More and more, clueless young students are amassing 20-year-old debts thanks to the loans they’re applying, and ultimately qualifying for, in order to pay for dramatically skyrocketing college tuition fees.
It’s simple math logic that, when the tuition fees for college are going up and the amount of financial aid available is not rising at the same speed, students quickly turn to private loan providers without realizing their pending debt sentence.
According to a recent article on the ABC News Web site, average tuitions and fees at four-year colleges rose by 6.6 percent this year.
During the past five years, college tuitions have risen 31 percent, according to an article on Marketwatch.com.
Now, if we were little rich kids, whose parents could afford to live in the burning hills of the OC, and able to spend weekends on beautiful hidden islands around the world, paying those through-the-roof prices wouldn’t be such a big deal.
But when you’re a starving student, with a job that barely pays above minimum wage, living on 99 cent spicy chicken sandwiches and cold fries from Carl’s Jr. andwashing your socks with liquid dish soap, thinking about paying $3,116 a year if you’re an undergraduate student at Cal State Long Beach can literally make you want to slit your wrists.
OK, so that’s a little melodramatic. But when you’re a desperate soul looking for legal ways to make money, and your only quick option is to take out a loan to make ends meet, you’re pretty much doing exactly that, in a sense.
The minimal amount to attend The Beach is $3,116, if you don’t consider other economic stresses that life throws your way, added costs like the extra class you have to take in the winter or summer, graduate school, food, rent, etc.
The Marketwatch.com article mentions that working over the summer to make some extra money to pay for school is a thing of the past.
Dang. So now you might ask yourself, what’s so new about rising tuition?
That’s where the exact problem lies. We’re dangerously accepting the fact that college tuition will always be on the rise and that we might as well deal with it. We seek quick ways to get the money to pay for that extra class we absolutely must take in order to speed up the graduation process.
If financial aid and scholarships (much of which is unclaimed money because students do not apply for them) don’t help, you might need to take that loan just to survive.
You should think twice about your actions, though.
According to ABC News, community colleges are doing the best job of keeping the lid on prices.
One way to ease the pain could be to take the same class at a community college.
We all have that four-year plan that we absolutely must follow. But there are circumstances in life (i.e. money, health problems) that don’t necessarily help us follow our plan.
We have to look for different resources available on campus that suit our needs.
Selling your entire future to debt is a hard price to pay for graduation.
