Students Should NOT Be Paid

These days it is almost impossible to get a good job without a college degree. So, why is it so expensive to get something that everyone should have? A recent survey said “a moderate college budget for an in-state public college for the 2015–2016 academic year averaged $24,061” (“What’s the price tag” 1). Most students don’t have $24,061 lying around to spend each year let alone four or five years in a row. A student will have to take out a loan or several loans to pay for this which would put them into a massive amount of debt after they graduate. There are things that we can do to prevent ourselves from being pulled into this growing problem. Students need to take it upon themselves to understand how debt will affect them after they graduate. They need to use as many resources as possible to lower the amount of money they will need to borrow for the “college experience”.
According to NerdWallet, “U.S. high school graduates left over $2.9 billion in free federal grant money on the table last academic year” (Sen-Gupta) because they did not complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid or FAFSA. Grant money is free money and does not need to be payed back so the fact that it went untaken is incredible. “47% of all 2013 high school graduates didn’t complete this required first step that could have earned them Pell Grant money” (Nerdwallet). To increase the amount of students that complete the FAFSA high schools should inform their students on what it is, how much it will help them, and set up special classes to help them with the paperwork. The FAFSA is known to be hard to complete and many students do not know the immense benefits of completing it so they decide not to bother with it. If students got all of the grants possible for them it would reduce the amount of money they have to borrow and their debt would not be so