For years, colleges have had high tuition costs that large populations cannot afford. Unfortunately, this monetary disadvantage can serve as a threat to lower income students. Yale and Harvard have intensely high tuition fees that are way out of reach for students who don’t have much money. However, the real issue is that some applicants aren’t able to prove they can excel in school. College education is a ticket to success, and missing the experience, solely because of a wealth drawback, is a major issue our society has to resolve.
The idea of college is to branch out thinking to achieve an educational goal. Rather than colleges administering principles to students that can afford the luxuries of advanced education, it’s only right that costly tuition fees should be accommodated to students who don’t fit the “standard” of a student. According to CNBC, a survey conducted to over 10,000 low income freshman, sophomore, and junior students from over 200 colleges in the U.S. showed, shockingly, that almost 56% could no longer afford college after one year.
Obviously, any college should come to a price that must be paid. Receiving top notch education is serious, and the work that gets put into the curriculums must be admired. However, colleges can afford to loosen their guidelines and recede their strict morals. It’s common knowledge that families with higher incomes receive more of what they want. According to Stephen Rose, a research professor at George Washington University, the average monthly income for higher class families can range from $106,827 – $373,894. Rose also stated that the income for lower class families is around $32,000 or less. This is a startling income difference of $341,894.
It’s not just the issue of the wealth differentiation between social classes that limits education in low income students, it’s the clear favoritism shown throughout college to students who have no issue paying for their education. For example, a 2019 report on non-federal aid by the National Center for Education Statistics showed that students in the highest 25% income range received a greater amount of non-federal financial aid ($11,300) on average compared with all other income levels, including those in the lowest 25% income range ($7,500).
It needs to be argued that students with lower financial statuses are treated like they don’t deserve to receive the education they strive for. That is why I propose that the U.S. Department of Education needs to lower college tuition costs to accommodate low income students. In this country, wealth does not equal intelligence, but it does equal power, which is why the complete imbalance of wealth-based education in the U.S. is a serious issue.