As post-collegiate debt skyrockets, book prices rise exponentially and tuition rates grow with unchecked abandon, the makeup of those attending college is changing.
They are getting richer.
According to UCLA's Higher Education Research Institute, today's college freshmen are wealthier than they've been in the past 35 years. In 2005, the median income of a freshman's household was 60 percent higher than the national average. And that trend shows no sign of slowing.
What this means is that a college education — something that has already become essential for anyone looking for a job with even modest pay — is quickly becoming exclusive.
The rich, with the aid of their parents, are able to afford college. The poor are able to secure aid from programs designed to help students from low-income families. Those who fall somewhere in between — too well-off for the aid, not nearly wealthy enough to have their parents pay for school — find themselves between a rock and a hard place.
It almost is no longer possible to work your way through college. Sure, some Type A personalities will claim that it can be done if you get three or four jobs and endlessly apply for scholarships — landing one or two in the process, if you're lucky — but for many, that is a time-consuming impossibility.
Furthermore, even those who can pull it off frequently only take the classes they can afford, which not only delays their graduation and leaves them more susceptible to tuition increases, but also leaves them subject to outrageous matriculation fees.
Then, of course, there are internships. Some majors actually require them for graduation, but for others, an internship is a fantastic way to line up a job after graduation. Many internships, however, are unpaid.
As college becomes increasingly expensive, students will scarcely be able to afford to accept unpaid internships, putting them at a distinct disadvantage for the future.
Furthermore, a heightened price tag makes colleges more homogenous and lessens the socio-economic diversity on campus. If college tuition continues to rise, the poor and middle-class students will be squeezed out, leaving only those who come from money behind.
To paraphrase the NRA, if college is only affordable for the rich, only the rich will go to college.
We can appreciate that as colleges expand and economies change, tuition will, at times, need to increase. But, at some point, there needs to be a limit.
Graduates are facing more debt now than ever before, effectively crippling them financially before they're even in the real world.
This cannot continue. We appreciate the supply and demand economics of the situation, but colleges should not charge more simply because they know people will pay it.
Colleges need to make money, but students — all students — have to have a fair shake at getting a proper education.
Higher education cannot become a privilege of only the rich.
