Post #4 Deepening Your Analysis
As I was exploring new articles for my topic on tuition costs in America I stumbled upon a Podcast by Kumar Balasubrahmanyan, titled “The Cost of College in America.” This podcast was published on CollegePossible.org in May of 2017 and discusses the topic of the financial barriers that are included in higher education. Balasubrahmanyan is the voice of this podcast, and is also the program manager at College Possible, in this position he oversees over 2,000 students in programming and is a key asset in many of these students’ lives. In his discussion, he over- looks the many different ways students are dropping out of college, and it is the not for the rea- son of college being “too hard” instead it is because of financial issues.
College Possible (according to the Corporation for National and Community Service) is a “non-profit that strives to make college admission and success possible for low-income students.” In this site as well, they established a whole article about Balasubrahmanyan, titled “Education; Americorps Member — Kumar Balasubrahmanyan is Getting Things Done.” The publisher discusses how During their junior year, Kumar helped his students achieve an average ACT score increase of 24.8%. During their senior year, 97% of them were admitted to college, and 95% admitted to a four-year institution. starts working with students their junior year of high school and because of him.” After reading this article on Balasubrahmanyan, I knew he was a credible source and would fit perfectly for my paper. In this podcast, he discusses one main point, and that is the financial barriers in higher education. Balasubrahmanyan points out that many college students in America are dealing with both food and housing insecurities, and this is causing many students to drop out of college not temporarily, but permanently.
In the beginning of my search process I knew that many college students were dropping out, due to the fact that college was way too expensive. However, I did not consider all of the other fac- tors that came along with attending college. In this podcast, Balasubrahmanyan explains that “twenty-two percent of college students experience food insecurity, and among them, one in six also face housing insecurity.” This statistic was very enraging to me (being a college student) and knowing that there are students on my college campuses experiencing these hardships.
In order to strengthen his argument, Balasubrahmanyan had a few guest speakers to discuss this topic, and these people have dealt/seen this issue on a college campus. The two guest speak- ers in this podcast were Dr. Sarah and Dr. Tom. In Goldrick-Rab’s appearance on this podcast, she explains many key points that I agreed on. Balasubrahmanyan asked Goldrick-Rab a very direct question “So, whats the problem?” She replied with “a large number of people want to at- tend college, in fact they can agree that they need college and yet the substantial majority of them are having difficulty paying for it.” What stood out to me here was that these students are making an attempt to pay for college knowing how much they need it but unfortunately have to drop due to the fact that it is simply too much. Goldrick-Rab says it perfectly, “in debt with no degree.” Being a college students who receives financial aid this scares me today. I don’t know what the future holds, and I cant stop myself from thinking if that will be me one day. I cannot imagine working and giving so much time and dedication to my studies for it all to be worth nothing in the end. The fact that this happens to so many students in the United States is enraging and something must be done to fix this.
The next guest speaker’s name is Dr. Timothy Renick. In his appearance, Renick explains he witnesses first hand the effect on these students being dropped from their classes because they simply cannot pay nor afford tuition costs. He then mentions that students with less resources need the most help. By this, Renick meant many of these students trying to pursue a greater edu- cation are usually first generation college students with parents and family members who have no idea where to even begin with college tuition assistance.
Overall, I believe that listening to this podcast gave me a better understanding from hearing from both sides. Dr. Sarah Goldrick-Rab explains that the state is doing nothing to help provide assistance to college students in need. While Dr. Timothy Renick explains that many students who need the assistance do not know where to locate where to get help. Although, there are many tuition assistance opportunities on campus, it still cannot be enough for many. Besides tuition, there are many other heavy costs in college students’ lives. Other heavy costs being housing, food, sometimes childcare costs, social life, etc. It does all add up in the end and although a social life is not needed, many of these students are very young and should be able to have the opportunity to live life and get some away time from all of life’s never ending struggles. I believe that college is indeed unaffordable and something must be done, how are students devoting lots of time and effort to end up in loads of debt with nothing to show for? This is simply outrageous and needs to be stopped.