Financial Aid – How to deal with rising tuition costs

Today most decent jobs require a Bachelors degree. A Bachelors degree can be earned in four years at a college by taking fifteen credits each semester. This sounds like a majority of citizens has to take this path in order to get a job, support the economy and raise the overall standard of living. Why then is school getting more expensive year by year? Looking at an international market and at Europe in particular where taxes might be higher but tuition for one year will only range around 1,000 Euros it is difficult to find reasons to justify average annual tuitions between $12,000 and $30,000.  “Even with the scholarships they were offering, tuition was way out of reach for us,” a student at Bemidji State University says.

In the past five years, the average cost of in-state tuition and fees at public colleges has jumped 35% — after adjustment for inflation — according to the College Board. In the past 25 years, the average cost of tuition and fees has risen faster than personal income, consumer prices and even health insurance.

The only way to afford college for some students is to get financial aid, loans or scholarships. But today these tend to become more difficult to get as well and demanding increases in federal aid are not seen as the solution. Many conservatives argue that increasing federal aid will just encourage colleges to raise tuition even more. “When colleges know if they keep raising tuition, the government is going to keep sending them more aid, they don’t have a reason to stop raising it,” says Leslie Carbone, an adjunct scholar at the Lexington Institute in Arlington, Va.

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