College Is Exensive

Abstract With a college degree being as needed as it is, it is incredibly expensive to get one. Studies show that many high school graduates that do attend college, attend that following year bringing the colleges plenty of money. After doing some math, the numbers suggest that in general most colleges are bringing in plenty of extra money with an average 5.3 million dollars of profit. This is something that majorly hurts students financially who are just trying to get a college degree, which will be in turn used to essentially get themselves a well-paying career so they can pay back what they spent to get their college degree in the first place. Living in today’s society, graduating from high school is simply not enough. Many employers will no longer look for just a high school diploma when considering hiring somebody, but they instead look for a college degree. A college education is almost as necessary for today 's youth as having a place to live, especially because it 's incredibly difficult for many people to afford a home without the financial stability that comes with a job provided by a college education. Our society is extremely dependent on colleges; but, are we in some way harming ourselves by sacrificing huge portions of our annual income to these institutions? Colleges may be too expensive to call for every high school graduate in the United States attending one. In a study by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, it was found that 66 percent, or two of every three high school graduates attend college right out of high school ("College," 2014). We estimate that for the 2013-2014 school year there will be 3.3 million high school graduates ("What," n.d.) , and we know that about 2,178,000 or two-thirds of the graduates will go on to attend college right away. Now taking an average cost of college at about $20,000 ("What 's," n.d.), we find that colleges across the U.S. bring in around an estimated total of $44,425,000,000 per year. That’s 44.4 billion dollars towards U.S. colleges every year from the students alone. When we consider that there is a rough 6,700 colleges in the U.S., it can be reasoned that, if every college received the same amount of money, the average income per college per year would be about $6,600,000. Now consider the fact that an average college can be kept running on around $1,300,000 (Agron, 2009) (this price varies between colleges, given a more prestigious college will use more money to pay for better teachers and academic opportunities). This means that on average, colleges gain an annual profit of around $5,300,000 per year. College is extremely expensive, and the amount of money that they seem to keep each year is far too much. We don 't just pay only for our education when we pay for college, but also to the board members most likely using the extra money brought in for comfort, providing a nicer lifestyle for themselves. While I do understand that colleges need to bring in large amounts of money to stay in the black, I do not support the need to charge the incredibly costly amounts that they do.
References
Agron, J. (2009, April 1). 38th Annual Maintenance & Operations Cost Study for Colleges. Retrieved March 10, 2015, from http://asumag.com/Maintenance/university-maintenance- operations-cost-study-200904?page=15
College Enrollment and Work Activity of 2013 High School Graduates. (2014, April 22). Retrieved March 10, 2015, from http://www.bls.gov/news.release/hsgec.nr0.htm
What are the new Back to School statistics for 2014? (n.d.). Retrieved March 10, 2015, from http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=372
What 's the Price Tag for a College Education? (n.d.). Retrieved March 10, 2015, from https://www.collegedata.com/cs/content/content_payarticle_tmpl.jhtml?articleId 10064

References: Agron, J. (2009, April 1). 38th Annual Maintenance & Operations Cost Study for Colleges. Retrieved March 10, 2015, from http://asumag.com/Maintenance/university-maintenance- operations-cost-study-200904?page=15 College Enrollment and Work Activity of 2013 High School Graduates. (2014, April 22). Retrieved March 10, 2015, from http://www.bls.gov/news.release/hsgec.nr0.htm What are the new Back to School statistics for 2014? (n.d.). Retrieved March 10, 2015, from http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=372 What 's the Price Tag for a College Education? (n.d.). Retrieved March 10, 2015, from https://www.collegedata.com/cs/content/content_payarticle_tmpl.jhtml?articleId 10064