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In the United States, student loans have become a big part of the college decision process for new students. How much student debt you will acquire, how long it will take you to pay it off, and what your interest rates will look like, are all questions we need to take into account before committing to a university. But student debt has become a crisis in America we can no longer avoid. With rising tuition rates and very little wage growth, student debt has the ability to make or break your post-college life. This looming threat to future financial security has made it increasingly hard for students to even want to attend university despite a college degree almost always being required to secure a good job with decent pay. The average student earns their degree with almost $30,000 left to pay in student loans and only six months to find a job before they are required to begin making payments. These payments can take as much as 50–60% of your salary, leaving very little for rent, food, healthcare, or other unexpected emergencies. All of this makes it very hard to begin saving up or planning for your future. This leads to students going into fields they have no true interest in, just so they can hopefully secure a job that pays well enough to manage their debt. Why should students want to attend college just to gain a degree in something they aren’t passionate about, and still leave with thousands of dollars of debt looming over their head? The answer is simple, they shouldn’t. In this essay, I’ll argue that student debt is one of the most relevant factors making higher education less accessible and the steps we can take to combat this to open up more possibilities to gain a degree.
There are 44.7 million people in the US paying off 1.56 trillion dollars in student loans right now. This is because tuition has risen almost 200% since 1988 while financial aid support has virtually stayed the same, or even decreased. This leads to more and more students and parents taking on the brunt of their student loans to make up the difference. On top of the student loans themselves, the high interest rates that come with them can make it near impossible to make any headway on paying off your actual debt. If you can’t afford to make interest payments while in school, they’ll compound and leave you with even more debt after you’ve graduated. Not to mention how student loans disproportionately affect people of color, with around 74k more being borrowed, and a default rate almost five times higher than that of white students. 50% of the US is made up of the middle class, and 29% the lower class, if we could lower the costs of college and make paying back your student loans a more forgiving process, it could seriously open up more opportunities for those who want to obtain a degree, or finish one, but were not given the luxury of not having to worry about the burden of student debt.
The first step we need to take is reducing the cost of attendance at public and private universities. This could be done in many different ways, one solution could be more of a transition to online learning, something many of us have already found ourselves immersed in due to COVID-19. If universities offered more classes online, we could increase class size and allow more students to attend which would help break the habit of administrative bloat where universities employ more administrators than necessary, often resulting in duplicative and redundant programs. We could cut non-academic amenities that are included in the cost of college, like free movie theaters, bowling alleys, and hot tubs that are all used to attract prospective students. We could cut mandatory fees for services that some students may not even end up using.
Steps outside of the college sphere could include motivating businesses and employers to provide student loan repayment packages and tuition assistance. We could offer more tuition assistance and low-cost degree programs to students of color and those coming from a lower-income household. We could offer debt forgiveness to those who couldn’t complete their degrees due to unforeseen circumstances or the cost of college already being too high so they can re-enroll. Lenders could change their policies to provide more flexible repayment options with reduced interest costs. The government could expand its programs for income-based repayment plans, that change as your income does. We should also begin better educating high schoolers about the realities of student debt and its potential long term consequences.
These are all options that will not eradicate student debt or get rid of having to take out loans altogether, but they are options that will make college a more realistic and attainable opportunity for those who cannot afford the excessive price tag a higher education usually comes with nowadays. Lowering costs and making loan payments more reasonable will also allow many students to work less during the school year and be able to spend more time in school focusing on gaining a degree they have a genuine passion for. This could also reduce burnout rates from students overworking themselves to not only manage classwork but also loan payments, which will boost graduation rates. Making the decision to attend college should not have to include signing years of your life away to hefty loan payments with no guarantee that you’ll be able to secure an entry level job that pays well enough to manage said payments. The student debt crisis can no longer be ignored, and everyone deserves a chance to pursue higher education, regardless of their socio-economic status.
