College debt crisis free essay sample

Everyone who desires to go to college one day will eventually be facing the number one question that may or may not make the decision for them; do I have enough money to go? It seems to be the reason a lot of people finish high school and decide to just start working. â€Å"A job after high school helps set realistic expectations and firm up goals† (Johnson). Some kids, fill out the necessary paperwork, only to find out their parents make too much money and end up not going as well. Then there are the kids who decide to take out loans. â€Å"In many schools, 70 percent of the student body must borrow† (PRESS). Sure it seems easy at first, so they get another loan, they get another degree, only to find out that after college, the work force is smaller than they thought and now the debt is hanging over their heads. â€Å"Significantly, about 13 percent said their loans forced them to drop out of college leaving them perhaps worse off than if they never had gone† (PRESS). For some college students working to pay off their debts seems more important than getting the actual college degree. It is important to society that we try to fix this problem. The students applying for college need to be better educated on loans and have a better idea on the job market today, and what degree it will take to get them where they need to be so that they are employable. The Obama administration has taken an interest in this middle class problem. â€Å"The President signed a new law that makes it easier for students to pay back their federal college loans. Starting in 2014, new borrowers will pay no more than 10 percent of their disposable income, and the President recently proposed accelerating this benefit for current students. The law also allows any remaining debt to be forgiven after 20 years. Those engaged in public-service professions—such as teachers, nurses, or members of the armed forces—will have any remaining debt forgiven after 10 years if they make their payments on time† (Action). One of the reasons that this was important to the president was because Barack Obama himself has had his own student loans as well as his wife and was troubled by how long it took to pay them off. â€Å"Though Obama received a scholarship to attend Occidental College, the money ran out after his freshman year. He paid the rest of his undergraduate tuition through loans and assistance from his family† (Soave). Paying off student loans should not be a process that takes our entire lives to do and with the new laws in effect everyone should be able to manage paying off these loans within ten years. Then there is the thought on everyone’s mind; would my college degree be worth the financial burden? Do I really need a college education? According to many different resources, college degrees will in fact earn you a lot more money than no college degree. One article states that â€Å"College graduates now make 80 percent more than people who have only a high-school diploma, and though there are no precise estimates, the wage premium for an elite school seems to be even higher† (McArdle). This very fact entices most individuals and drives them to go for it, and do what it takes to get there. How much will college cost each individual? This question of course is dependent on a lot of different factors including how long you attend and what lender you use, and what college you are attending. â€Å"The president and the first lady also racked up $40,000 each attending Harvard Law School. Including undergraduate loans, the Obamas owed a combined $120,000 after college† (Soave). The Obama administration is taking action to help each individual decide which college to go to by putting together a â€Å"rating system† for each college that will help determine which college you save you money in the long run. â€Å"We need to rate colleges on who’s offering the best value so students and taxpayers can get a bigger bang for their buck, Obama said. He wants the rating system in place by the fall of 2015. Colleges that rank higher than their peers would get more federal financial aid† (Summer). When the new ranking system is in order it seems it will drive colleges to want to rank higher so that college students will want to attend their schools and can attend financially speaking. It will be easier for all of society to decide where they should be attending and where they should not. So you graduated, now what? Life after you’ve received a diploma sometimes is a little harder than one would expect. Some people are over-qualified, some are under-qualified. â€Å"The idea that there are too many overqualified college graduates and too many underqualified job candidates may seem contradictory. But the mismatch partly has to do with what students are choosing to study, says ManpowerGroup president Jonas Prising. † (Wolverson). Students should be more conscience about what they are exactly studying. They also should think about getting help with those decisions by using a counselor in the college that they are choosing. â€Å"Young college grads with an education or engineering major are more likely to find a job that matches the rigor of their college degree than are grads who majored in the humanities, according to 2009 Labor Department data† (Wolverson). In the end, what classes you chose and what degree you have will determine what job you will hopefully get. When all of your studying is done and all the degrees have been handed out, colleges today will help place you in a job that is fitting for your degree. This help can be found by going into the counseling services and asking for employment options. There are also many resources online that will help you with employment but one must be careful who they give their personal information to online over the internet. Another way to start out after college is to take an internship. â€Å"According to a study at Northwestern University, 64 percent of interns are eventually offered jobs with their host employers† (Combs). Although most internships are unpaid, they might lead to being hired, or lead to another position at a different company. However, some people find that when it comes time to apply for a job or an internship, the economy proves them to be scarce. â€Å"The percentage of Americans in the labor force, arguably the most important measure of economic health, dropped to a 34-year low in May. † (Foroohar) It is very important to research the degree that you desire beforehand. Most colleges have on the web site how â€Å"employable† one might be with a certain degree. Doing your homework before signing up for college will be worth your time.