Raise your hand if you have $40,000 to spare. College tuition is very expensive and is going to keep getting higher. Growing up, I have seen my mom working hard because she had to pay off her student loans since she didn’t get much money in scholarships. To alleviate the cost of tuition, the Federal Government should add more funding to financial aid and make scholarships more accessible.
College tuition prices at the moment are high, and they will continue to rise. They are the reason some students leave college with debt. An article on CNN states, “College is really expensive. The average tuition at US private colleges grew by about 4% last year to just under $40,000 per year, according to data collected by US News & World Report.” In other words, college tuition is expensive! It means some people might leave college with debt. State scholarships are also not very accessible and are very time-consuming to apply for. Therefore, tuition is not affordable for some students in the United States. If more funding were added to financial aid and scholarships were made more accessible, this wouldn’t be as much of a problem for most students.
The Federal Government should add more funding to federal student aid and make scholarships more accessible. As we can see from the research foundation MDRC, “Making additional financial aid contingent upon certain behaviors can lead to ‘an increased effort toward studies, a reduced level of financial stress, and an increased confidence on the part of students in their ability to succeed.” This suggests that when students have some sort of financial aid, they aim more for success and succeed better in school. There are many benefits from financial aid, and if more funding were added to financial aid by the Federal Government, students in the United States would work hard and succeed in class.
Some might say financial aid is ineffective and won’t help students grow academically. Christendom College claims, “There is no evidence to suggest that the billions of dollars of federal student aid given each year have increased the quality of education, enhanced economic growth, or resulted in greater income equality.” However, financial aid has helped students leave school with little to no debt. According to Lake Forest College, “College financial aid helps students and their families by covering higher education expenses such as tuition and fees, room and board, books and other coursework supplies, and transportation.” So, some might think that financial aid wouldn’t be beneficial to students or does not change the outcome of their education, but it has helped many students by allowing them to get through college stress-free.
In conclusion, college can be very expensive. College tuition is already pricey, and it’s still continuing to go up. Having scholarships is proven to improve student performance and effort towards studies. This is why the Federal Government should add more money to financial aid and make scholarships more accessible so students can leave college with little to no debt.
