College Access

Article: http://www.edweek.org/ew/issues/college-access/

Detailed Reaction:
Moving on to college is a big step for some of us as students. College allows a person to pursue a higher education where a plethora of educational courses of all sorts are in existence. Pursuing a degree is a very smart move financially. College graduates with at least Bachelor's degrees tend to make much more money than that of a person with up to only a high school education. However, for those who are education and/or economically disadvantaged, there is a giant barrier between attending college and the student. Colleges, public and private, are getting more and more expensive when it comes to tuition.

This is causing economically-disadvantaged students that are also capable of attaining a college degree to not even consider a college education. Even though there are many financial aid opportunity programs present, potential students persist in saving themselves the money. From what I learned, there are 2 good investments in life: pursuing a college education, and buying a house. They result in "good" debt. In my opinion, I'd rather have a good job and still pay ridiculously large amounts of my money for loans, instead of working all day for a job with minimum wage.

I am also a student who can relate to this. I don't have the reserves of money to pay for a college education, so I'm going to have to be dependent on financial aid and educational opportunity programs such as EOP/HEOP/SEEK for admissions into respectable colleges, or even college at all. Without the existence of these programs, I seriously do not know what i would've done without knowing these programs existed. I just think it's in every capable student's best interests to pursue the degree he or she wants. The potential of these students are only being faltered because of money.