Can You Really Afford College? | Teen Ink

Can You Really Afford College?

May 19, 2009
By John Whatley BRONZE, Marietta, Georgia
John Whatley BRONZE, Marietta, Georgia
1 article 0 photos 0 comments

Can You Really Afford College?
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You better start saving your money, because you are going to blow it in college! Do you know how much a D1 (Division 1) school cost these days? It is a good $ 15,000 and that is just for one year- and for an undergraduate; however, this price just about doubles if you go to an out of state college. Follow me, and take a look at just how many “Bills” you’ll spend on an average D1 college, but BEWARE- what you discover may be hazardous to your health… or make you work harder in school. Let’s start with a relatively small town local University. Let’s say for instance- Kennesaw State University; it’s as good as any small town university. So, let’s say that you live in the fabulous state of Georgia, ok- let’s pretend it’s fabulous for the sake of this article. Now, you’ve decided to attend Kennesaw State University because it is only two hours away from home, you can bring your laundry for your Mom to do, and if you get too hungry, you can dash home for some of Mom’s homemade grits, biscuits and gravy, and some of her backyard brewed sun sweet tea. Now, your parents look at the tuition cost for one year at Kennesaw State University. Let’s look at the facts: you are an in state student, you will be living on campus, and you flunked a few classes at your local high school, so you didn’t get the Hope Scholarship. With all this to consider- your parents will have to pay $4,144 (we’ll skip the .52¢). Not bad huh? But, the kid in the room across from you pays $12,778 for the same services, because he is considered an “out of state” student. Poor Soul! That’s a difference of $8, 624- and that’s not chump change. Let’s say that you are from a small town in Alabama. You have been at the top of your class since you were a freshman- hard to believe right. Well you are living in a small town out in Alabama that no one has heard of and you are paying $35,376 a year to go to Georgia Tech- ouch! Someone burned a hole in my pocket. Your room mate is only paying $16,234 because he was born in Atlanta and pays in- state tuition. You are paying $19,142 more than him and you are the one working at Dunkin Donuts and Subway for minimum wage- just to pay for your college education.

I guarantee that most of you guys reading this article are Georgia fans. Am I right? Most of you probably want to go to college there because you are the biggest Dogs fan in the world. Well tell me this, do you work hard in school? Because you are gonna start working harder to try and get a scholar-ship. If you don’t you are going to pay $16,858 for a Georgia resident. Now here is where it gets scary, this price just about doubles for a person that does not live in Georgia. I want you to guess how much it cost, please! Go ahead and guess, I dare you. It cost $33,170 for a non- Georgia resident. I mean who wants to pay $16,312 more than a person that lives in Georgia

I bet tone of you wants to go to one of those athletic schools that are good at sports and things but (yes, here comes the question again): can you really afford to go to that college? How many of you have $32,000 dollars? Now who wants to go to Auburn? Well it cost us Georgians $32,172 to go to Auburn. Unlike most schools, Auburn does not have as big of a difference in its Resident and non-resident tuition. Probably none of you reading this live in Alabama. Am I right? Well it cost $20,132 to go to Auburn if you live in the college’s home state. Think when you scream WAR EAGLE! Can you really afford that?

Now there are probably you people that want to get away from your parents and off to college to live alone and live freely. Well if you are looking to get far away from your parents then you can go to The University of Texas. It is far enough away from your parents but not too far away from home. If you are planning to get away then it will cost you. You are going to want to move to Texas when you hear the price to go to The University of Texas. I will tell you the price to go to The University of Texas first if you live in Texas. It will cost a Texas resident $9,354. Sounds cheap compared to other colleges right? Well listen to this for a non-resident of Texas it will cost you $30,770- I know my heart jumped too. That price is just about tripled of what you would pay if you lived in Texas. The exact difference is $21,416. You know not many people have $30,000 a year to waist for college.

Like usual, I saved the most expensive for last. Duke is a private college, so it does not matter if you live in North Carolina or not. If you really want to hear this price you are going to have a heart attack. How many of you have$48,000 a year to give away to college? You know if you go to Duke for a full four years then you are paying $144,000. That is how much you gave Duke over the past Four Years. This is my final question –Can you really afford to go to college?


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on Aug. 1 2012 at 9:04 pm
There are a lot of inaccuracies in this article. While I agree with the author that private schools are far more expensive than public schools, there are a lot of factors that go into making school affordable. Federal aid and school-sponsored grants and scholarships make college extremely affordable if students are careful and conscientious about their choice of school. Depending on the student, some out-of-state schools are quite affordable once students are packaged with aid, scholarships/grants, and a decent part-time job. Some healthy perspective, approaching college with the understanding that you're not entitled to anything you don't work for, and keeping your expectations realistic are a good start to going to college. It is a misnomer that college is unaffordable. The precedent has been set: you can't afford NOT to go to college. Just be smart and realistic about how you pursue your degree.