Stress, fear and worry are constant fears young adults attending universities face when considering their futures. These issues are compounded by student debt.
Pursuing a college degree is a Western tradition. Yet, this tradition brings extraneous burdens today. The principal agent of woes and anxiety’s students face today are attached to student debt. It will take a massive cultural shift of how we perceive college before the need for financial aid is diminished.
When the pressure to attain a higher education disappears there will be many positive effects. Some of these include: the reduction of stress in our generation’s greatest minds; the fear of our efforts to succeed being made redundant; and the worry of the path chosen has become obsolete will fade. Odds are a conjecture involving breaking college’s link to personal achievement will not happen until those who read this are far older.
Here at App State, people find others they can relate to. The amount of people attending App State that need financial aid is astonishing as a whole community of people can gather based on the numbers. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, 71% of new undergraduates at App State have received some form of financial aid. These statistics show us that App State students are willing to incur student debt with the hopes of having a better future.
According to CNBC, it will take the average college student 20 years to pay off their student debts. Not only are students willing to gamble four years of their lives, they will spend a large portion paying off their debt.
With courage and uncertainty, the modern university student fights for better lives. The willingness to undergo such tribulation is a testament to our generations willpower. In the face of today’s bleak atmosphere showing the power to maintain hope is one of the only things people have left. Hope is the first step at persevering through the struggles people face. Struggles cannot be overcome without hope. People must have plenty of hope with the choices they make. Thus, we have an obligation to develop new policies to make college more affordable.