Gazella 1

Daniel Gazella
Dr. Rule
ENGL 102
5/23/16
The Cost of College: Working Your Way Through After You Graduate
One afternoon, about two or three months ago, I was sitting outside either eating lunch or
waiting for a shuttle. I usually just space out in my music, but an all too familiar tune pulled me
back into reality. "well thats just the problem with your generation" an older women was saying
to a guy about my age in passing, "you dont know the value of an education like I do because I
worked for mine." I have heard the stories of my parents, aunts, uncles, and even grandparents
about how they would work part time to pay for their semesters, but hearing a stranger say it
seemed to resonate with me.
Maybe it is because of timing, graduation seems right around the corner, or maybe it was
because I am in the generation the woman was talking about. I haven't held a legitimate part
time position since I graduated high school, and am relying on my parents, loans, and a small
scholarship to help cover the cost of my schooling. We have been told over and over again that
after high school we should go to college, get a degree, and then you'll get a job. But the price of
that degree is becoming unattainable for the average student and the job market has become
inflated over the years, leading students to wonder if college is the necessity we are told it is.
While it may have been possible in the past for one person to work their way through college,
what if that isn't a viable option anymore?
The price of tuition alone has gone up drastically, and more and more students are taking
out loans to help pay for it. The rise in the price of college has caused student loan debt to reach

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crisis levels. But with government funding of public schools continuing to get cut and placing
the majority of the cost on the individual, it makes me wonder if the value of an education is
worth what we are told it cost.
So just what is the cost of college? At the University of South Carolina the price of
tuition alone is just over 10,000 dollars for in-state students and just under 30,000 for out-ofstaters. For comparison the price of in-state tuition in 1990, roughly when that women would
have been in school, was around twenty-five hundred dollars. That is a 340 percent increase in
just the last twenty five years. But with everything else students need to pay for, tuition is just
the tip of the iceberg. With things like room and board, books, meal plans, and other fees; instate students final price tag ends up to be around 21,000 dollars. That is a pretty hefty amount
for someone to pay for an education, but how did it get this way?
One factor that has lead to the spike in tuition, is the declining rates of national and state
funding to public universities. Michael Leachman, the Director of State Fiscal Research at the
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, states that all but three states are spending less per
student than they did ten years ago. My great home state of South Carolina has cut more than 35
percent of per student, making it one of the five states spending the least on its students. But even
then universities and colleges are struggling to replace the revenue they received from national
and local governments, causing them to have to cut resources that might benefit students.
Public universities raised tuitions to combat declining amounts of government funding,
this way they can keep the quality of the education they provide at a high level. But, that money
is paying for much more than just an education. The USA today reports that as of 2010, only 28
percent of the money received by universities is spent on instruction. I know there are countless
other things that universities have to pay for and that teachers cannot get all of the money, but

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what should be 100 percent of the reason a student goes to a school is only receiving 28 percent
of the money. Often the situation is worse than teachers receiving less money, lack of funding
has caused some schools to "eliminate administrative and faculty positions (in some instances
replacing them with non-tenure-track staff), cut courses or increased class sizes, and in some
cases, consolidated or eliminated whole programs, departments, or schools" (Leachman). All of
these can have a negative impact on a students education. larger class sizes means less
individual instruction, cutting courses means getting rid of opportunities to expand knowledge in
a field of study, and cutting programs and departments all together takes away certain schools as
options for future college students. The loss of state funding makes it nearly impossible to
ensure that the quality of education remains at a high level, but 28 percent is just a fraction of the
money.
So where is the rest of that money going? Just by looking around the campus at USC you
can tell where most of the money might be going. It seems as though ae are constantly under
construction, but renovations and modernizing buildings is pricy. Most of the time there are
donors who help cover the cost of new buildings, but an increase in modernization has lead to
more frequent renovations for the older buildings. The USA Today reports other expenditures
for colleges and universities, and some of them might surprise you.
The average pay of college presidents has doubled in the past 15 years and Each year sees
more above the seven-figure mark (Hacker). Now don't get me wrong they have the incredibly
challenging task of running a college or university, but students are essentially filling their
pockets as their salaries continue to rise. At the University of South Carolina, and other schools
with an elite athletic programs, usually make enough money from football or basketball alone to
pay for all of the other sports, but this is not the case at smaller schools. The better you are, more

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you win; the more you win, the more money you make. The University of AlabamaBirmingham actually had to shut down their football team, because their athletic department
could no longer afford to support it financially. some schools try to make up for these losses by
adding more to the price of admission. The most surprising factor contributing to the high price
of college, is that students are simply paying for the name of the institution. now this one might
make some sense, name brands usually means higher quality. It's the same reason I would rather
spend more to buy Oreos than pay less and get Great Value "chocolate cookies with vanilla
crme filling". Now with food there is usually a distinct difference in the quality, but after
college; students who went to non-elite colleges did just as well financially as their elite peers
(Hacker). Meaning the more expensive "elite" schools are simply charging more to ensure that
the name of their institution maintains their high reputation.
. These factors have created a huge price for a student to cover. In the past it was almost
the standard to work as you went to college. An MSU grad student conducted a study and found
that in 1979 a hard-working student with a minimum-wage job could earn enough in one day to
pay for one academic credit hour and the entire semester could be payed off working one month
of part time work (Narula). This seems almost unbelievable nowadays, like when you hear about
gas being less than a dollar. Its easy to see why those who worked their way through school
back then do not understand why students do not do it today. If they cold do it then why cant we?
But while both tuition and minimum wage have both increased, they did not increase at a rate
that allows for students to pay off their semesters in one summer. In fact it takes 60 hours of
minimum-wage work to pay off a single credit hour in todays economy (Narula). One day of
work has turned into a near entirely full work week just to pay for the same amount of time in the
classroom. Its also important to note that these numbers are not including other expenses like

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room and board, meaning that it has become next to impossible for a student to work their way
through college. There simply are not enough hours for a student to rely on part time work to pay
for their education, causing them to find alternative ways to help the financial burden.
Unfortunately, the easiest and most popular way for students to get the money they need
to afford college, is to take out student loans. So popular, in fact, that as of 2014 about 37 million
people have some sort of student load debt (Beauchamp). With no other alternative it is easy to
see why loans ae so appealing to students. We are told that a college education is important no
matter what the cost, so we must be fortunate that there are companies who will give us just
about as much as we want to pay for school. Taking out loans might seem beneficial to someone
paying for school at the time, but its almost as if some students forget about the paying back part
of a loan. The US Department of Education reports that students have acquired up to at least a
trillion dollars in student loan debt (Beauchamp). That amount in unfathomable, and these
businesses are essentially guaranteed that they will get much more than their money back.
So is it worth it?
Current trends say its not. The increase in tuition, student debt, and other factors has to
more and more students dropping out of schools. Of the 70 percent of Americans that actually
go to college, two thirds of them will not graduate. In fact 30 percent will drop out in their first
year. Students are getting burnt out, and think that American schools are wasting their time and
money. At most universities students are forced to take general education courses like math,
science, english, and other courses that are not in line with a students degree field. these courses
are meant to be spread out over the first couple of years, but "students are spending a full year, at
the least, paying for coursework that may not ultimately prove useful in whatever professional
path they end up pursuing" (Flanigan). I agree that there are courses in the Carolina Core, what

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USC calls its gen ed class requirements, that are essentially a waste of time, but I feel that way
about courses that are required for my degree. As a music education major I am required to take
both music and education courses. Because this degree is one of the more intensive ones, the
university adjusts credit hours to make possible for students to complete the degree in four very
busy years. Because music courses are seen as less important than other courses (an inquiry for
another day) classes that meet thrice a week that should be three credit hours, are actually one or
sometimes even zero credit hours. Marching band, yes this is an actual class you sign up for, is
the best example of a course that does not reflect the time you put into it. For one whole credit
hour you are required to rehearse 4 days a week for an hour and a half (five days for drumline)
and 12 hour game days on just about every Saturday for three months, and this is excluding the
ten consecutive 12 hour days at band camp right before the school year starts. Oh and did I
mention that this is required for at least two years to meet degree requirements.
So between taking classes that are not relevant and courses that are literal wastes of time,
it is easy to see why students do not think it is worth their time, money, and energy to get a
higher education. But even despite everything that tells you it isn't, going to college and getting a
degree will still set you up for a job better than if you dropout/do not attend college. Bachelor's
holders have about half the unemployment rate of high school graduates (Weissman). it is no
secret that employers want workers who have had the most training, meaning that a college
education still shines on a resume. These trends are changing though.
As a music education major, and a future teacher, I almost have no choice but to go to
college to get certified. This is the same for professions like doctors, lawyers, and more skilled
service positions. But with the rise of STEM programs and jobs, most who would have gone to
college to get an engineering or computer science degree are now getting internships or co-ops

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out of high school. Students are forgoing college to get paid while they get hands on experience,
and companies are essentially investing in their future by training young inexperienced workers
to eventually take over the more intensive jobs. Students say degree inflation has lead them to
getting jobs after high school, instead of struggling through college for arguably the same job.
But "evidence [shows] that degree inflation isn't really the problem. Rather, some jobs are simply
becoming more complicated and skill intensive" (Weissman), meaning that employers are just
looking for those who have had the most training and experience. think about all of the
professions that exists, now would you want people doing those jobs who have studied it for four
years or someone who learned everything on the job?
So college might not be worth it to everyone. It isn't as necessary to go to college today
as it has been in the past, but college is still the best resource for one to develop skills in their
desired field. If everyone went to college, then we would have an incredibly advanced
workforce and a much more sustainable economy. so much would have to change for that to
happen though. Tuition has to become more affordable, paying for college should not put you
into crippling debt, and students should feel like they are not wasting their time taking classes
that do not matter. Changes would have to be made for it to be worth everyone's time, maybe a
more European style of school where curriculum is heavily based on what you wish to do after
school or dare I even say free higher education to ensure that no one will lose money to better
themselves for the rest of their lives.

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Works Cited
Beauchamp,Brenda . Cooper, Jason R. "Survey 2014: Bankruptcy + Student Loan Debt Crisis."
Touro Law Review. 2014, Vol. 30 Issue 3, p539-560. EBSCO. Web. 2014
Dreifu, Cluadia. Hacker, Andrew. "Where's all that college tuition money going?" USA Today.
17 August 2010. Web. 29 May 2016
Flanigan, Jake. "The traditional US college model forces students to pay for classes they dont
need" Quartz. 12 August 2015. Web. 29 May 2016.
Leachman, Michael. Mitchell, Michael. "Years of Cuts Threaten to Put College Out of Reach for
More Students" Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. 13 May 2015. Web. 29 May
2016
Narula, Svati Kirsten. "The Myth of Working Your Way Through College." The Atlantic. The
Atlantic monthly group. 1 April 2014. Web. 29 May 2016.
Weissmann, Jordan. "How bad is the Job Market for College Grads? Your Definitive Guide."
The Atlantic. The Atlantic monthly group. 4 April 2013. Web. 29 May 2016.