Tuition Costs Add Up, Minimum Wage Doesn't

Let's talk about the first real problem all "young adults" must face, paying for college. When it comes to growing up. It sucks! For many years we thought that growing up and moving out of the house would be the solution to all our problems, boy were we wrong!

Nothing compares to having to pay thousands of dollars for schooling we once feigned sickness to get out of. They say growing up comes with having more responsibilities, which is entirely true. Students such as myself, no longer have to depend on parents for rides, lunch money, and getting us up from bed early in the morning.

But what do we do if we no longer have our parents paying for our schooling and receive no money from the government? Simple, we find the minimum wage, or entry level jobs available to us. In many times we might even need two. Or at least that was what students could do up until the 1900's when tuition rates sky rocketed.

Now, studies have shown, that it is nearly impossible to pay off college tuition through minimum wage jobs. The jobs that once were sufficient to cover tuition, fees, room and board would now fall short about $3,200.

Becoming independent comes with a couple downfalls; paying for school, paying car insurance (if lucky enough to save a couple grand before college), meal plans, your own soap.. All these expenses require money. Money that we simply can't pull out of our pockets without the proper college education and stable-pay jobs. 

Here are the three options we have as students: 

1. Ask parents for money (which they may or may not have).
2. Take out a loan at your local bank (which you might not qualify for, or be charged an incredulous APR rate).
3. Take a couple months/ years off from school, and save enough to pay for 1/4 years at a public university.

Should we get started on how many working hours, on minimum wage it takes to pay for higher education? 
Let's look at the graph below

 It would take someone slightly less than half a full year’s work to afford tuition at the average public university.

None of the options mentioned above sound the least bit appealing to my very small and famished wallet. The graphs, not very encouraging either. In the ideal world, tuition rate and minimum wage would have a direct relationship in which a student could have a chance to pay off their own education. Although, reaching a higher education should not mean being drowned in debt after or even before you start college


I do have to acknowledge that the graphs shown only go up to the year 2011/2012 and that the minimum wage has gone up since then. 

However, so have tuition rates. 



With that being said, I will keep posting every other week. (: