly is all worth it in the end to come to a university and spend all this money. The truth is I will not know until the end, so that is why this topic is so important to me.

This article tackles the question of why college tuition is too high. Joselow uses statistics showing how tuition rates rise every year no matter what university you attend. The issue that she sees is that budget cut from public spending is what is causing this to happen. Without budget cuts to secondary education tuition rates may not rise as much.

The major values and interests for this article include the fact that Community College should be free to students. The problem with this issue is that the money has to come from somewhere and that is tax payer dollars. Joselow also wants to see a more affordable college process that is not sending students into such tremendous debt

The credibility of this source is the fact that it is from forbes magazine. I found it on their website and know them as a credible source. They are a renowned business magazine who publish some of the biggest articles in the United States on some of the wealthiest people.


In this article Steve Cohen is discussing how we can make college cheaper as a country. He suggests the idea of College deferment as the solution to all of our student loan problems. He shows how much the cost of college has increased overtime and how much student debt people are coming out of college with. This deferment seems to be the best idea in his mind.

The major idea that Cohen is suggesting here, as previously stated, is that of college deferment. Cohen suggest the idea that through the university, rather than a bank, a loan type system is set up. The college should give you the opportunity to pay them back over a 20 year span, essentially just taking out the middleman that is the bank.

The source for this article is the New York Times. I see them as an incredibly reliable source that I personally use quite often. Although this is an opinion based article, it is very useful in my topic. It gives me another outlook on college tuition and how it can be fixed. It is also a very debatable part of the topic. 


This is the first article that I have found that has a small defense to why college tuition prices are high for a reason and should stay that way. They use points that make some parts of college tuition not look as bad, such as larger schools have the smallest increase in tuition. They also show that there is more of a demand for university, and with demand comes a price rise. 

The major point in this article is trying to show why college tuition is where it is today. The article has many studies done over a period of time, as it is a primary source, and shows how the prices have gotten to where they are at right now. 

This is a credible source, getting it from ebscohost, a website provided through Thomas Cooper Library. I know it is reliable and factual just because of the search engine used to access it. However, it is a relatively old article, as the research was done almost 10 years ago, so I am not sure how useful it will be.


So far I have not seen much debate among why college tuition is not too high, however there are clearly people who think that otherwise it would not be steadily increasing. The argument that it is largely due to the fact that public spending on secondary school has been cut in many states could be a part of the problem. A path that I discussed in this essay that may be more promising is that of community college being the focus of my study. I could look at retention rates and other variables deciding whether it should be free or not.
