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Brendan Haas
Mr. Hackney
English: Rhetoric 101
11 April 2014
On Attending College: The Implicative Factors That Influence Ones Decision
For a senior in high school, college sounds like an enticing road to the future. Its an
opportunity to branch out and make new friends, learn how to depend on oneself, and most
importantly, give one an education that they can use in their desired career. However, rewind
time fifty or sixty years and one will find a youth anxious to get into the workforce or make a
name for themselves as quick as possible, even at the age of sixteen. We have come a long way
since that day, and it doesnt seem very likely to return anytime soon. College is becoming
increasingly important and almost ritual. Even jobs in food service or public relations are
requiring more and more educational experience. But will college fully envelop the life of an
adult and become a necessity of life? This question will not be answered by a current generation,
but will definitely be influential in generations to come. And this is what makes it such a
pressing issue. College tuition rates are rising, unemployment is on and off the radar, and
students are becoming unsure about what to do with their professional lives. Professional degrees
give young adults a potential to become very successful while also putting them hundreds of
thousands in debt from student loans; and tradesmen and those who do not wish to pursue
college can make forty thousand dollars a year right after high school, but usually do not increase
from this point. So is there a correct path to take or at least a middle ground? This answer seems
to be tied up into the money, as most aspects of life are. In this paper I will explore the influences
that tuition rates, scholarships, student loans, and economic class status has on ones opportunity
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in life and whether it is worth it to attain a college degree.
College for a typical high school senior is an ominous cloud of stress. With high tuition
and mountains of different options to choose from, one can quickly get lost in their first few
steps into adulthood. With their education on the line, a student is likely to do anything it takes to
achieve their professional goals, which appear to be reliant on their education in college. Anne M
Hornak, assistant professor at Central Michigan University, shows support for this in her co-
written journal, "Making It (or Not) on a Dime in College: Implications for Practice", by stating,
Eighty-four percent of the nation believes that the cost of attending college is too high for many
students and families. At the same time, they are being persuaded that a college education
provides the only hope of a secure economic future, (Hornak). Also, it is easy to be misled
when ones judgment is clouded by this necessity of college. Students seek out many different
answers to help get into and afford college. Even a job is a misconception for each and every one
of those students, at least those who do not expect to keep it for the rest of their life. This first job
gives a student some financial backing, ground for responsibility, and professional experience.
The job itself, and its benefits are important and helpful, but there are downfalls that should be
considered. A job normally eats up time and energy, which for a senior is a scarce commodity
anyways. But the thing about a job so early on in life, is the fact that it is paradoxical in nature.
The job helps a student acquire money they need to go to college to get a job, to then acquire
money. The sentence alone sounds just a little off. This idea about a job also translates into
college life as well. Hornak also goes on to mention in her journal that the more hours an
undergraduate student works, the less likely they are to complete college (Hornak). Even with
these shocking statistics in mind, there are still a surplus of students trying to obtain a job while
in college. Of course, most of these students dont know of this fact, or ignore it and reassure
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themselves that they will not be the one to drop out. So, let us now move to the subject of trying
to receive a job in order to pay for college, or at least help pay for college. This is a legitimate
option for most students and is definitely accomplishable. Hornak discussed only a percentage of
students with jobs who drop out, which means there are some that go through with it all. But, it
turns out that there is a struggle in the process in obtaining these jobs. Hornak summarizes that,
When we recruited students for this study within the first 2 weeks of school, we assumed that
all participants would have a job; however, we learned that two thirds of the students were in the
midst of their job hunts. For those without a job, it took them up to half of the school year to find
a job, (Hornak). Thus, not only is maintaining a job in college a difficult task to ask of young
adults, trying to acquire those jobs seems to a road bump in it of itself.
Not all students focus on job and supplemental means of income and payment of tuition
fees, however. Students may choose not to work, and those with their debts or tuition already
paid off dont find the need to. The most common form of supplement income comes from
government and private financial aid programs, grants, and loans. Having someone pay off
anothers college tuition for that person seems great, until they charge them for it later for even
more than it cost in the first place due to interest and even, sometimes, random fees and
penalties. And each student who must trudge out of this deep hole of debt has their opinions
about the matter. In Jennifer Brooks, writer for The Tennessean, allowed Even Richie Perdomo,
graduate of Middle Tennessee University, voices his opinion in Brooks article Students drown
in loan debt. He stated, It's horrible. It kind of makes you mad. A lot of people want an
education, but not everybody is blessed with scholarships. They told us all through high school,
if you want a good career, you have to have a college degree. I know most people might say
something similar if they also graduated with thirty-five thousand dollars in debt (Brooks). The
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potential amount of debt that one can come out of college with is astounding. And Brooks shows
this unfortunate circumstance by recounting, College tuition rises every year, while state higher
education budgets and the available pool of college grant money shrinks. The result has been
more and more students forced to take out loans. (Brooks). And another article in a Springfield
newspaper, written by a Simon Daniels Voice correspondent, named You landed your dream
school, but yikes -- its not cheap! chimes into the conversation imputing that the amount of
student loans seniors have has increase by one hundred and eight percentage, from nine thousand
two hundred and fifty dollars to nineteen thousand and two hundred dollars (Simon Daniels
Voice). With all of these loans being taken out on must wonder about its effects and
implications. This seems like a lot of money being taken out of young adults pockets and
dumped into virtual voids of private business or the government. No assessment can be made
about how this affects private institutions, or how private institutions affect student, because it is
insignificant and the only relationship the two correlate to is money. Thus, one must then look to
the government for answers about these loans, as well as other programs and grants.
There is no short supply of government aid to students who seek to attend college, yet
this aid is not necessarily substantial. The Pell grant and other scholarships determined by states
aim to gather as many students as possible, which with growing college costs means more and
more money needed to be given out. The situation is best explained by Larry D. Singell,
executive dean of the IU College of Arts and Sciences, in his article, "HOPE for the Pell?
Institutional Effects in the Intersection of Merit-Based and Need-Based Aid." The articles
preface discusses the topic by stating that in particular, two trends with regard to need-based aid
have been documented as critical--Pell grants representing a decreasing share of the average
financial aid package and students increasingly relying on unsubsidized loans to finance
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college. This quote shows just how the shifting reliance is having impacts on students
attempting to go to college. Singell also goes on to say:
Concurrently, state governments and universities have begun to place greater
emphasis on non-need-based aid in an attempt to attract and retain the best
students. Since receiving federal need-based aid often precedes and precludes
receipt of other forms of state aid, non-need-based aid programs such as Georgia's
Helping Outstanding Pupils Educationally (HOPE) scholarship afford a relative
advantage to the financially well to do. (Singell)
Singell shows the drive of the government to emphasize financial aid to kids on a non-need
basis in hopes of luring better students into going and staying in college. This is seems like a
great concept in theory, but when numbers and statistics get in the way, it becomes an ambitious
feat to accomplish these goals. Singells paper focuses mainly on the HOPE program in Georgia,
however, he recognizes the importance of the broaden spectrum of financial aid. Singell adds,
The implied enrollment effects of the HOPE on Pell recipients also have implications regarding
the average Pell award per student and total Pell revenues at Georgia institutions. (Singell). This
quote shows such relative implications between Singells paper and the bigger picture of
financial aid. The Pell grant seems to be a common focus of other papers, as well. Bridget Terry
Long, Academic Dean and the Xander Professor of Education at the Harvard Graduate School of
Education, writes in her article, Making College Affordable by Improving Aid Policy, that in a
study, conducted by Thomas Kane in 1996, it showed that college enrolment grew two and six
tenths percent slower for the lowest quartile students, which were the intended beneficiaries of
the Pell grant (Long). However there may have been unexpected results that responded to the
Pell grant which were not accounted for, or not thought of. Long goes on to mention that the Pell
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grant may have only affected college choice instead of the decision to actually attend college,
rather than the opposite that was intended. This fact may be concerning, yet Long also covers the
Georgia HOPE program and shows the adverse effect. Long mentions that for middle and upper
class students, the college attendance rate increased by three and seven tenths percent to four and
two tenths percent for every thousand dollars spent on aid (Long). Even the Gates Millenium
Scholars Program shows promise to increase college attendance rates especially for African-
American students. Ryan Davis concludes in his co-written article, The Impact of the Gates
Millennium Scholars Program on College Choice for High-Achieving, Low-Income African
American that the Gates Millennium Scholars Program is one of the largest and most widely
distributed forms of private grant aid created to assist low-income, high-achieving African
Americans (Davis). So, what exactly do these grants and aid statistics all mean? Well, it seems as
though the case in Georgia is unique in its own right and is not nation-wide (otherwise it might
not actually be economically possible). The money available for students seem to be sporadic
and dispersed unevenly among social class. Even though the goal might be to get every student
to go to college, the reality is that it is easier for some and harder for others. Which also varies in
each case. Ethnically diverse students who are poor can either receive a lot of money to go to
college, or none at all. However, this is also the same for the privileged ethnic majority. So,
clearly the efforts must be focused elsewhere.
The balance seems to be a fine line that cannot be found as of yet. But, David Deming,
writer for the National Bureau of Economic Research, mentions in his report that a combination
of cost reduction and performance incentives may have a greater impact than financial aid
alone, (Deming). It seems that with all of the programs sprouting out from one another,
alongside private incentives, causes more of a distraction and stress to the students. So, one then
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must examine the performance incentives that Deming offers to be a possible solution. A recent
survey, College Tuition and You, shows a variety of results on a similar topic. For the question
What benefits do you feel there are for not attending college? most responses involved a
common theme which was a lack of debt. Other opinions included less stress from schooling, as
well as bettering oneself as a person. Another question went along with this by asking, Where
do you see education in the future? Most people felt like college will remain an important factor
in society, but some held very unique and revealing opinions. One anonymous respondent stated,
I believe there will always be jobs that do not require college education yet more and more high
level jobs will continue to require more and more education. (Haas). This person brings up a
very abstract point that is worthy of note. The implied effects of this division of labor might
result to change for the financial aid system and possibly incorporate Demings philosophy
involving a balance of incentive and lowering of costs.
This last question on the survey about the importance of college is an important topic to
discuss when determining whether or not to go to college. Perdomo, mentioned previously,
brings up another good point about the necessity of college. If students are increasingly feeling
like college is a growing necessity at the same rate the cost of such college is rising, it becomes a
vicious cycle. More and students will try to go to college, while fewer and fewer actually receive
the higher education. However, there are more influential paradoxes not just involving the
students, rather there are circumstances when the politics within the colleges are harmful circles
of influence. Jasmine Evans, an informative and inspirational freelance writer, writes in her
article Exorbitant Education that the college themselves revolve around producing more and
more degrees. However, this requires either diluting class size or hiring of more faculty; and
since the quality of education is threatened with more students in a class the school must spend
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more money hiring the faculty. Which overall ends up rising costs (Evans). This ties back into
the overwhelming feeling of college becoming more of a necessity due to the fact that students
must not only get a degree to become successful, but they must try to obtain a pretentious one in
order to pay off their debts they owe from trying to receive the expensive degree in the first
place. This then makes it harder for graduates to serve the country or do things that are in the
public interest according to Evans. This isnt to say that the students do not go on to bigger and
better things. In fact, Jessie Everston, writer for the Daily Nebraskan, wrote an article entitled
Students may fare better with more at stake. Evertson discusses the popular opinion of Serge
Herzog and uses his quote: "The greater financial investment a student has, the more a student
has at stake, and that will affect how the students perform (Evertson). The students may not all
be doomed to flipping burgers after receiving their biochemical engineering major for the same
reason the high school dropout will not be doomed to commute to the laboratory every day to
work on their research on stem cells.
As a whole, the educational system, in its current state, implies hardship to most who
choose to pass through it. Post-secondary education is becoming more relative to all students, yet
becoming more expensive and harder to obtain. With government-sponsored and private aid to
help progress generations to make their decisions to go, one can merely just step back and let the
system work everything out on its own. Everyone has an opinion, one way or the other, on the
matter of high costing tuition; as well as whether or not to go to college. But, with all things
considered, it does seem to be a worthwhile challenge that many are wishing to pursue. The only
definitive answer on whether or not to go to college seems to be dependent on the drive of the
student requiring the education. It does not seem like, at this point in time, there are many
circumstances when a student wishes to go to college, but is completely unable to. Thus, if one
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wishes to attend college, they should try, and inversely is true for those who do not wish to
attend college.
















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Work Cited
Davis, Ryan J., Nagle, Barry., Richards, David A R., Awokoya, Janet T.. The Impact of the
Gates Millennium Scholars Program on College Choice for High-Achieving, Low-
Income African American.... Journal of Negro Education 3(2013):226. eLibrary. Web.
26 Feb. 2014.
Deming, David, and Susan Dynarski. Into College, Out of Poverty? Policies to Increase the
Postsecondary Attainment of the Poor. The National Bureau of Economic Research.
NBER, n.d. Web. Sept. 2009. <http://www.nber.org/papers/w15387>.
Evans, Jasmine. Exorbitant Education. Diverse Issues In Higher Education 26(2013):6.
eLibrary. Web. 10 Mar. 2014.
Evertson, Jessie.. Students may fare better with more at stake. University Wire. 30 Jan. 2008
eLibrary. Web. 10 Mar. 2014.
Haas, Brendan. College Tuition and You. Survey. 17 March 2014
Hornak, Anne M., Farrell, Patricia L., Jackson, Natalie J.. Making It (or Not) on a Dime in
College: Implications for Practice. Journal of College Student Development
5(2010):481. eLibrary. Web. 27 Feb. 2014.
Jennifer Brooks By Jennifer Brooks. Students drown in loan debt. Tennessean; Nashville,
Tenn.. 28 Mar. 2010: n/a. eLibrary. Web. 10 Mar. 2014.
Long, Terry, Bridget.. Making College Affordable by Improving Aid Policy. Issues in Science
and Technology 4(2010):27. eLibrary. Web. 26 Feb. 2014.
Simon Daniels Voice By Simon Daniels Voice correspondent. You landed your dream
school, but yikes -- its not cheap!. Springfield News Leader; Springfield, Mo.. 11 Nov.
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2008: 11. eLibrary. Web. 10 Mar. 2014.
Singell, Larry D., Waddell, Glen R., Curs, Bradley R.. HOPE for the Pell? Institutional Effects
in the Intersection of Merit-Based and Need-Based Aid. Southern Economic Journal
1(2006):79. eLibrary. Web. 27 Feb. 2014.