6078
English 111 Sec. 07
Ms. King
Off to College!
It’s been a few years since high school and now its time to go start college. You want to go back but, you think there’s no way because you have a family to support and bills to pay. The tuition seems expensive, and it would never work having a family. Maybe it wouldn’t be fair for just you to go back, while your significant other would have to continue working. You feel like there is no way that you could afford college even if you could find a way to go back. Now let’s say that you’re right out of high school and you want to go to college but you or your parent’s can’t afford it. Then there is the first year college student who doesn’t think he’ll make it back next year because he doesn’t think he could afford tuition, room and board and let’s not forget to mention books. Colleges and universities can encourage more non-traditional and freshmen students to succeed in school the first year by offering helpful monetary assistance to those who need it.
Most couples with children don’t feel that they can go back to college and succeed. Thinking that it would be to hard to fit college into their daily schedule while, raising a family, and trying to pay for the tuition. Money play’s a big part in this situation. The stress of trying to do it all, support the family, paying the bills, and finding the time to go to class. This causes a lot of non-traditional students like couples with children to get discouraged about college.
Family
housing can be offered to couples with families who want to return to school.
Family housing is a great way for people with children to attend college. For
example, at
Every person that wants to attend college has to pay tuition however, there are some people that can’t afford it. Some people can’t afford all the expenses of college up front. College puts students back a few thousand dollars for just one semester. The average semester cost at NMSU is $1,812.00 for NM Residents and $5,775.00 for Non-Residents (NMSU University Accounts Receivable 2004).This is a big problem for freshman and non-traditional students who wish to get a degree in college. Not all people are aware that financial aid and grants are offered by the government and other organizations. Some students do not know the first thing to do to get financial aide or apply for a grant. First time college students need help finding out about how to apply for grants and financial aid. That is why colleges over help for those students.
Colleges can offer to help students find out how to apply for financial aide and grants. Most colleges have a financial aid office that will assist students on how to go about filling out the application for financial aid. The great thing about financial aid is that it doesn’t have to be paid off until the end of school, when the desired degree is achieved by a student. In addition the annual percentage rate (APR) is low, so the interest stays low. Also available to students are federal and private grants. The great thing about a grant is that they never have to be paid back. Financial aid and grants can be used to pay for tuition and what ever is left is given to the student in the form of a check. With the remainder of the financial aid and grant money, students can pay for room and board, books, and school supplies. Colleges and Universities need to advertise to the public that financial aid and grants are available for those interested in becoming students, and that assistance is available to those who may need help with the application.
One of the big problems today is that if a student doesn’t live in the same city or state of the university, then they will be paying more. Their tuition is almost doubled compared to “in state” student rates. This is unfair and discouraging for students that want to go to school out of state to attend a college that suits them best. This could be very frustrating to students out of state. The reason for out of state tuition being so high is that tuition pays for more than just classes it pays for school activities and other things of the sort. Keeping the same tuition can help students.
Universities can keep the same tuition for all students in or out of state. Having a flat tuition for all will encourage more students to attend college, especially the college of their choice. Lower tuition for out of state students would be more appealing and draw in more students. Also non-traditional students would be willing to return to school knowing that tuition is the same anywhere they would like to go. All students would save more money, money they could use for their other expenses. Non-traditional students on a tight budget would be able to make college work better for them. Having the same cost for school would be helpful to all and would draw in bigger crowds to attend college.
As of today, colleges do not offer any incentive for their student to stay in school. In fact universities are getting ready to raise tuition again, which means more money of students has to be spent on school. As a result, more financial aid loans will need to be taken and any other types of moneys students can get. This is not tempting to college students. Knowing that tuition will go up will make it that much harder for students to focus on academics, students will be thinking more about how they can pay for school. Students knowing of incentives will push them towards good grades.
Colleges and Universities can offer rewards as an incentive for good grades. For example if a student were to hold a 3.0 grade point average or better then they could get a discount on tuition the following semester. This would encourage students to focus hard on studies, and hold a high GPA. This possible solution would kill to birds with one stone, the school would look good for having a high graduate rate, and students would be happy to get discounted tuition. The university would look good to the public and future students. This would also give incentive for first year students to return the following semester. Also encourage students too stay in school and finish with good grades.
According to Veronique Johnston (1997) students do not return their second year of college because of “a dislike of the course or finding the course unsuitable, personal reasons and academic problems”. If this is true, a college that offered incentives and had better advertising would only make the college lose out on money that could be better spent. If students are not returning to college their second year because of “personal” reasons then there is nothing that colleges can do to bring those students back. Money that colleges would be spending on incentives and advertising would be better spent on paying professors more or on improvements for the college. However, it can still be argued that if students received discounted tuition for maintaining a high grade point average and if students knew about all the services available to them that more students would return to school their second year because maybe the high cost of tuition was their “personal” problem.
In conclusion universities have the resources many first time students are looking for, but they just don’t know were too look. Colleges letting non-traditional and freshmen students know about what they can offer SFH, financial aide and grants, would help students return to school. Also offering incentives to students that hold high GPA’s would be a “win win” situation for both the student and the university. One flat rate tuition would also encourage more people too seek higher education, with the price of “in-state” tuition being what it is universities should not be affected.
Reference:
Department
of Housing-NMSU Retrieved
NMSU
University Accounts Receivable Retrieved
Johnston,
V (1997) Why do first year students fail to progress to their second year? An academic staff perspective. Department of Mathematics,
