College has become an experience people all across the world get to experience. However, with prices rapidly increasing, this experience seems to be harder to reach. This change can be a major issue for people as they simply cannot afford to attend universities. Senior Sarah Marstaller experienced the outcomes of this when college searching.
Since 2000, the average price for attending a public college increased by 66.3%. Going from $3,504 to $9,750 in just under 25 years. This rise in cost may not seem like a huge deal, but there are possible negative outcomes.
Lead Counselor Dana Vorsino believes with the prices going up the number of students attending colleges will go down.
“It’s better to go to a community college for a few years, because of prices, then transfer to a four-year university,” Ms. Vorsino said.
While the number of people attending universities may be decreasing, this opens a door for trade schools. Nationwide enrollment at two-year trade schools in construction trades programs went up 19.3%.
“Enrollments are dropping, and people are going more to the trades because it’s less expensive and takes less time to get a certification,” Ms. Vorsino said.
Universal Technical Institute (UTI) witnesses an increase of enrollment by 6% each year. This results from the amount of people looking for a certification who can’t afford to attend a university.
How will the increase of attendance at trade schools affect education? Well if more people go to school for a trade than a degree, the schools that only offer degrees may meet trouble.
Academic Associate Principal Stephanie Monajami agrees and thinks it is great that students have trade classes available to them.
“There’s a lot more acceptance of getting certifications to go into trade which is why I absolutely love that we have Ben Barber available to our students,” Ms. Monajami said.
Harvard brings in 24% of all their revenue strictly from tuition and room and board. With the number of students at Harvard going from over 10,000 students in 2020 to just 3,627 in 2024, the school will start feeling the heat of losing money. This could result in cuts of programs and overcorrection.
“With the funding issues, a lot of schools are having to cut programs, so I’m a firm believer and supporter of all extracurricular programs,” Ms. Monajami said.
Overcorrection, in simple terms, is when a college encourages everybody to apply, so that they can deny more people. This will lower their acceptance rates and keep them as such a prestigious school.
While cutting programs seems like a negative thing, it could also be seen in a positive way.
“It is a great way for students to be able to explore and figure out where their passion is,” Ms. Monajami said. “It makes work not feel so bad.”
The skyrocketing prices have already started to affect students. Sarah Marstaller, second in senior class ranking, ran into high prices while trying to find where to go to college.
“I want to go to Texas A&M for their great veterinarian program, but I will ultimately end up going wherever offers me the most money in scholarships,” Marstaller said.
Marstaller thinks it will affect her while she attends whatever college she goes to.
“I think that I won’t be able to experience college as much as I should because I’ll have to be working while at college to be able to pay for it,” Marstaller said.
While the prices of universities going through the roof is negative for those schools, it could definitely open many opportunities for trade schools. In the future of education, we will see an increase in students going to school for a trade and a decline in going to school for a degree.
With the number of students potentially decreasing, that can affect the staff at the universities as well. Since 2015, employment at “ivy league” colleges dropped 87% because of lack of enrollment.
“I could see where their staffing is cut at those universities because they simply do not have the enrollment numbers,” Ms. Vorsino said.
