May 2, 2012
“The protesters at Occupy Wall Street may not have put forth an explicit set of demands yet, but there is one thing that they all agree on: student debt is too damn high” says James Surowiecki in The New Yorker in his “Debt by Degree” article. Surowiecki overall wants a solution he knows that college is getting way to expensive and everyone wants a reasonable price. He argues that taxpayers should be willing to spend more on school, paying educators and administrators less, finding ways to make colleges more productive places, also changing the idea of what going to college is all about. He focuses on three main things throughout his article with the main point of income coming into play with each individual topic college tuition, student loans, and unemployment which will also be the three main topics of my paper.
As a college student I always questioned if I was going to be able to afford my college education. But before I could choose my career path I had to figure out if my financial status was going to take care of what I had to accomplish in order to finish school. We always hear a lot of talk about the price of college and its one of the main concerns we all face when becoming a first time college student. Cost is something very easy to get intimidated by but the question is how much does college really cost? There is not a straight forward answer because it varies. We all have choices and depending on what we choose is the price we all have to except in a way. We all have a mindset where we think of college as an investment not only in ourselves but in our future as well. We all question why such an increase? And this is the answer they give us “Since the late nineteen-seventies, annual costs at four-year colleges have risen three times as fast as inflation, and, with savings rates dropping and state aid to colleges being cut, students have been forced to take on ever more debt in order to pay for school.”(James S. The New Yorker) I would say this is not the answer to are question all this shows us is an increase in college tuition and that college tuition is not getting any cheaper and there has not been a solution yet. We all want to choose a college that best fits us so we look at the features and benefits of the college we have in mind. We look at our resources provided within the school; we look at the overall campus in general because it’s something that we are going to have to adapt to. We basically have to debate on whether it’s the right place for us so that we can focus on are goals we all want to accomplish, which all includes cost. Cost is something that over powers everything and is one of the first things that we look at when it comes to picking what college we go to. We ask are selves “Can we afford are four year college tuition?” and the first thing that we assume is No, because it’s way too high.
Financial help is something we all look for before beginning are college education we all love free money but a loan is definitely not the right answer to our glory. When we think of a loan we think of money we borrow but eventually have to pay back once we have either graduated school or stopped attending school either way we have to pay it back. In James Surowiecki’s article he says, “Americans are irrationally borrowing money to spend more on college than it is actually worth” (James S. The New Yorker) is it fair that we are spending more on college than it is actually worth? No. Not only do we have to worry about having to pay back what we owe, we also have to think about the high interest rate that it comes with on top of what we already owe. We as students have a hard time financially not only do we have to pay for school, books, and transportation we also have to pay for our living for those of us who do not live at home with our parents. This can be very stressful at times because we try to focus on are studies but with the thought of cost in the back of our minds makes it that much harder for us to actually focus.
Now the only problem is employment. Surowiecki’s states that, “The unemployment rate for recent graduates is close to ten percent” (James S. The New Yorker) we still question if higher education is “worth it” because when it comes down to it college graduates do not get a job within their skill that they originally studied for. Does this tell us something? It definitely tells us a lot and as students we have to look further into our studies so that we know we are promised feature jobs within our degree. It’s hard for students to get a job as soon as they graduate it takes time because there is not enough jobs available. There are always open doors and tons of opportunities and reality is we are not promised anything.
In conclusion it was clear that Surowiecki’s main target of audience was students. How I feel about the situation is as a college student myself there are a series of stressful events each student goes through whether it’s why we question the cost of our college tuition, or how many student loans we may need, or even are concerns with unemployment this only sets students back because they are distractions that we have to face and that are not getting any better but worse making it harder for us to focus on completing college successfully and financially.
