college tuition problem essay

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The Increased Cost of College & Its Impact on Student Basic Needs

Introduction

Basic needs can be seen as the specific things we need in order to sustain our lives. When we think about basic needs we often just think about food, shelter, and clothing. However, in order to satisfy our basic needs we must also look at essential services such as access to safe drinking water, sanitation, healthcare, and education.

With the rising costs of university and college attendance, it has become difficult for students to attend tertiary institutions because they are not seen as “affordable” anymore. When students decide to attend college, it may become increasingly difficult for them to meet their other basic needs (1).

Why the Cost of College Has Increased

A college education can now be seen as the second-largest expense that every individual who attends these institutions will make in their entire life. The drastic and tremendous rise in cost is due to deep cuts in state funding. This means that public colleges need to make rather tough decisions. Public colleges and universities can either cut their campus budget, admit more students that require less financial aid, raise tuition, or a combination of these factors. In today’s world, students’ tuition makes up about half of the colleges’ revenue while the state and government usually provide the other half (2).

How College Costs Have Increased 

As of 2018, funding from the state to two-year and four-year colleges is more than $6.6 billion of what it was in the year 2008 (adjusted for inflation). The cost of attending these institutions also increases much faster than income increases, when considering the same time period (2).

One can suspect that in general, tuition rates will increase at about twice the general inflation rate per year. Tuition usually increases around 8% every year, which indicates that the cost of college almost doubles every nine years (3).

How Student Basic Needs Are Affected

Due to the fact that attending college is becoming more expensive, students are trying to save money in other ways. This usually leads to food insecurity as well as housing insecurity. Around 1 in every 3 college students in the U.S. lacks enough to eat as well as stable housing. This affects students’ ability to succeed academically. Food insecurity can look like students attending campus events only looking for food, reducing their food intake to make groceries last longer, skipping meals, purchasing less nutritious food, and deciding between buying textbooks or buying food. Housing insecurity can lead to students “couch surfing,” sleeping in their cars, or even being homeless. All these factors may cause anxiety and stress which can adversely affect mental health. 

More students will also seek out loans in order to cover some costs of college. However, an increased level of debt can leave certain students with a great disadvantage after graduating from college.

Tips to Save Money

• Buy used textbooks rather than the much more expensive, new books
• Owning a car can add a lot of costs due to parking fees, gas, maintenance, etc. One can walk, cycle or use public transport instead
• Always carry your student ID with you as many businesses offer student discounts
• Try to limit takeout meals and do your own cooking or meal prep to save time and money
• Acquire information from your bank regarding specific accounts that are designed for students
• Try to buy nonperishable food in bulk
• Make use of free or less expensive campus amenities that are already available to you
• Monitor your phone data usage with apps that can track data usage; use WIFI when possible as data can become a relatively expensive expenditure
• Sign up for various reward programs
• Limit your subscriptions
• Get a part-time job to earn extra income
• Make use of a change jar. Put all your loose change into a jar and save it rather than lose it or spend it on unimportant items (5).

It is evident that college tuition and related expenses are rising and that they will continue to rise. This will ultimately impact every students’ ability to meet their basic needs and how money will be distributed between those needs in order to try and satisfy them all. This ultimately can cause a lot of stress which may have a negative impact on students’ academic success. In order to reduce some of that stress, it is important to come up with a plan for saving money, making and raising money, spending money, as well as creating payment plans in order to equip yourself with the right tools and resources to successfully pay for college. Gathering and looking for information about college and college expenses can be helpful in preparing you for the actual cost of college and the various expenses that come with it.

(1) https://definitions.uslegal.com/b/basic-needs/

(2) https://www.cnbc.com/2019/10/24/why-college-tuition-keeps-rising.html

(3) https://www.finaid.org/savings/tuition-inflation/

(4) https://www.apa.org/pi/ses/resources/indicator/2019/12/college-students-needs

(5) https://www.collegeavestudentloans.com/blog/creative-ways-to-save-money-in-college/

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College tuition has increased — but what’s the actual cost?

More and more Americans are going to college as tuition increases. But what’s the actual cost of higher education? Here’s an analysis of how colleges finances work and how tuition factors in.

Updated on Tue, October 3, 2023 by the USAFacts Team

More and more Americans are going to college. According to data from the Department of Education National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), in 1980, 50% of high school graduates between the ages of 16 and 24 were enrolled in college; in 2016, it was 70%. In 2016, 19.3 million undergraduate students were enrolled in higher education institutions. 70% were enrolled at public schools, 23% at private non-profits schools and 7% at private for-profit schools. The cost of going to college has also changed since 1980 — however, how much it has changed depends on whether you look at the “sticker price” or the net price after financial aid.

Tuition is an increasingly important revenue source

After adjusting for inflation, the average undergraduate tuition, fees, room and board has more than doubled since 1964, from $10,040 to $23,835 in 2018. Tuition has recently grown the fastest at public and private non-profit institutions, for which tuition has gone up 65% and 50%, respectively, since 2000. Tuition at private for-profit institutions has only increased 11%. However, as we describe below, the sticker price (our term for full tuition without aid) only reflects what one shrinking group of students pays for college.

Average undergraduate tuition, fees, room and board Constant 2017-18 dollars

As tuition has increased, the revenue makeup for many institutions has also shifted, with government funding making up a smaller proportion of revenue for schools, and tuition payments making up a larger proportion. At public institutions, state, local and private funding has decreased from making up 50% of revenue in 1981 to 29% in 2016. It’s not just public schools experiencing a shift in funding sources. Private institutions, which have historically relied on tuition and fees even more than public institutions, have also seen federal funding drop from 19% of revenue to 13%. Tuition payments are making up a larger proportion of their revenue as a result. University-affiliated hospitals are also increasingly important revenue streams for public and private schools, as well as a growing component of institution expenditures.

Average undergraduate tuition, fees, room and board (Constant 2017-18 dollars, by institution type)

Non-profit Institutions

Average undergraduate tuition, fees, room and board (Constant 2017-18 dollars, by institution level)

Two-year Institutions

Despite these shifts in revenues, colleges have not really altered how they spend money. Public schools spend heavily on instruction and student services, with expenditures shifting slightly from instruction to student services during the last 30 years. Both private non-profit and for-profit institutions also spent most of their revenue in these areas, though non-profits have shifted more dollars away from student services and more toward “Other” spending (a miscellaneous category that contains expenses that don’t fit in other categories, such as an early retirement program for faculty and staff ), while for-profit institutions have shifted dollars toward student services.

However, expenditures can vary greatly by institution. For example, top research universities may spend a much larger proportion of expenditures on research—for example, University of California Berkeley spends 26% of expenditures on research—whereas many post-secondary institutions, such as Berkeley City College, may spend nothing on research.

Institution revenues (Public institutions)

Auxiliary enterprises in the United States

$27,581,335,730

Institution revenues (Private non-profit institutions)

Investment income gains (losses) in the United States

-$2,736,521,305

Institution revenues (Private for-profit institutions)

Student tuition and fees in the United States

$14,429,842,000

Sticker v.s. net price

While the sticker price of college is increasing, fewer students are paying the full price due to grant aid. For example, while the average tuition at public institutions in 2016 was $17,459, the average tuition revenue institutions received on average per full-time student was only $7,547.

Federal grants are the most common type of aid students receive — about two in five students at public and non-profit schools receive some form of federal grant aid compared to two-thirds of students at for-profit schools. There are four major types of federal grants , the largest of which is the Pell Grant program, which is available for students for whom the difference between cost of attendance and the expected family contribution exceeds a certain amount (roughly $600 for full-time students according to information provided in a student’s FAFSA ( IFAP )).

Across almost all categories and school types, more students are awarded grant aid to pay for school, meaning fewer students are paying the list price. In 2000, 44.4% of all undergraduates received grant aid, whereas in 2016, that number increased to 63.1%.

Institution expenditures (Public institutions)

Instruction in the United States

$108,162,492,300

Institution expenditures (Private non-profit institutions)

Student services, academic and institutional support in the United States

$32,937,346,000

Institution expenditures (Private for-profit institutions)

$9,198,033,000

Note: These categories are not mutually exclusive — many students receive multiple types of aid. The population covered in this table is first-time, full-time students at degree-granting institutions.

The average amount of grant aid has also increased, but few types of grant aid have increased at the same rate as tuition, which has increased 53% since 2001.

While federal grants are the most common form of aid, the largest forms of aid from a monetary standpoint, are institutional grants and scholarships. The average amount of federal aid received per student receiving aid ranged between $4,453 and $5,208 per school year.

Percent of full-time, first-time undergraduate students awarded grant aid (Public)

Percent of full-time, first-time undergraduate students awarded grant aid (private non-profit), percent of full-time, first-time undergraduate students awarded grant aid (private for-profit).

So, what does this mean most students end up paying? For the roughly 55% of students receiving any form of federal aid—including federal grants, loans, or work-study aid — the average annual net price of the school, or the sticker price minus any government or institutional grants and scholarships, was $16,147 in the 2016-17 school year.

This average net price varies based both by the student’s family income and by the type of school. A family earning $30,000 per year may on average pay $9,510 per year for their child to attend a four-year public institution (48% of the average sticker price). Enrolling in a four-year, private non-profit institution would cost $20,150 per year, or 44% of the average private non-profit sticker price.

Note: Net price data is for students receiving some form of federal aid—including federal grants, loans, or work-study aid. For this reason, data for students from higher-income families is more limited and may not be representative.

When looking at students receiving any form of federal aid, the net price of college has not dramatically changed since 2010. While the sticker price average for four-year institutions has increased 12.4% since 2010, the net price has only increased 1.7%. For two-year institutions, the sticker price increased 10.8%, whereas the net price decreased 5.6%. The percent of students receiving any form of federal aid has also increased from 36.6% in 2001 to 55.9% in 2016. This appears to be part of a larger trend of federal funding shifting from operating grants and non-operating appropriations to non-operating grants, which includes grant aid to students like Pell Grants.

Note: Net price data is for students receiving some form of federal aid—including federal grants, loans, or work-study aid.

However, not all students who need financial help qualify for federal aid and increasing sticker prices are still felt by many students. In 2017, while 56% students received federal aid, 83% of students received either government or institution grants or student loans (excluding Parent PLUS loans). For many students, what’s left over after grant aid — if they even receive grant aid — requires student loans.

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Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Digest of Education Statistics

Department of Education, College Scorecard

Department of Education, Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System

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Page One Economics ®

The rising cost of college: tuition, financial aid, and price discrimination.

"The fact is, college has never been more necessary, but it's also never been more expensive." —President Barack Obama, August 22, 2013 1

The cost of college tuition has been in the headlines frequently in recent years. Conventional wisdom says the cost of a college education is rising—but is it really? The "sticker price" for a college education has risen three times faster than the inflation rate since 1978. However, when we adjust for inflation, expressing the cost in terms of constant dollars, and account for financial aid (which reduces the overall cost), average tuition and fees have remained effectively unchanged. For example, the College Board reports that average tuition and fees increased from $24,070 for the 2003-04 school year to $30,090 in 2013-14, but the average net tuition and fees (after financial aid) actually decreased from $13,600 per year to an estimated $12,460—a reduction of $1,140 over 10 years (in 2013 dollars). 2 Why the difference? The textbook explanation falls under the heading "price discrimination."

What Is Price Discrimination?

Price discrimination is the practice of selling the same good or service at different prices to different customers. It occurs in imperfectly competitive markets 3 when producers sell their product to buyers at a price that reflects their willingness to pay . For example, if you owned a business, you would likely prefer to sell your goods to each individual buyer for the highest price each buyer would be willing to pay. Unfortunately, this would require you to read consumers' minds and see inside their wallets. In the case of price discrimination, sellers infer consumers' willingness to pay a certain price by other means.

A simple example of price discrimination is the price of seeing a movie. At the theater ticket counter, you might notice that different groups of people (seniors and students) pay different prices. Why? Theaters realize that seniors and students (on average) have less disposable income and are likely to be very price conscious. As a result, they may choose not to see a movie at the full price. Offering a lower price to these groups gives theater owners the benefit of charging some moviegoers the higher (sticker) price without excluding less-affluent consumers, thereby filling theater seats that might otherwise be left empty. Of course, seniors and students benefit by seeing a movie they might not otherwise see.

Sellers who price discriminate must overcome a few obstacles. First, sellers do not know how much each buyer is willing to pay, so they must find a way to infer this information. For our movie example, sellers (the theater owners) infer willingness to pay through age demographics and student status. Second, sellers need to establish a method that prevents all consumers from paying the lower price. Movie theater owners might ask seniors and students to present identification to verify their age or student status. Finally, sellers must be able to prevent arbitrage , which means they must prevent consumers who buy an item at a lower price from reselling it at a higher price. Because moviegoers pay the ticket price as they enter the theater, movie tickets cannot be easily resold to other moviegoers.

How Do Colleges Practice Price Discrimination?

The price of tuition is clearly published on the website of nearly every college, but individual students often pay very different prices at the same institution. Colleges price discriminate by means of financial aid, which allows the college to subsidize the cost of college, essentially offering a discounted price to students who are less able or unable to pay full tuition. Colleges can infer willingness to pay from the detailed financial aid documents filed by families in the college application process. And because each financial aid package is individualized, the college can ensure that all students do not pay the lower price. Further, because students cannot resell their college education, there is no risk of arbitrage. In fact, for many students, earning a degree from one of the world's finest universities might be less costly than a degree from their local state college. In 2012, financial aid recipients at Harvard University paid an average of $12,000 toward tuition, room, board, and fees—receiving $41,000 in grants—and families earning less than $65,000 per year paid zero. 4 Of course, gaining admission to Harvard is very difficult; only 6 percent of applicants were accepted in 2012.

Average Net Price for Full-Time Students at Private Institutions Over Time

NOTE: The published average price for tuition and fees has increased 69 percent since the 1993-94 school year, while the average net price for tuition and fees has risen only 22 percent (adjusted for inflation).

SOURCE: Baum, Sandy and Ma, Jennifer. Trends in College Pricing 2013 . New York: The College Board, p. 21. ©2013 The College Board; http://www.collegeboard.org .

What's the Bottom Line?

Price discrimination allows colleges to charge high tuition prices to those willing and able to pay without excluding less-wealthy students from the higher education market. Are there any downsides to this approach? Of course, the higher tuition prices paid by middle- and upper-income families subsidize the lower tuition prices paid by low-income families. As the gap between the sticker price and the discounted price paid by low-income students grows, the burden is increasingly shifted to wealthier families. If this trend were taken to its end, only the very rich would pay the full price; other families would be offered the financial aid "discount." But as economist Herbert Stein once said, "If something cannot go on forever, it will stop." 5 Following Stein's reasoning, some small private colleges are realizing the downside of their higher stated tuition prices as students experience sticker shock and look elsewhere. As a result, more than a half dozen private colleges recently reduced their sticker prices and also the amount of financial aid to students, hoping that the lower price will make their colleges more attractive to prospective students. 6

Price discrimination allows colleges to charge many different prices for essentially the same service. This practice benefits students from low-income families. But, there is no free lunch: The cost burden has become increasingly progressive as wealthier families are paying more for education and subsidizing needier students. What's the lesson for prospective students? Select the school of your choice and apply for financial aid; your net price might be lower than you expected.

1 Flatley, Daniel. "President Obama Introduces Proposal to Make Higher Education More Affordable at Syracuse High School." Watertown Daily Times (NY), August 23, 2013; http://www.watertowndailytimes.com/article/2013082... .

2 In this calculation, inflation is measured by the consumer price index and tuition figures are the published prices of private institutions. See Baum, Sandy and Ma, Jennifer. Trends in College Pricing 2013 . New York: The College Board, 2013; http://trends.collegeboard.org/college-pricing/fig... . Financial aid data for 2013-14 are not yet available, so we use preliminary estimates here.

3 Price discrimination is possible only in imperfectly competitive markets, which are markets where sellers have some control over the market price of the product. This is not possible in perfectly competitive markets where there are many buyers and sellers and no individual seller is large enough to influence the market price; these firms sell their products at the price determined in the broader market.

4 "Record for Financial Aid." Harvard Gazette , March 26, 2012; http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2012/03/reco... .

5 Stein, Herbert. What I Think: Essays on Economics, Politics, & Life . Washington, DC: AEI Press, 1998, p. 32.

6 Korn, Melissa. "Colleges Try Cutting Tuition—and Aid Packages: Administrators Believe Lower Sticker Prices Will Attract More Students." Wall Street Journal , October 11, 2013; http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB100014240527... .

Related Resources

Dai, Emily. "Student Loan Delinquencies Surge. Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Inside the Vault , Spring 2013; http://www.stlouisfed.org/publications/itv/article... .

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Econ Lowdown. "College 101 Infographic"; http://www.stlouisfed.org/education_resources/coll... .

Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Econ Lowdown. "Personal Finance 101 Conversations"; http://www.stlouisfed.org/education_resources/pers... .

Wolla, Scott A. "Investing in Yourself: An Economic Approach to Education Decisions." Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Page One Economics Newsletter ; February 2013; http://research.stlouisfed.org/pageone-economics/u... .

© 2014, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. The views expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect official positions of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis or the Federal Reserve System.

Arbitrage: The simultaneous purchase and sale of a good in order to profit from a difference in price.

Price discrimination: The practice of selling the same good or service at different prices to different customers.

Willingness to pay: The maximum amount that a buyer will pay for a good or service.

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Home Essay Examples Education College Tuition

College Tuition: The Main Problem

• Category Education
• Subcategory Learning
• Topic College Tuition

Over the years, college tuition has always been a problem not only for the U.S but also for the different families. It gets higher and higher when trying to be out of state. Tuition process has increased 36% from 2008 to 2018 while income in the U.S grew just over 2.1% in the same period according to the data from Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. Why has tuition increased over the years when it was only a small fraction in the 1960s and 1970s? Does the nation not realize that this will only make families not wanting to pay so high just so their love ones can go get a higher education when high school and down was free? What will happen if the next generations decided that they don’t want a higher education? Will they stop tuition all together or continued to take all of money?

College tuition has more than doubled since the 1980s. According to the College Board “Trends in College Pricing 2017” the average cost of tuition and fees has increased by more than 3% at private and public colleges. At a four – year nonprofit private institution, tuition, room and board all cost roughly up to $46,950 on average and four-year public college chargers an average of $20,770 a year for tuition, fees, room and board. While out of state goes up to $36,420. That would leave people coming out of college with so much student debt that they wouldn’t be able to pay it all until they’re in their late 30s or higher. Heflin from U.S News says “These colleges are trying to raise tuition to appeal to a broader group of students by allowing that to take the place of actual quality.” This situation is a part of where a lot of colleges are trying to raise their sticker price. The cost issued has been tracked by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

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Finical aid can help students afford to go to college and its suppose to help take the burden off of some families. Some families should not be focused on sticker price they should look at the net price, this can help students explore on what net price is. From 200 to 2012, the percentage of students who took out student loans jumped to 60% from about 50%, according to a report by the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.

College tuition focuses on sticker price and net price. There is a bill that Congress passes in 1978, which is known as the Middle-Income Students Assistance Act allowing income for subsided loans and middle–income students eligible for grants. Not only does high cost of college have something to do with economics it also has something to do with politics. In conclusion, college tuition has increased since the 1900s and it will only increase over the years if we don’t try to do something about it.  

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What Students Are Saying About: College Tuition, Homework Help and Loneliness

By The Learning Network

• Oct. 18, 2018

With college application season fast approaching, we chose to feature three writing prompts this week that discuss issues around higher education and the transition from adolescence to adulthood. Based on the especially thoughtful, heartfelt and well-reasoned comments below, we can tell that these topics are at top-of-mind for many right now.

Thank you to all who shared their opinions and personal experiences with us this week. And a special welcome to a new class from Locust Grove High School in Georgia who weighed in across our prompts this week.

Please note: All student comments have been lightly edited for length, but otherwise appear exactly as they were originally submitted.

Are You Worried About the Rising Cost of Attending College?

In response to a college student’s Op-Ed about her own experience with student debt, we asked teenagers — who themselves may be off to college in the next few years — how they felt about the cost of higher education today .

Nearly all the comments on this prompt were model responses. Students articulated clear points of view, supported their opinions with additional research and logical reasoning, shared their personal concerns, engaged each other in conversation, and, overall, added important nuance to the discussion.

Here is just a taste of the excellent writing we read:

Is tuition out of hand?

After highschool, I will be attending college and hopefully veterinary school. If the average cost per year of a public college is $10,000, and I attend that college for the full four years, that is a total of $40,000. In addition, vet school can cost up to $250,000 for four years of education. Once I am completed with all eight years of undergraduate and veterinary schooling, I will have paid roughly $290,000 for my education.

Personally, I find that the cost of college is unbelievable. It is unreasonable to expect to pay for college without being left in debt, unless you are one of the few lucky ones to be a millionaire. Colleges should be trying to decrease tuition costs in order to create equal opportunities for all students. I fear for the stress of scholarship applications, taking student loans, and being left thousands of dollars in debt as a twenty-something year old, due to furthering my education.

— Caitlyn Pellerin, Danvers, Mass.

A student’s ability to go to college should be based upon their academic success, not on their family’s financial status. Although merit scholarships can help students out quite a bit, some might be discouraged from even considering college simply based on its affordability.

Students who truly want to succeed deserve to experience college regardless of the cost. If a young adult actually wants to learn, they should be given the opportunity. A desire to learn new things is a sign of someone that can do great things in their future. If your family can’t provide enough money, that shouldn’t be the factor that decides your future for you.

— Jack Murray, Danvers, Mass.

The cost of college has gotten out of hand. If you look at the statistics, in 1970 you could work a minimum wage job (in 1970 which was $1.60) for 4 hours everyday and pay off your tuition. Now, 2018, you’d have to work a minimum wage job for 17 hours per day to pay off tuition while still in college.

The debt that students are faced with after getting out of college is enormous, not to mention the worry that students are facing while trying to obtain the money they need … You might have to choose different place to live because you have to consider student debt. Not to mention that what you want to pursue in life—maybe working for a nonprofit organization—might be affected because you have to provide more income than you can obtain working for so little.

— Madison R, Locust Grove High School

I understand that some people are more or less fortunate than the next, but the tuition fees are not that bad. I think the university and professors need payment and that is partially what tuition does. Community colleges are a great place to start, because often they are great schools, and they are cheap.

— Joshua B, Oxford Middle School

What should schools prioritize?

Students today deserve to strive for their dreams and aspirations without worrying, “how much will housing cost?” or “where will I be able to get the quickest job to pay this off?”

College education has strayed from its former values to expand the minds of young individuals that will be the leaders of the next generation, now favoring profits and expensive facilities. The students are not as high a priority for admissions offices and administrators because they are driven by profits, if the bills are not being paid then it’s tough luck … As a society we have to wonder, when will the learning and education begin for students who can barely afford their institution?

— Grace Donahue, Danvers, Mass.

I think that universities should have a primary focus on providing a reasonably priced tuition for their students. Brand-new buildings and water parks should not be considered until after the cost of education is reasonable for families. Universities could be turning down our future doctors, engineers, nurses, scientists, and many more, due to their financial hardships that hold them back from attending college. Similarly, students who are able to attend college, graduate only to be absorbed by debt and student loans that follow them for years.

— Avery Purtell, Danvers, Mass.

I believe that tuition is rising because college shouldn’t just be given to anyone. Some people go to college with a lazy mindset, and if people realize that college cost money it will make others work hard for their career.

— Moriah Barrett, Locust Grove High School

Is college worth the price tag?

The life experiences college brings is beneficial, such as, meeting new people, beginning adulthood, and foundation to a career; however, the financial struggles and burdens can overpower all of the positives. Years of families struggling to pay off debt is not worth a few parties. Yes, the education is very significant but at a very high cost emotionally and economically.

— Sommerlyn Jones, Massachusetts

College is one of those things that is worth cost. I say this because it helps you be successful, in this world today it is super hard to get a well paying job without some form of college degree. In some cases, you can make a lot of money without college, but those are rare cases. Therefore, the price might be high but could essentially work out for you in the long run.

— Colby, Locust grove highschool

Currently, a college diploma is almost a necessity in today’s world, therefore, I believe that colleges should reflect on the steep prices that they are charging their students and feel a sense of urgency to lower their costs.

— Richard Canova, Danvers, Mass.

Do You Ever Feel Lonely?

When Emery Bergmann first went off to college , she was surprised at how difficult it was for her to make friends. She was lonely in those first few weeks, and, worst of all, it seemed to her that she was the only one who felt this way. In this Student Opinion question , we asked young people if they could relate to Ms. Bergmann’s experience.

What we loved about the responses to this question was how willing students were to be vulnerable. Read on and you’ll see.

A universal feeling

There are times during the day where I feel lonely and honestly, it has to be the worst feeling to go through. Since I’ve always been the shy one, I have encountered many times where I have felt lonely due to my lack of being social. I remember my freshman year of High School, I literally knew no one because my old middle school there was only 13 students in my class and they all ended up going to different schools. There were days where I didn’t even want to go to school because I was afraid that everybody was going to judge me because I didn’t have any friends.

It felt as if I was going to have to deal with that loneliness everyday but now, I’m a Junior in High School and I can say that it does get better. I’ve made friends that are even better than the ones I had before and I’m immensely grateful. Loneliness is something we all deal with at some point, but we have to keep in mind that it’s temporary and throughout time, we realize that anyone can overcome it even if it may seem difficult at first.

— Emily Cabrera, Providence, R.I.

I’ve been in many situations where I had to make new friends because when I was younger my family moved around a lot which meant changing schools frequently. Whenever it was my first day at a new school I would feel really anxious because I thought that the kids wouldn’t like me and that I would have no friends.

Usually the first week was the worst because I’d have to sit at lunch by myself and sitting at lunch alone is the loneliest feeling on earth. You’re sit in a cafeteria at a table by yourself with no one to talk to while you’re surrounded by people laughing and eating with their friends. You then start to blame yourself for the reason why no one wants to sit with you.

But then you have to remind yourself it always like this for the new kid and not to beat yourself up about it and that the loneliness would eventually pass. And in my case it did and I had a new friend to sit and eat with by the end of the week. Everyone usually feels alone at least once in their life and it’s important to remember not to tear yourself apart because that only makes the situation worse.

— Sophia J, Orlando

Social media’s impact

Social media, to me, is only something that makes it worse. Like Bergmann pointed out, people get to choose how they are viewed on social media. No one is going to make it look like they’re doing bad, so they only show the good things going on in their lives, which often makes me feel like I’m the only one going through what I’m going through. I need to remember that though I may feel lonely, I am not alone.

— Abby Bateson, Providence, R.I.

I never really fell lonely until I began middle school. This was so because I went from elementary school (I was in ESL) to middle school literally by myself. All of my elementary school friends went to different schools than me. It didnt help that just 3 years before 6th grade I moved to the U.S and I still wasnt used to the change …

If you are feeling lonely social media might make that feeling worse if you see many of the people you have on social media having fun. This was not the case for me, it made me feel more connected. I used to call my friends from Ecuador and it made me feel like I was still with them.

— Fernando R., Providence

Making friends in college

When I first started college, it was really overwhelming. Orientation was filled with so many activities with so many different people that you probably will never see again. I wasn’t lonely because I wasn’t surrounded by people, but because I couldn’t find people I trust and develop long lasting relationships with them… The transition is challenging for me, but I eventually learnt a lot about managing my social life; how to set time for yourself as well as how to develop relationships with others. Therefore, while you may find yourself lonely in an alien environment, know that it is a good opportunity to step out of your comfort zone and learn to interact with people.

— Yuet Ming, New York

As a senior in high school, I have already taken into consideration on how college life might affect me. Seeing others go out of state to a university only to come back to a community college only because they couldn’t handle the stress is all to scary for me. I really don’t want to take the risk, so I decided to go to community college and then a university. I want to get used to the stress, while still at home to seek guidance from my parents, not through FaceTime but as people.

— Mahad, Illinois

Advice for when you’re feeling lonely

I think one of the main reasons people become lonely is their belief that they can’t fit in, like no matter what they do people won’t want them around. They see other people talking and making friends and they wonder why they’re so behind everyone else.

I’ve not most outgoing person, so when I got to high school I had a hard time finding people and talking to them, and it would put me down to see my old friends integrate themselves into large friend groups that I just couldn’t seem to interact with. I joined sports teams and clubs, but I always found myself on the outside because of my own self doubt- was I interesting? Funny? Kind? Did people actually want me around, or were they being polite?

My freshman and sophomore years were hard because I was constantly asking myself these questions. … Now that I’m a junior, I still have this problem, but to a lesser extent. I make more of an effort to be invested in other people, and to involve myself with team events and club activities. I don’t compare myself to what I see on Instagram (as much) and I’m more content to spend time alone after realizing I can’t actually “fall behind” if I just need to be by myself.

— Julie Kee, Danvers, Mass.

I have large issues with trying to start conversations with new people at times. We as people can fear judgement, or just not feel the need to speak with others. By as said in the video, just putting yourself out there, you can make new opportunities for yourself. It can be hard, but everyone is out in the world looking to meet new people and not feel so lonely.

— Gabrielle Sherrick, Danvers, Mass.

While I oftentimes feel very lonely, I understand that there are countless others who feel the same. The most effective way to curb loneliness is to simply open up about how you feel. Once a dialogue is started, there tends to be an outpouring of people who feel the exact same. People can then confide in each other and as a result, feel less lonely.

— Alex, Carol Stream, Ill.

Do Parents Ever Cross a Line by Helping Too Much With Schoolwork?

In a recent Times piece , a former high school teacher and college essay consultant said that when adults meddle too much with students’ work — especially the college essay — they end up hurting their children more than helping them. So we asked students, how much help is too much help?

They shared with us how they get guidance on their schoolwork — and offered some ideas on where to draw the line.

Getting homework help

The only one that really helps me with my homework is my mom. She usually just tries to help me understand my work. My mom does a great job at helping me. She never gives me the answer straight away, she works through it with me. Honestly she is a better teacher than some of the teachers at my school! I am really happy with how my mom helps me when I need it.

— ethan comet, horton

My parents have never really helped me with my homework. They were clear that homework was my responsibility. They didn’t even remind me to do it. I think that since they did that, I take school a lot more seriously than someone who is always nagged about their grades.

— Katelyn Comet, Hanover Horton

I personally feel that if you have something you do not understand, you should ask your teacher for help on the subject or clarification. I think that it would be much more effective to have a teacher help you with your homework because they will be able to not only help walk you through the assignment and get the material, but they will make sure that they are not doing it for you, but instead are helping you do the work yourself. A teacher will also be able to expand on the material and know everything about it so that they can help you, where a parent might only be guessing for some things.

— Mike Mahoney, MA

Where to draw the line

I do think that parents helping with school work is completely fine but there is a line between helping and doing. By providing guidance a parent or sibling is passing their knowledge to you which helps you to become more insightful in how to apply that new knowledge in the future. If they do end up crossing that line then there is no new knowledge to be passed.

That would be like if you were in an art class learning how to draw hands, asked the skilled, professional, art teacher for help, and them just drawing it themselves without helping or showing you how.

By having someone else do the work for you, you are not learning how to be independent or how to take accountability for your actions. This leads to people that just expect things to be done for them after high school or college. You are not always going to have someone to help you every step of the way throughout your life.

— Madison Prideaux, Boston, Mass.

I think it is totally okay for student’s to need some assistance with their work but I believe no parents should be writing big pieces and practically doing their child’s homework for them. I feel that students need to be independent in their work in order to express themselves and their own personality.

If a parent were to do their essays, it would be taking all of the student’s personality and style out of their writing and that will only hurt the student in the future. Also, this wouldn’t be enabling the child to learn anything. The whole point of school work is to learn valuable information and if a child’s parent is intervening in their work too much, then the whole point is lost and the student is the one to suffer.

— Reilly Garvin, Danvers, Mass.

When completing my schoolwork, I try to overcome any challenge I face by myself. While this may not always work, it at least teaches me the important skills of perseverance and problem solving. When it does not work, my parents can be good resources to ask questions or even just discuss the topic to spark ideas in my head …

However, when this can become too much and potential cross a line is when parents do not allow their children to think freely and instead micromanage the situation. It is great for parents to want their children to do well, but it is not great for parents to do well for their children. When parents clip the creative and intellectual wings of their child they are hurting them in the long run. Even if their help results in a good grade, they miss out on important knowledge and skills that they could have gained from completing the assignment themselves.

— Ezra Lombardi

I don’t think parents help enough with their kids school work. There are parents that sit around and let their kids by with just passing grades if the parents got more involved not only could it help the grades but the relationships might improve.

— alyssa.comet, Hanover Horton high school

The Argument for Tuition-Free College

Soaring tuitions and student loan debt are placing higher education beyond the reach of many American students. It’s time to make college free and accessible to all.

by Keith Ellison

April 14, 2016

(Shutterstock)

In 1862, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Land Grant College Act into law, laying the groundwork for the largest system of publicly funded universities in the world. Some of America's greatest colleges, including the University of Minnesota, were created by federal land grants, and were known as "democracy's colleges" or "people's colleges."

But that vision of a "people's college" seems awfully remote to a growing number of American students crushed under soaring tuitions and mounting debt. One hundred and fifty years after Lincoln made his pledge, it's time to make public colleges and universities free for every American.

This idea is easier than it looks. For most of our nation's history, public colleges and universities have been much more affordable than they are today, with lower tuition, and financial aid that covered a much larger portion of the costs . The first step in making college accessible again, and returning to an education system that serves every American, is addressing the student loan debt crisis.

The cost of attending a four-year college has increased by 1,122 percent since 1978 . Galloping tuition hikes have made attending college more expensive today than at any point in U.S. history. At the same time, debt from student loans has become the largest form of personal debt in America-bigger than credit card debt and auto loans. Last year, 38 million American students owed more than $1.3 trillion in student loans.

Once, a degree used to mean a brighter future for college graduates, access to the middle class, and economic stability.

Today, student loan debt increases inequality and makes it harder for low-income graduates, particularly those of color , to buy a house, open a business, and start a family.

The solution lies in federal investments to states to lower the overall cost of public colleges and universities. In exchange, states would commit to reinvesting state funds in higher education. Any public college or university that benefited from the reinvestment program would be required to limit tuition increases. This federal-state partnership would help lower tuition for all students. Schools that lowered tuition would receive additional federal grants based on the degree to which costs are lowered.

Reinvesting in higher education programs like Pell Grants and work-study would ensure that Pell and other forms of financial aid that students don't need to pay back would cover a greater portion of tuition costs for low-income students. In addition, states that participate in this partnership would ensure that low-income students who attend state colleges and universities could afford non-tuition expenses like textbooks and housing fees . This proposal is one way to ensure that no student graduates with loans to pay back.

If the nation can provide hundreds of billions of dollars in subsidies to the oil and gas industry and billions of dollars more to Wall Street , we can afford to pay for public higher education. A tax on financial transactions like derivatives and stock trades would cover the cost. Building a truly affordable higher education system is an investment that would pay off economically.

Eliminating student loan debt is the first step, but it's not the last. Once we ensure that student loan debt isn't a barrier to going to college, we should reframe how we think about higher education. College shouldn't just be debt free-it should be free. Period.

We all help pay for our local high schools and kindergartens, whether or not we send our kids to them. And all parents have the option of choosing public schools, even if they can afford private institutions. Free primary and secondary schooling is good for our economy, strengthens our democracy, and most importantly, is critical for our children's health and future. Educating our kids is one of our community's most important responsibilities, and it's a right that every one of us enjoys. So why not extend public schooling to higher education as well?

Some might object that average Americans should not have to pay for students from wealthy families to go to school. But certain things should be guaranteed to all Americans, poor or rich. It's not a coincidence that some of the most important social programs in our government's history have applied to all citizens, and not just to those struggling to make ends meet.

Universal programs are usually stronger and more stable over the long term, and they're less frequently targeted by budget cuts and partisan attacks. Public schools have stood the test of time-let's make sure public colleges and universities do, too.

The United States has long been committed to educating all its people, not only its elites.

This country is also the wealthiest in the history of the world. We can afford to make college an option for every American family.

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College & Careers

Tuition-free college is critical to our economy

Morley Winograd and Max Lubin

November 2, 2020, 13 comments.

To rebuild America’s economy in a way that offers everyone an equal chance to get ahead, federal support for free college tuition should be a priority in any economic recovery plan in 2021.

Research shows that the private and public economic benefit of free community college tuition would outweigh the cost. That’s why half of the states in the country already have some form of free college tuition.

The Democratic Party 2020 platform calls for making two years of community college tuition free for all students with a federal/state partnership similar to the Obama administration’s 2015 plan .

It envisions a program as universal and free as K-12 education is today, with all the sustainable benefits such programs (including Social Security and Medicare) enjoy. It also calls for making four years of public college tuition free, again in partnership with states, for students from families making less than $125,000 per year.

The Republican Party didn’t adopt a platform for the 2020 election, deferring to President Trump’s policies, which among other things, stand in opposition to free college. Congressional Republicans, unlike many of their state counterparts, also have not supported free college tuition in the past.

However, it should be noted that the very first state free college tuition program was initiated in 2015 by former Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam, a Republican. Subsequently, such deep red states with Republican majorities in their state legislature such as West Virginia, Kentucky and Arkansas have adopted similar programs.

Establishing free college tuition benefits for more Americans would be the 21st-century equivalent of the Depression-era Works Progress Administration initiative.

That program not only created immediate work for the unemployed, but also offered skills training for nearly 8 million unskilled workers in the 1930s. Just as we did in the 20th century, by laying the foundation for our current system of universal free high school education and rewarding our World War II veterans with free college tuition to help ease their way back into the workforce, the 21st century system of higher education we build must include the opportunity to attend college tuition-free.

California already has taken big steps to make its community college system, the largest in the nation, tuition free by fully funding its California Promise grant program. But community college is not yet free to all students. Tuition costs — just more than $1,500 for a full course load — are waived for low-income students. Colleges don’t have to spend the Promise funds to cover tuition costs for other students so, at many colleges, students still have to pay tuition.

At the state’s four-year universities, about 60% of students at the California State University and the same share of in-state undergraduates at the 10-campus University of California, attend tuition-free as well, as a result of Cal grants , federal Pell grants and other forms of financial aid.

But making the CSU and UC systems tuition-free for even more students will require funding on a scale that only the federal government is capable of supporting, even if the benefit is only available to students from families that makes less than $125,000 a year.

It is estimated that even without this family income limitation, eliminating tuition for four years at all public colleges and universities for all students would cost taxpayers $79 billion a year, according to U.S. Department of Education data . Consider, however, that the federal government  spent $91 billion  in 2016 on policies that subsidized college attendance. At least some of that could be used to help make public higher education institutions tuition-free in partnership with the states.

Free college tuition programs have proved effective in helping mitigate the system’s current inequities by increasing college enrollment, lowering dependence on student loan debt and improving completion rates , especially among students of color and lower-income students who are often the first in their family to attend college.

In the first year of the TN Promise , community college enrollment in Tennessee increased by 24.7%, causing 4,000 more students to enroll. The percentage of Black students in that state’s community college population increased from 14% to 19% and the proportion of Hispanic students increased from 4% to 5%.

Students who attend community college tuition-free also graduate at higher rates. Tennessee’s first Promise student cohort had a 52.6% success rate compared to only a 38.9% success rate for their non-Promise peers. After two years of free college tuition, Rhode Island’s college-promise program saw its community college graduation rate triple and the graduation rate among students of color increase ninefold.

The impact on student debt is more obvious. Tennessee, for instance, saw its applications for student loans decrease by 17% in the first year of its program, with loan amounts decreasing by 12%. At the same time, Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) applications soared, with 40% of the entire nation’s increase in applications originating in that state in the first year of their Promise program.

Wage inequality by education, already dreadful before the pandemic, is getting worse. In May, the unemployment rate among workers without a high school diploma was nearly triple the rate of workers with a bachelor’s degree. No matter what Congress does to provide support to those affected by the pandemic and the ensuing recession, employment prospects for far too many people in our workforce will remain bleak after the pandemic recedes. Today, the fastest growing sectors of the economy are in health care, computers and information technology. To have a real shot at a job in those sectors, workers need a college credential of some form such as an industry-recognized skills certificate or an associate’s or bachelor’s degree.

The surest way to make the proven benefits of higher education available to everyone is to make college tuition-free for low and middle-income students at public colleges, and the federal government should help make that happen.

Morley Winograd is president of the Campaign for Free College Tuition . Max Lubin is CEO of Rise , a student-led nonprofit organization advocating for free college.  

The opinions in this commentary are those of the author. Commentaries published on EdSource represent diverse viewpoints about California’s public education systems. If you would like to submit a commentary, please review our  guidelines  and  contact us .

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Genia Curtsinger 2 years ago 2 years ago

Making community college free to those who meet the admission requirements would help many people. First of all, it would make it easy for students and families, for instance; you go to college and have to pay thousands of dollars to get a college education, but if community college is free it would help so you could be saving money and get a college education for free, with no cost at all. It would make … Read More

Making community college free to those who meet the admission requirements would help many people. First of all, it would make it easy for students and families, for instance; you go to college and have to pay thousands of dollars to get a college education, but if community college is free it would help so you could be saving money and get a college education for free, with no cost at all. It would make it more affordable to the student and their families.

Therefore I think people should have free education for those who meet the admission requirements.

nothing 2 years ago 2 years ago

I feel like colleges shouldn’t be completely free, but a lot more affordable for people so everyone can have a chance to have a good college education.

Jaden Wendover 2 years ago 2 years ago

I think all colleges should be free, because why would you pay to learn?

Samantha Cole 2 years ago 2 years ago

I think college should be free because there are a lot of people that want to go to college but they can’t pay for it so they don’t go and end up in jail or working as a waitress or in a convenience store. I know I want to go to college but I can’t because my family doesn’t make enough money to send me to college but my family makes too much for financial aid.

Nick Gurrs 2 years ago 2 years ago

I feel like this subject has a lot of answers, For me personally, I believe tuition and college, in general, should be free because it will help students get out of debt and not have debt, and because it will help people who are struggling in life to get a job and make a living off a job.

NO 2 years ago 2 years ago

I think college tuition should be free. A lot of adults want to go to college and finish their education but can’t partly because they can’t afford to. Some teens need to work at a young age just so they can save money for college which I feel they shouldn’t have to. If people don’t want to go to college then they just can work and go on with their lives.

Not saying my name 3 years ago 3 years ago

I think college tuition should be free because people drop out because they can’t pay the tuition to get into college and then they can’t graduate and live a good life and they won’t get a job because it says they dropped out of school. So it would be harder to get a job and if the tuition wasn’t a thing, people would live an awesome life because of this.

Brisa 3 years ago 3 years ago

I’m not understanding. Are we not agreeing that college should be free, or are we?

m 2 years ago 2 years ago

it shouldnt

Trevor Everhart 3 years ago 3 years ago

What do you mean by there is no such thing as free tuition?

Olga Snichernacs 3 years ago 3 years ago

Nice! I enjoyed reading.

Anonymous Cat 3 years ago 3 years ago

Tuition-Free: Free tuition, or sometimes tuition free is a phrase you have heard probably a good number of times. … Therefore, free tuition to put it simply is the opportunity provide to students by select universities around the world to received a degree from their institution without paying any sum of money for the teaching.

Mister B 3 years ago 3 years ago

There is no such thing as tuition free.

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A new study investigates why college tuition is so expensive.

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Coins and banknote in a glass jar placed on the textbook. Concept money saving for education.

Over the past two decades, published college tuition has increased in price more than any other good or service besides hospital care. Tuition inflation has risen at a faster rate than the cost of medical services, child care, and housing. While generous financial aid means that students usually pay far less than the “sticker price” of tuition, the net price of public four-year colleges has still more than doubled since the turn of the century. Moreover, underlying costs at American colleges are the highest of any large country in the developed world.

Source: College Board

A new paper by economist Beth Akers of the Manhattan Institute (my former employer) asks why college tuition is so high and still rising. The proximate causes of tuition inflation are familiar: administrative bloat , overbuilding of campus amenities , a model dependent on high-wage labor , and the easy availability of subsidized student loans.

However, the deeper question is why the market has allowed these cost inefficiencies to persist. In most industries, competition brings down the cost of products over time. The first laptop computer cost over $5,000 in today’s dollars, but now laptops with far more computing power can be bought for $200. Why hasn’t the same phenomenon occurred in higher education?

Akers explores four potential explanations: students overestimate the return to a degree; colleges are not transparent about their true prices; too few institutions operate in each regional market; and there are significant barriers to entry for new educational providers.

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Many students treat a college degree as a “golden ticket” to the middle class, Akers argues. The decision to go to college is fundamentally a cost-benefit calculation. If the financial return to college is high enough, then students should theoretically be willing to pay high amounts for tuition, because they still come out ahead in the long run.

But few students are sitting down with Excel spreadsheets to calculate the return to college; instead, they rely on impressions of how much a college degree will earn them in the long run. Yet only some degrees are worth paying top dollar. The general impression that every degree is valuable—a “golden ticket” or so to speak—pushes up students’ willingness to pay for college, and consequently inflates college tuition.

Even if that is the case, a sufficiently competitive market for higher education should still bring down the price of college. Akers therefore identifies another problem: the true price of a college education is usually hidden. While most students get at least some financial aid, prospective students usually don’t know how much aid they will get until after they are accepted to college.

This makes comparison-shopping across a wide swath of institutions impossible. Application fees and time constrain the number of colleges each student can apply to, so the number of colleges among which a student can compare prices may be as little as one. Knowing that students will have few alternatives by the time they actually see what they will pay, colleges have every incentive to be stingy with financial aid.

Another factor constraining choice is that most students have limited options for higher education. While there are thousands of accredited colleges nationwide, the typical student has far fewer options. Most students attend a college in their home state, thanks to a combination of steep discounts for state residents, familiarity with local schools, and a desire to save money by living at home. With few competitors, colleges face less competitive pressure to provide price discounts or improve the quality of education.

High prices and few institutions should provide ample opportunity for alternative providers of education to enter the market and lower prices through competition. However, most of these alternative providers will find it difficult to access federal financial aid, which means that the playing field is not level between traditional schools and new ones.

All colleges must be accredited to access federal aid, but the accreditation system is typically hostile to new players. Accreditors often judge schools based on factors such as curriculum and faculty rather than whether they achieve better student outcomes for a lower price. This system disadvantages schools with newer and cheaper but potentially more effective educational models.

These problems are deeply ingrained in America’s higher education system, and reversing them will take work. Akers has several proposals to address them, which fall into two main groups. The first prong of her strategy is transparency. Better data on financial aid and net prices should be made available and accessible, along with data on typical earnings after graduation. This will help inform students whether a particular college degree is worth the cost.

The second prong involves opening the higher-education marketplace to competition by removing accreditors from their role as gatekeepers of federal financial aid, and instead allocating funds based on student outcomes. Not only will this encourage new entrants, but it will force existing universities to search for cost efficiencies and lower their prices to compete.

Industries like higher education have seen enormous cost growth over the past decades, even as the cost of other goods and services has fallen. Price transparency and robust competition have gone a long way towards reducing prices in other industries. The higher education system should follow their lead.

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A smarter way to solve the student debt problem

Blanket loan forgiveness less effective than helping those who need it most, research suggests.

Editor’s Note: This piece was written by Constantine Yannelis, an assistant professor of finance at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, and shared by Chicago Booth Review . The essay is based on testimony Yannelis submitted to the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs’ Subcommittee on Economic Policy in April 2021.

Education is the single highest-return investment most Americans will make, so getting our system of higher-education finance right is fundamentally important for U.S. households and the economy.

A key point in the student-loan debate is that the outcomes of borrowers vary widely. Undeniably, a significant number of borrowers are struggling, and are sympathetic candidates for some kind of relief. Student-loan balances have surged over the past decades. According to the New York Fed, last year student loans had the highest delinquency rate of any form of household debt.

Most student borrowers end up as higher earners who do not have difficulties repaying their loans. A college education is, in the vast majority of cases in America, a ticket to success and a high-paying job. Of those who struggle to repay their loans, a large portion attended a relatively small number of institutions—predominantly for-profit colleges.

The core of the problem in the student-loan market lies in a misalignment of incentives for students, schools, and the government. This misalignment comes from the fact that borrowers use government loans to pay tuition to schools. If borrowers end up getting poor jobs, and they default on their loans, schools are not on the hook—taxpayers pay the costs. How do we address this incentive problem? There are many options, but one of the most commonly proposed solutions is universal loan forgiveness.

Various forms of blanket student-loan cancellation have been suggested, but all are extremely regressive, helping higher-income borrowers more than lower-income ones. This is primarily because people who go to college tend to earn more than those who do not go to college, and people who spend more on their college education—such as those who attend medical and law schools—tend to earn more than those who spend less on their college education, such as dropouts or associate’s degree holders.

My own research with Sylvain Catherine of the University of Pennsylvania demonstrates that most of the benefits of a universal-loan-cancellation policy in the United States would accrue to high-income individuals, those in the top 20 percent of the earnings distribution, who would receive six to eight times as much debt relief as individuals in the bottom 20 percent of the earnings distribution. These basic patterns are true for capped forgiveness policies that limit forgiveness up to $10,000 or $50,000 as well.

Another problem with capped student-loan forgiveness is that many struggling borrowers will still face difficulties. A small number of borrowers have large balances and low incomes. Policies forgiving $10,000 or $50,000 in debt will leave their significant problems unaddressed.

While income phaseouts—policies that limit or cut off relief for people above a certain income threshold—make forgiveness less regressive, they are blunt instruments and lead to many individuals who earn large amounts over their lives, such as medical residents and judicial clerks, receiving substantial loan forgiveness.

A fact that is often missed in the policy debate is that we already have a progressive student-loan forgiveness program, and that is income-driven repayment.

If policy makers want to make sure that funds get into the hands of borrowers at the bottom of the income distribution in a progressive way, blanket student-loan forgiveness does not accomplish this goal. Rather, the policy primarily benefits high earners.

While I am convinced from my own research that student-loan forgiveness is regressive, this is also the consensus of economists. The Initiative on Global Markets at Chicago Booth asked a panel of prominent economists to weigh in on this statement: “Having the government issue additional debt to pay off current outstanding loans would be net regressive.” The panel included economists from leading institutions from both the left and the right. The results of the survey were telling. Not a single economist disagreed with the idea that student-loan forgiveness is regressive. This is because the facts are clear—to borrow a phrase commonly used, “The science is settled”—student-loan forgiveness is a regressive policy that mostly benefits upper-income and upper-middle-class individuals.

Another facet of this policy issue is the effect of student-loan forgiveness on racial inequality. One of the most distressing failures of the federal loan program is the high default rates and significant loan burdens on Black borrowers. And student debt has been implicated as a contributor to the Black-white wealth gap. However, the data show that student debt is not a primary driver of the wealth gap, and student-loan forgiveness would make little progress closing the gap but at great expense. The average wealth of a white family is $171,000, while the average wealth of a Black family is $17,150. The racial wealth gap is thus approximately $153,850. According to our paper, which uses data from the Survey of Consumer Finances, and not taking into account the present value of the loan, the average white family holds $6,157 in student debt, while the average Black family holds $10,630. These numbers are unconditional on holding any student debt.

Thus, if all student loans were forgiven, the racial wealth gap would shrink from $153,850 to $149,377. The loan-cancellation policy would cost about $1.7 trillion and only shrink the racial wealth gap by about 3 percent. Surely there are much more effective ways to invest $1.7 trillion if the goal of policy makers is to close the racial wealth gap. For example, targeted, means-tested social-insurance programs are far more likely to benefit Black Americans relative to student-loan forgiveness. For most American families, their largest asset is their home, so increasing property values and homeownership among Black Americans would also likely do much more to close the racial wealth gap. Still, the racial income gap is the primary driver of the wealth gap; wealth is ultimately driven by earnings and workers’ skills—what economists call human capital. In sum, forgiving student-loan debt is a costly way to close a very small portion of the Black-white wealth gap.

How can we provide relief to borrowers who need it, while avoiding making large payments to well-off individuals? There are a number of policy options for legislators to consider. One is to bring back bankruptcy protection for student-loan borrowers.

Another option is expanding the use of income-driven repayment. A fact that is often missed in the policy debate is that we already have a progressive student-loan forgiveness program, and that is income-driven repayment (IDR). IDR plans link payments to income: borrowers typically pay 10–15 percent of their income above 150 percent of the federal poverty line. Depending on the plan, after 20 or 25 years, remaining balances are forgiven. Thus, if borrowers earn below 150 percent of the poverty line, as low-income individuals, they never pay anything, and the debt is forgiven. If borrowers earn low amounts above 150 percent of the poverty line, they make some payments and receive partial forgiveness. If borrowers earn a high income, they fully repay their loan. Put simply, higher-income people pay more and lower-income people pay less. IDR is thus a progressive policy.

IDR plans provide relief to struggling borrowers who face adverse life events or are otherwise unable to earn high incomes. There have been problems with the implementation of IDR plans in the U.S., but these are fixable, including through recent legislation. Many countries such as the United Kingdom and Australia successfully operate IDR programs that are administered through their respective tax authorities.

Beyond providing relief to borrowers, which is important, we could do more to fix technical problems and incentives. We could give servicers more tools to contact borrowers and inform them of repayment options such as IDR, and we could also incentivize servicers to sign more people up for an IDR plan. But while we may be able to make some technical fixes, servicers are not the root of the problem in the student-loan market: a small number of schools and programs account for a large portion of adverse outcomes.

To fix this, policy makers can also directly align the incentives for schools and borrowers. For example, Brazil, which has had similar problems with its student-loan program, recently gave schools skin in the game by requiring them to pay a fee based on dropout and default rates. This helped align the incentives of the schools and the student borrowers. Making revenues go directly to schools from IDR plans, or implementing income-share agreements in which individuals pay an uncapped portion of their income, could also help align the incentives of schools, students, and taxpayers.

Federal student loans are an important part of college financing and intergenerational mobility. The root of our student-loan crisis is a misalignment of incentives. Since the problem has been so slow moving and continuous, I like the analogy of a frog slowly boiling in a pot of water over a flame. Policies such as student-debt cancellation are not extinguishing the flame—they aren’t fixing the incentive problem. All they do is move the frog into a slightly cooler pot of water. And if we don’t fix the core of the problem, even if we forgive $50,000 of debt for current borrowers, balances will continue to grow, and we will be facing a similar crisis in 10 or 20 years.

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College Admissions , College Essays

The personal statement might just be the hardest part of your college application. Mostly this is because it has the least guidance and is the most open-ended. One way to understand what colleges are looking for when they ask you to write an essay is to check out the essays of students who already got in—college essays that actually worked. After all, they must be among the most successful of this weird literary genre.

In this article, I'll go through general guidelines for what makes great college essays great. I've also compiled an enormous list of 100+ actual sample college essays from 11 different schools. Finally, I'll break down two of these published college essay examples and explain why and how they work. With links to 177 full essays and essay excerpts , this article is a great resource for learning how to craft your own personal college admissions essay!

What Excellent College Essays Have in Common

Even though in many ways these sample college essays are very different from one other, they do share some traits you should try to emulate as you write your own essay.

Visible Signs of Planning

Building out from a narrow, concrete focus. You'll see a similar structure in many of the essays. The author starts with a very detailed story of an event or description of a person or place. After this sense-heavy imagery, the essay expands out to make a broader point about the author, and connects this very memorable experience to the author's present situation, state of mind, newfound understanding, or maturity level.

Knowing how to tell a story. Some of the experiences in these essays are one-of-a-kind. But most deal with the stuff of everyday life. What sets them apart is the way the author approaches the topic: analyzing it for drama and humor, for its moving qualities, for what it says about the author's world, and for how it connects to the author's emotional life.

Stellar Execution

A killer first sentence. You've heard it before, and you'll hear it again: you have to suck the reader in, and the best place to do that is the first sentence. Great first sentences are punchy. They are like cliffhangers, setting up an exciting scene or an unusual situation with an unclear conclusion, in order to make the reader want to know more. Don't take my word for it—check out these 22 first sentences from Stanford applicants and tell me you don't want to read the rest of those essays to find out what happens!

A lively, individual voice. Writing is for readers. In this case, your reader is an admissions officer who has read thousands of essays before yours and will read thousands after. Your goal? Don't bore your reader. Use interesting descriptions, stay away from clichés, include your own offbeat observations—anything that makes this essay sounds like you and not like anyone else.

Technical correctness. No spelling mistakes, no grammar weirdness, no syntax issues, no punctuation snafus—each of these sample college essays has been formatted and proofread perfectly. If this kind of exactness is not your strong suit, you're in luck! All colleges advise applicants to have their essays looked over several times by parents, teachers, mentors, and anyone else who can spot a comma splice. Your essay must be your own work, but there is absolutely nothing wrong with getting help polishing it.

And if you need more guidance, connect with PrepScholar's expert admissions consultants . These expert writers know exactly what college admissions committees look for in an admissions essay and chan help you craft an essay that boosts your chances of getting into your dream school.

Check out PrepScholar's Essay Editing and Coaching progra m for more details!

Links to Full College Essay Examples

Some colleges publish a selection of their favorite accepted college essays that worked, and I've put together a selection of over 100 of these.

Common App Essay Samples

Please note that some of these college essay examples may be responding to prompts that are no longer in use. The current Common App prompts are as follows:

1. Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story. 2. The lessons we take from obstacles we encounter can be fundamental to later success. Recount a time when you faced a challenge, setback, or failure. How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience? 3. Reflect on a time when you questioned or challenged a belief or idea. What prompted your thinking? What was the outcome? 4. Reflect on something that someone has done for you that has made you happy or thankful in a surprising way. How has this gratitude affected or motivated you? 5. Discuss an accomplishment, event, or realization that sparked a period of personal growth and a new understanding of yourself or others. 6. Describe a topic, idea, or concept you find so engaging that it makes you lose all track of time. Why does it captivate you? What or who do you turn to when you want to learn more?

7. Share an essay on any topic of your choice. It can be one you've already written, one that responds to a different prompt, or one of your own design.

Now, let's get to the good stuff: the list of 177 college essay examples responding to current and past Common App essay prompts. 

Connecticut college.

• 12 Common Application essays from the classes of 2022-2025

Hamilton College

• 7 Common Application essays from the class of 2026
• 7 Common Application essays from the class of 2022
• 7 Common Application essays from the class of 2018
• 8 Common Application essays from the class of 2012
• 8 Common Application essays from the class of 2007

Johns Hopkins

These essays are answers to past prompts from either the Common Application or the Coalition Application (which Johns Hopkins used to accept).

• 1 Common Application or Coalition Application essay from the class of 2026
• 6 Common Application or Coalition Application essays from the class of 2025
• 6 Common Application or Universal Application essays from the class of 2024
• 6 Common Application or Universal Application essays from the class of 2023
• 7 Common Application of Universal Application essays from the class of 2022
• 5 Common Application or Universal Application essays from the class of 2021
• 7 Common Application or Universal Application essays from the class of 2020

Essay Examples Published by Other Websites

• 2 Common Application essays ( 1st essay , 2nd essay ) from applicants admitted to Columbia

Other Sample College Essays

Here is a collection of essays that are college-specific.

Babson College

• 4 essays (and 1 video response) on "Why Babson" from the class of 2020

Emory University

• 5 essay examples ( 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 ) from the class of 2020 along with analysis from Emory admissions staff on why the essays were exceptional
• 5 more recent essay examples ( 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 ) along with analysis from Emory admissions staff on what made these essays stand out

University of Georgia

• 1 “strong essay” sample from 2019
• 1 “strong essay” sample from 2018
• 10 Harvard essays from 2023
• 10 Harvard essays from 2022
• 10 Harvard essays from 2021
• 10 Harvard essays from 2020
• 10 Harvard essays from 2019
• 10 Harvard essays from 2018
• 6 essays from admitted MIT students

Smith College

• 6 "best gift" essays from the class of 2018

Books of College Essays

If you're looking for even more sample college essays, consider purchasing a college essay book. The best of these include dozens of essays that worked and feedback from real admissions officers.

College Essays That Made a Difference —This detailed guide from Princeton Review includes not only successful essays, but also interviews with admissions officers and full student profiles.

50 Successful Harvard Application Essays by the Staff of the Harvard Crimson—A must for anyone aspiring to Harvard .

50 Successful Ivy League Application Essays and 50 Successful Stanford Application Essays by Gen and Kelly Tanabe—For essays from other top schools, check out this venerated series, which is regularly updated with new essays.

Heavenly Essays by Janine W. Robinson—This collection from the popular blogger behind Essay Hell includes a wider range of schools, as well as helpful tips on honing your own essay.

Analyzing Great Common App Essays That Worked

I've picked two essays from the examples collected above to examine in more depth so that you can see exactly what makes a successful college essay work. Full credit for these essays goes to the original authors and the schools that published them.

Example 1: "Breaking Into Cars," by Stephen, Johns Hopkins Class of '19 (Common App Essay, 636 words long)

I had never broken into a car before.

We were in Laredo, having just finished our first day at a Habitat for Humanity work site. The Hotchkiss volunteers had already left, off to enjoy some Texas BBQ, leaving me behind with the college kids to clean up. Not until we were stranded did we realize we were locked out of the van.

Someone picked a coat hanger out of the dumpster, handed it to me, and took a few steps back.

"Can you do that thing with a coat hanger to unlock it?"

"Why me?" I thought.

More out of amusement than optimism, I gave it a try. I slid the hanger into the window's seal like I'd seen on crime shows, and spent a few minutes jiggling the apparatus around the inside of the frame. Suddenly, two things simultaneously clicked. One was the lock on the door. (I actually succeeded in springing it.) The other was the realization that I'd been in this type of situation before. In fact, I'd been born into this type of situation.

My upbringing has numbed me to unpredictability and chaos. With a family of seven, my home was loud, messy, and spottily supervised. My siblings arguing, the dog barking, the phone ringing—all meant my house was functioning normally. My Dad, a retired Navy pilot, was away half the time. When he was home, he had a parenting style something like a drill sergeant. At the age of nine, I learned how to clear burning oil from the surface of water. My Dad considered this a critical life skill—you know, in case my aircraft carrier should ever get torpedoed. "The water's on fire! Clear a hole!" he shouted, tossing me in the lake without warning. While I'm still unconvinced about that particular lesson's practicality, my Dad's overarching message is unequivocally true: much of life is unexpected, and you have to deal with the twists and turns.

Living in my family, days rarely unfolded as planned. A bit overlooked, a little pushed around, I learned to roll with reality, negotiate a quick deal, and give the improbable a try. I don't sweat the small stuff, and I definitely don't expect perfect fairness. So what if our dining room table only has six chairs for seven people? Someone learns the importance of punctuality every night.

But more than punctuality and a special affinity for musical chairs, my family life has taught me to thrive in situations over which I have no power. Growing up, I never controlled my older siblings, but I learned how to thwart their attempts to control me. I forged alliances, and realigned them as necessary. Sometimes, I was the poor, defenseless little brother; sometimes I was the omniscient elder. Different things to different people, as the situation demanded. I learned to adapt.

Back then, these techniques were merely reactions undertaken to ensure my survival. But one day this fall, Dr. Hicks, our Head of School, asked me a question that he hoped all seniors would reflect on throughout the year: "How can I participate in a thing I do not govern, in the company of people I did not choose?"

The question caught me off guard, much like the question posed to me in Laredo. Then, I realized I knew the answer. I knew why the coat hanger had been handed to me.

Growing up as the middle child in my family, I was a vital participant in a thing I did not govern, in the company of people I did not choose. It's family. It's society. And often, it's chaos. You participate by letting go of the small stuff, not expecting order and perfection, and facing the unexpected with confidence, optimism, and preparedness. My family experience taught me to face a serendipitous world with confidence.

What Makes This Essay Tick?

It's very helpful to take writing apart in order to see just how it accomplishes its objectives. Stephen's essay is very effective. Let's find out why!

An Opening Line That Draws You In

In just eight words, we get: scene-setting (he is standing next to a car about to break in), the idea of crossing a boundary (he is maybe about to do an illegal thing for the first time), and a cliffhanger (we are thinking: is he going to get caught? Is he headed for a life of crime? Is he about to be scared straight?).

Great, Detailed Opening Story

More out of amusement than optimism, I gave it a try. I slid the hanger into the window's seal like I'd seen on crime shows, and spent a few minutes jiggling the apparatus around the inside of the frame.

It's the details that really make this small experience come alive. Notice how whenever he can, Stephen uses a more specific, descriptive word in place of a more generic one. The volunteers aren't going to get food or dinner; they're going for "Texas BBQ." The coat hanger comes from "a dumpster." Stephen doesn't just move the coat hanger—he "jiggles" it.

Details also help us visualize the emotions of the people in the scene. The person who hands Stephen the coat hanger isn't just uncomfortable or nervous; he "takes a few steps back"—a description of movement that conveys feelings. Finally, the detail of actual speech makes the scene pop. Instead of writing that the other guy asked him to unlock the van, Stephen has the guy actually say his own words in a way that sounds like a teenager talking.

Turning a Specific Incident Into a Deeper Insight

Suddenly, two things simultaneously clicked. One was the lock on the door. (I actually succeeded in springing it.) The other was the realization that I'd been in this type of situation before. In fact, I'd been born into this type of situation.

Stephen makes the locked car experience a meaningful illustration of how he has learned to be resourceful and ready for anything, and he also makes this turn from the specific to the broad through an elegant play on the two meanings of the word "click."

Using Concrete Examples When Making Abstract Claims

My upbringing has numbed me to unpredictability and chaos. With a family of seven, my home was loud, messy, and spottily supervised. My siblings arguing, the dog barking, the phone ringing—all meant my house was functioning normally.

"Unpredictability and chaos" are very abstract, not easily visualized concepts. They could also mean any number of things—violence, abandonment, poverty, mental instability. By instantly following up with highly finite and unambiguous illustrations like "family of seven" and "siblings arguing, the dog barking, the phone ringing," Stephen grounds the abstraction in something that is easy to picture: a large, noisy family.

Using Small Bits of Humor and Casual Word Choice

My Dad, a retired Navy pilot, was away half the time. When he was home, he had a parenting style something like a drill sergeant. At the age of nine, I learned how to clear burning oil from the surface of water. My Dad considered this a critical life skill—you know, in case my aircraft carrier should ever get torpedoed.

Obviously, knowing how to clean burning oil is not high on the list of things every 9-year-old needs to know. To emphasize this, Stephen uses sarcasm by bringing up a situation that is clearly over-the-top: "in case my aircraft carrier should ever get torpedoed."

The humor also feels relaxed. Part of this is because he introduces it with the colloquial phrase "you know," so it sounds like he is talking to us in person. This approach also diffuses the potential discomfort of the reader with his father's strictness—since he is making jokes about it, clearly he is OK. Notice, though, that this doesn't occur very much in the essay. This helps keep the tone meaningful and serious rather than flippant.

An Ending That Stretches the Insight Into the Future

But one day this fall, Dr. Hicks, our Head of School, asked me a question that he hoped all seniors would reflect on throughout the year: "How can I participate in a thing I do not govern, in the company of people I did not choose?"

The ending of the essay reveals that Stephen's life has been one long preparation for the future. He has emerged from chaos and his dad's approach to parenting as a person who can thrive in a world that he can't control.

This connection of past experience to current maturity and self-knowledge is a key element in all successful personal essays. Colleges are very much looking for mature, self-aware applicants. These are the qualities of successful college students, who will be able to navigate the independence college classes require and the responsibility and quasi-adulthood of college life.

What Could This Essay Do Even Better?

Even the best essays aren't perfect, and even the world's greatest writers will tell you that writing is never "finished"—just "due." So what would we tweak in this essay if we could?

Replace some of the clichéd language. Stephen uses handy phrases like "twists and turns" and "don't sweat the small stuff" as a kind of shorthand for explaining his relationship to chaos and unpredictability. But using too many of these ready-made expressions runs the risk of clouding out your own voice and replacing it with something expected and boring.

Use another example from recent life. Stephen's first example (breaking into the van in Laredo) is a great illustration of being resourceful in an unexpected situation. But his essay also emphasizes that he "learned to adapt" by being "different things to different people." It would be great to see how this plays out outside his family, either in the situation in Laredo or another context.

Example 2: By Renner Kwittken, Tufts Class of '23 (Common App Essay, 645 words long)

My first dream job was to be a pickle truck driver. I saw it in my favorite book, Richard Scarry's "Cars and Trucks and Things That Go," and for some reason, I was absolutely obsessed with the idea of driving a giant pickle. Much to the discontent of my younger sister, I insisted that my parents read us that book as many nights as possible so we could find goldbug, a small little golden bug, on every page. I would imagine the wonderful life I would have: being a pig driving a giant pickle truck across the country, chasing and finding goldbug. I then moved on to wanting to be a Lego Master. Then an architect. Then a surgeon.

Then I discovered a real goldbug: gold nanoparticles that can reprogram macrophages to assist in killing tumors, produce clear images of them without sacrificing the subject, and heat them to obliteration.

Suddenly the destination of my pickle was clear.

I quickly became enveloped by the world of nanomedicine; I scoured articles about liposomes, polymeric micelles, dendrimers, targeting ligands, and self-assembling nanoparticles, all conquering cancer in some exotic way. Completely absorbed, I set out to find a mentor to dive even deeper into these topics. After several rejections, I was immensely grateful to receive an invitation to work alongside Dr. Sangeeta Ray at Johns Hopkins.

In the lab, Dr. Ray encouraged a great amount of autonomy to design and implement my own procedures. I chose to attack a problem that affects the entire field of nanomedicine: nanoparticles consistently fail to translate from animal studies into clinical trials. Jumping off recent literature, I set out to see if a pre-dose of a common chemotherapeutic could enhance nanoparticle delivery in aggressive prostate cancer, creating three novel constructs based on three different linear polymers, each using fluorescent dye (although no gold, sorry goldbug!). Though using radioactive isotopes like Gallium and Yttrium would have been incredible, as a 17-year-old, I unfortunately wasn't allowed in the same room as these radioactive materials (even though I took a Geiger counter to a pair of shoes and found them to be slightly dangerous).

I hadn't expected my hypothesis to work, as the research project would have ideally been led across two full years. Yet while there are still many optimizations and revisions to be done, I was thrilled to find -- with completely new nanoparticles that may one day mean future trials will use particles with the initials "RK-1" -- thatcyclophosphamide did indeed increase nanoparticle delivery to the tumor in a statistically significant way.

A secondary, unexpected research project was living alone in Baltimore, a new city to me, surrounded by people much older than I. Even with moving frequently between hotels, AirBnB's, and students' apartments, I strangely reveled in the freedom I had to enjoy my surroundings and form new friendships with graduate school students from the lab. We explored The Inner Harbor at night, attended a concert together one weekend, and even got to watch the Orioles lose (to nobody's surprise). Ironically, it's through these new friendships I discovered something unexpected: what I truly love is sharing research. Whether in a presentation or in a casual conversation, making others interested in science is perhaps more exciting to me than the research itself. This solidified a new pursuit to angle my love for writing towards illuminating science in ways people can understand, adding value to a society that can certainly benefit from more scientific literacy.

It seems fitting that my goals are still transforming: in Scarry's book, there is not just one goldbug, there is one on every page. With each new experience, I'm learning that it isn't the goldbug itself, but rather the act of searching for the goldbugs that will encourage, shape, and refine my ever-evolving passions. Regardless of the goldbug I seek -- I know my pickle truck has just begun its journey.

Renner takes a somewhat different approach than Stephen, but their essay is just as detailed and engaging. Let's go through some of the strengths of this essay.

One Clear Governing Metaphor

This essay is ultimately about two things: Renner’s dreams and future career goals, and Renner’s philosophy on goal-setting and achieving one’s dreams.

But instead of listing off all the amazing things they’ve done to pursue their dream of working in nanomedicine, Renner tells a powerful, unique story instead. To set up the narrative, Renner opens the essay by connecting their experiences with goal-setting and dream-chasing all the way back to a memorable childhood experience:

This lighthearted–but relevant!--story about the moment when Renner first developed a passion for a specific career (“finding the goldbug”) provides an anchor point for the rest of the essay. As Renner pivots to describing their current dreams and goals–working in nanomedicine–the metaphor of “finding the goldbug” is reflected in Renner’s experiments, rejections, and new discoveries.

Though Renner tells multiple stories about their quest to “find the goldbug,” or, in other words, pursue their passion, each story is connected by a unifying theme; namely, that as we search and grow over time, our goals will transform…and that’s okay! By the end of the essay, Renner uses the metaphor of “finding the goldbug” to reiterate the relevance of the opening story:

While the earlier parts of the essay convey Renner’s core message by showing, the final, concluding paragraph sums up Renner’s insights by telling. By briefly and clearly stating the relevance of the goldbug metaphor to their own philosophy on goals and dreams, Renner demonstrates their creativity, insight, and eagerness to grow and evolve as the journey continues into college.

An Engaging, Individual Voice

This essay uses many techniques that make Renner sound genuine and make the reader feel like we already know them.

Technique #1: humor. Notice Renner's gentle and relaxed humor that lightly mocks their younger self's grand ambitions (this is different from the more sarcastic kind of humor used by Stephen in the first essay—you could never mistake one writer for the other).

My first dream job was to be a pickle truck driver.

I would imagine the wonderful life I would have: being a pig driving a giant pickle truck across the country, chasing and finding goldbug. I then moved on to wanting to be a Lego Master. Then an architect. Then a surgeon.

Renner gives a great example of how to use humor to your advantage in college essays. You don’t want to come off as too self-deprecating or sarcastic, but telling a lightheartedly humorous story about your younger self that also showcases how you’ve grown and changed over time can set the right tone for your entire essay.

Technique #2: intentional, eye-catching structure. The second technique is the way Renner uses a unique structure to bolster the tone and themes of their essay . The structure of your essay can have a major impact on how your ideas come across…so it’s important to give it just as much thought as the content of your essay!

For instance, Renner does a great job of using one-line paragraphs to create dramatic emphasis and to make clear transitions from one phase of the story to the next:

Suddenly the destination of my pickle car was clear.

Not only does the one-liner above signal that Renner is moving into a new phase of the narrative (their nanoparticle research experiences), it also tells the reader that this is a big moment in Renner’s story. It’s clear that Renner made a major discovery that changed the course of their goal pursuit and dream-chasing. Through structure, Renner conveys excitement and entices the reader to keep pushing forward to the next part of the story.

Technique #3: playing with syntax. The third technique is to use sentences of varying length, syntax, and structure. Most of the essay's written in standard English and uses grammatically correct sentences. However, at key moments, Renner emphasizes that the reader needs to sit up and pay attention by switching to short, colloquial, differently punctuated, and sometimes fragmented sentences.

Even with moving frequently between hotels, AirBnB's, and students' apartments, I strangely reveled in the freedom I had to enjoy my surroundings and form new friendships with graduate school students from the lab. We explored The Inner Harbor at night, attended a concert together one weekend, and even got to watch the Orioles lose (to nobody's surprise). Ironically, it's through these new friendships I discovered something unexpected: what I truly love is sharing research.

In the examples above, Renner switches adeptly between long, flowing sentences and quippy, telegraphic ones. At the same time, Renner uses these different sentence lengths intentionally. As they describe their experiences in new places, they use longer sentences to immerse the reader in the sights, smells, and sounds of those experiences. And when it’s time to get a big, key idea across, Renner switches to a short, punchy sentence to stop the reader in their tracks.

The varying syntax and sentence lengths pull the reader into the narrative and set up crucial “aha” moments when it’s most important…which is a surefire way to make any college essay stand out.

Renner's essay is very strong, but there are still a few little things that could be improved.

Connecting the research experiences to the theme of “finding the goldbug.”  The essay begins and ends with Renner’s connection to the idea of “finding the goldbug.” And while this metaphor is deftly tied into the essay’s intro and conclusion, it isn’t entirely clear what Renner’s big findings were during the research experiences that are described in the middle of the essay. It would be great to add a sentence or two stating what Renner’s big takeaways (or “goldbugs”) were from these experiences, which add more cohesion to the essay as a whole.

Give more details about discovering the world of nanomedicine. It makes sense that Renner wants to get into the details of their big research experiences as quickly as possible. After all, these are the details that show Renner’s dedication to nanomedicine! But a smoother transition from the opening pickle car/goldbug story to Renner’s “real goldbug” of nanoparticles would help the reader understand why nanoparticles became Renner’s goldbug. Finding out why Renner is so motivated to study nanomedicine–and perhaps what put them on to this field of study–would help readers fully understand why Renner chose this path in the first place.

4 Essential Tips for Writing Your Own Essay

How can you use this discussion to better your own college essay? Here are some suggestions for ways to use this resource effectively.

#1: Get Help From the Experts

Getting your college applications together takes a lot of work and can be pretty intimidatin g. Essays are even more important than ever now that admissions processes are changing and schools are going test-optional and removing diversity standards thanks to new Supreme Court rulings .  If you want certified expert help that really makes a difference, get started with  PrepScholar’s Essay Editing and Coaching program. Our program can help you put together an incredible essay from idea to completion so that your application stands out from the crowd. We've helped students get into the best colleges in the United States, including Harvard, Stanford, and Yale.  If you're ready to take the next step and boost your odds of getting into your dream school, connect with our experts today .

#2: Read Other Essays to Get Ideas for Your Own

As you go through the essays we've compiled for you above, ask yourself the following questions:

• Can you explain to yourself (or someone else!) why the opening sentence works well?
• Look for the essay's detailed personal anecdote. What senses is the author describing? Can you easily picture the scene in your mind's eye?
• Find the place where this anecdote bridges into a larger insight about the author. How does the essay connect the two? How does the anecdote work as an example of the author's characteristic, trait, or skill?
• Check out the essay's tone. If it's funny, can you find the places where the humor comes from? If it's sad and moving, can you find the imagery and description of feelings that make you moved? If it's serious, can you see how word choice adds to this tone?

Make a note whenever you find an essay or part of an essay that you think was particularly well-written, and think about what you like about it . Is it funny? Does it help you really get to know the writer? Does it show what makes the writer unique? Once you have your list, keep it next to you while writing your essay to remind yourself to try and use those same techniques in your own essay.

#3: Find Your "A-Ha!" Moment

All of these essays rely on connecting with the reader through a heartfelt, highly descriptive scene from the author's life. It can either be very dramatic (did you survive a plane crash?) or it can be completely mundane (did you finally beat your dad at Scrabble?). Either way, it should be personal and revealing about you, your personality, and the way you are now that you are entering the adult world.

Check out essays by authors like John Jeremiah Sullivan , Leslie Jamison , Hanif Abdurraqib , and Esmé Weijun Wang to get more examples of how to craft a compelling personal narrative.

#4: Start Early, Revise Often

Let me level with you: the best writing isn't writing at all. It's rewriting. And in order to have time to rewrite, you have to start way before the application deadline. My advice is to write your first draft at least two months before your applications are due.

Let it sit for a few days untouched. Then come back to it with fresh eyes and think critically about what you've written. What's extra? What's missing? What is in the wrong place? What doesn't make sense? Don't be afraid to take it apart and rearrange sections. Do this several times over, and your essay will be much better for it!

For more editing tips, check out a style guide like Dreyer's English or Eats, Shoots & Leaves .

What's Next?

Still not sure which colleges you want to apply to? Our experts will show you how to make a college list that will help you choose a college that's right for you.

Interested in learning more about college essays? Check out our detailed breakdown of exactly how personal statements work in an application , some suggestions on what to avoid when writing your essay , and our guide to writing about your extracurricular activities .

Working on the rest of your application? Read what admissions officers wish applicants knew before applying .

The recommendations in this post are based solely on our knowledge and experience. If you purchase an item through one of our links PrepScholar may receive a commission.

Anna scored in the 99th percentile on her SATs in high school, and went on to major in English at Princeton and to get her doctorate in English Literature at Columbia. She is passionate about improving student access to higher education.

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Home — Essay Samples — Social Issues — Student Loans — The Issue of Rising College Tuition in America

The Issue of Rising College Tuition in America

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Published: Apr 8, 2022

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