Perhaps I shouldn’t be asking this question while representing Kaplan College Preparatory, but it is a question that many people are asking nowadays. Not only is America’s population bigger than ever, thus making for more competition during admission season, many parents are unable to afford tuition. Back in the 1800’s, there was an annual state grant of $2500 for free tuition. Now the average tuition is $30,000, and that annual state grant is nonexistent. Add this to our country’s present depression, and the situation is less than pleasant.

            Nearly 20% of student respondents at 40 U.S. colleges said at least one parent lost a job in the last year, and job loss in the family even made 27% of students consider dropping out (Chicago Sun-Times). Moreover, the 33% of students who admit to feeling their family’s financial stress are already at risk for being in America’s roughly 30.7 million depressed students, and in an economic depression as we are currently experiencing, that is definitely the last thing we could ever want.

             Fortunately it is possible to overcome these obstacles. Just now, America has 49.5 million students enrolled in high school, 70% of whom plan to attend college, but despite how intense college competition has grown, you can still get into your dream school! I, for example, made it into my dream school despite the 38,000 applicants vying for acceptance (NOTE: I am by no means intelligent), and the same can be said of my second, third and fourth picks.

            Money, however, was a concern. I’ll actually be taking a scholarship to a smaller school in Georgia, but that leads me to my next point. Although states no longer hand out annual grants which make tuition essentially free, the federal government is working to make college more affordable for everyone. President Obama’s site even states the following: “We will continue to make higher education more affordable by expanding Pell Grants and initiating new tax credits to make sure any young person who works hard and desires a college education can access it.” Furthermore, many state governments have and are taking action. Where I live, states automatically give straight-A students a few thousand dollars, and that is excluding the regular scholarships offered by the state universities.

            So as you’ve probably guessed by now, the question was never truly about going to college. It was about being able to; and the answer is that yes, more and more people can! I may be the biased daughter of a wonderful though OCD, extremely education-enforcing mother, but the reality is that college is very important, whatever the struggle. A recent study showed that 77% of college graduates were employed even in the face of this economy, and when you really think about it, that’s a pretty encouraging statistic! Therefore, I encourage you to not become overwhelmed by rising tuition and escalating competition, but to pursue your dreams and fight for all your goals! You can do it, and you will do it. Republican or Democrat, yes we can.