Schools

Should Fewer Students Go to College?

Most high school graduates from this area go college, but many will graduate college with more debt than they can handle. Is college becoming a privilege that only the upper class can truly afford?

Is a four-year college degree becoming a luxury item for the wealthy? Is it still worth the price of admission? Let us know what you think in the comments below. 

Graduation is over for thousands of area high school seniors, and it’s time for many of them to look ahead to college, careers and new adventures.

But when many of them graduate from college in four years, they will leave with a diploma in one hand and an IOU in the other. Some loan programs allow graduates to stretch out payments over up to 30 years—many could be paying off their education while their children start racking up educational debt of their own.

According to the Project on Student Debt, about two-thirds of college seniors who graduated in 2011 in the United States had debt averaging $26,600. In Virginia, the average was slightly better at $24,717. In the District of Columbia, the average was $28,241 per student. And in Maryland, the average was $24,002.

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Those numbers do not include loans parents take out to help pay for their children’s education, and does not include any credit card debt students rack up while in school for pizza and clothes (and beer).

Given the massive amount of debt some students are racking up, should more high school graduates reconsider the “traditional path” of going to college?

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During a recent radio show, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, whose daughter is a student at Harvard, said this, the New York Daily News reported:  "The people who are going to have the biggest problem are college graduates who aren't rocket scientists, if you will, not at the top of their class." He continued, "Compare a plumber to going to Harvard College -- being a plumber, actually, for the average person probably would be a better deal ... You don't spend ... four years spending $40,000, $50,000, in tuition without earning income."

The Root commented, “Intended or not, his comments denote that increasingly, college is becoming like a luxury good. Anyone from a rich family can attend, but only certain people who are not from privileged backgrounds should pursue a college degree.”


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