Throughout my research so far on college tuition, the rates that students are paying for schooling has become a glaring issue in America. Leading to the question as to, why is college tuition is so high? This question has sparked a lot of interest among citizens of all demographics throughout the country, even attracting the attention of President Obama and other congressman. It has been shown throughout history that college tuition has climbed significantly, with rates increasing every year. It is impossible to ignore American inflation over the years, however college rates have been climbing tremendously more than inflation can account for. Adam Davidson, in his article Is College Tuition too High?, talks about the issue with college rates rising, stating that college tuition rates have rose almost four times from what they were back in 1974, which is nowhere near the rates of other items such as cars and houses. It is true that family income has increased over time as well, but not at a comparable rate to what college tuition has become. It is a pressing problem now in the United States that needs to be fixed.

There have been many proposals to fix the college tuition problem in America, such as the debate in congress over whether or not community college should be tuition free. President Obama and, candidate for 2016 elections Bernie Sanders, proposed a bill for free community college throughout the country. This is a pressing issue right now as it is seen as a bill that can benefit the country as a whole and potentially advance our citizens intellectually, providing 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 to achieve a bachelor's degree. The problem that arises from free community college, however, is that there is currently no funding for it. This is 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. It is incredibly difficult to convince the population that another tax is a good idea, when it may not help them in any way, especially the people that are not going to take advantage of it. 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 starting 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 how 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 only problem with this approach is the lack of evidence at this point, due to how new it is.

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, which 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 in said state? 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. This idea of is college worth the money could be another approach or just an aspect of my paper that could play a major role in my argument.

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 for me because I am currently attending college. I am the first in my immediate family to be going to school, and I see the struggle that my parents and I are having with money and how to pay for this. The cost of university today is insurmountable. Americans are falling into a crippling debt right out of school that they need to start paying off, with the difficulty in finding a job it is becoming increasingly more difficult to pay this debt off. 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 currently attending university and having to pay college tuition. 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.
