College Tuition: What is it Worth to You?

Ryan Kerns

How much money is a quality education really worth? Many would agree that in this era of depleting jobs and non efficient work programs, a college education is top priority to most high school graduates. But, how many students can really afford the outrageous tuition payments that come with the education? And why do they have to spend that extra money in the first place? What many students and parents do not realize is the superiority of education that they are getting for their hard earned dollar.
College costs have been steadily on the rise for years now. This past year, according to College Board, the average tuition for a private college has gone up 5.9% to $25,143 and the tuition for public four year universities rose 6.4% to $6,585. We also need to consider that this is only PER SEMESTER! Multiply this by eight semesters, the normal amount of time it takes to receive a bachelor’s degree, and prices get up into the hundreds of thousands of dollars for private schools and almost fifty thousand dollars for public schools. And this doesn’t even take into consideration meal plans, costs of books, and other basic amenities for the rooms that college students live in. As you can see, colleges can be extremely expensive.
Now, most people (students and parents alike), would consider this to be a bad thing especially with the economy in the shape that it is in now. However, looked at from an educational perspective, you can also see some good that comes out of spending so much money. For instance, now that parents are investing so much into their kids and their education, they are more likely to keep the pressure on their kids to keep good grades and to use their money wisely i.e. to graduate. Also, most of the extra money goes into the classrooms. This allows for very technologically advanced utensils that are used to better educate the students. Most college classrooms (or lecture halls) have computers linked to projectors that allow teachers to share information directly from their computer. Most professors also use advanced scantrons that are used to grade exams efficiently and accurately. Also, computers are extremely commonplace in classrooms and technology buildings which give students access to incredibly fast internet connections that can be used for countless researching opportunities. All of these things were never thought possible when college tuitions were somewhat cheaper. However, now that they are increasing at an alarming rate, people tend to focus more on the strain the cost puts on their wallet than the ever increasing quality of education. Now, I ask again, what is a quality education worth to you?