Making the Bill

More than the stress of grades, peer pressure, maintaining a social life, trying to keep your parents happy, and walking the dog every night, high school students have paying for college on their minds all of the time.

With costs being higher than ever, how is the average American family supposed to be paying for college? Or if a student’s guardians are not going to help, how is the student alone going to pay for college?

This can be a very stressful topic to think about. Along with studying subjects at a much more advanced level, students will also be paying their money’s worth for it. So the question is, are students prepared to take on this debt?

Some are lucky to have parents who have saved up for college their entire life. They are set to go and will not have to worry about bills during their college years. They have an amazing opportunity in place. They should consider themselves lucky. But what about the other high school students who have not been given this amazing opportunity?

According to Collegeboard.-com, the average cost of attending a university can increase in price from between $90 and $1,238 a year. For those who are high school freshman now, the college of their dreams could rise from $7,000 to almost $12,000 a semester.

This seems like an insane amount, but just remember the Ivy League schools, whose prices are now up and over $30,000 a semester. One word comes to mind —  “yikes!”

“Get a Job”
As students throughout the ages have heard from their parents, “Get a job!” Having a part-time job is a good way to earn some money during high school. But students often turn their attention off their studies and on to maximizing their hours spent at work.
It could turn out to be a vicious cycle. They now have the money for college, but their grades are not good enough to get into the one they always dreamed of. There must be some other way that will turn out to be a win-win situation.

People may not realize that there is $134 billion of financial aid. This is an incredible amount, which could most likely pay for students’ college educations. Whether someone is planning to attend a two-year or four-year university, financial aid could be on their side.

But relying on financial aid is probably not the best idea. It could not go through, leaving one without a plan. Students may apply for scholarships and loans. Scholarships are rewarded for achievements, while loans are applied for and money is given out according to need.

Paying for college is one of the largest issues students are facing today. The fear of being in debt and not being able to pay off this debt faces most of us everyday.

Relying on parents can be a hard decision or an impossible one. Relying on oneself for the first time will most likely be the scariest situation one has ever faced before, even scarier than that physics test students forget to study for.