While many students aspire to attend top universities, tuition fees are a common struggle that stop them from reaching their full potentials. High tuition fees cause multiple problems in the higher education process, from applying to post graduation. In order to fix this, colleges should offer free tuition.
Free tuition has the potential to allow deserving and high achieving students who lack funds to attend a prestigious and competitive college. Each year, high school seniors with academic potential are not able to attend the college of their dreams because of tuition. With free tuition, the doors will be open for everybody.
Universities, especially private ones, are known for their outrageous fees, last year’s most expensive school being Harvey Mudd College at just past $67,000. Because of these high price tags on formal education, students are forced wasted time searching for financial aid such as grants or loans to attend their dream schools. However, if we chose to fund our universities by taxes, many more students will be able to attend prestigious colleges without being weighed down by debt post graduation.
Current financial aid opportunities provided by the government are limited and are only able to cover an a small fraction. They also are very selective about who receives money and frequently control where the student spends it. While factors such as SAT scores and essays are reasonable to use as a way to see which colleges are available, it is ultimately money that hinders a student’s potential by ultimately deciding what schools they are able to attend.
Because the current government aid programs are inefficient and cause post graduation debt, the government should instead refocus their efforts and use our taxes into make college free.
Another problem caused by high tuition fees is post graduation debt. If a student chooses to rely on loans to get through college, they are often not able to pay back the loan. With taxes funding our colleges, students will be able to focus on getting a job instead of worrying about paying off their debt.
Instead of providing limited aid, universities should provide qualified students with free tuition college and the government should look at increasing their involvement with college tuition. If this happens, students will become more motivated because they can attend affordable colleges and reach their true potential.