Summary:
Research done on several areas effecting lower-income students in college surrounding time mangement and school, college costs and food insecurity
Introduction:
The general attitude towards obtaining success would be to pull oneself up by one's bootstraps and get to work; The American dream is "each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position" (James Truslow Adams). Hard work is supposed to pay off, I am confident most Americans would agree; Consider that a two-decade study done by Pew Research Center found 60% of Americans believed hard work leads to success whereas only 39% believed hard work had no guarantee of success (Views of the economic system and social safety net). Considering the collective consciousness surrounding hard work, social mobility is surprisingly low. If you are born into poverty, you are likely to stay there (National Center for Children in Poverty). Though there is a popular solution to that problem, getting a college degree; With a college degree a child born into the lowest income quintile has a 16% chance of staying there and a 45% chance of staying in poverty without a college degree (Deweese). Although Multiple studies have been conducted that demonstrate a college degree as one of the safest and smartest routes for social mobility; There are several barriers such as college costs, the management of school and personal life, and food insecurity that needs to be addressed to improve social mobility for lower-income students.
Financial Barriers
One of the most obvious barriers affecting students from a lower-socioeconomic level would be college costs. Specifically, the increased rates of tuition. The average cost of attendance rose 40% at public universities and 28% at private universities in the first decade of the new millennium (Deweese).
The cost of attending college takes into account tuition, classes, and room and board fees. Regarding tuition, it has risen more than medical services, child care, housing (Cooper), and food (Matthewson). Although the costs of community college attendance have remained relatively stable for the past 20 years in comparison to public universities (Hanson); 80% of community college students plan on attending a university to obtain a bachelor's degree (Deweese) and rightfully so considering that the chances of escaping poverty are much lower or even insubstantial with just an associates versus a bachelors.
Bachelor degree holders earned $18,219 more than those with some college or an associate's degree (Vasquez).
Nowadays many jobs are looking for bachelor's degree holders and not an associate's degree; Consider that community colleges are often viewed in a bad light in comparison to universities, and that general attitude can harm associate degree holders regarding future employment. Therefore many students if possible would prefer to get a bachelor's degree to increase their chances of employment. A student that has pursued an associate's degree would incur debt, but would also have lower chances of employment to find a job to pay off that debt and could face financial struggles because of the debt acquired from the associate's degree.
Debt acquired from an associate's degree would be even more dire for lower-income students because they do not usually have parental support. A lower-income student wouldn't be able to not feel much of a burden from the debt because they often do not live with their parents, or could have children, it therefore makes sense for a low-income student to try to maximize their odds of employment with a bachelor. On the other hand, debt accumulation can affect the student's credit score (What happens if I don't pay back my student loan?). Consequently, this affects the already prevalent conundrum of lower-income students having unstable living conditions because of the issue of not being able to find permanent residency; Lower-Income students already have a much higher chance of defaulting on their student loans and shockingly have the lowest amount of debt borrowed (Thompson), this seems to demonstrate further evidence of lower-income students having dire consequences for accumulating debt that they do not have the financial resources to pay for. Thus the increasing rates of tuition at universities further exacerbate the problem. Graduate students appear to have the highest form of debt (Meyer), but also the longer you stay in school would be on par with how long you'd have to pay for tuition. Though tuition isn't the causation of debt it does have a clear correlation with the amount of debt a student leaves college with. Additionally, debt is known to accumulate interest, most college students will not even pay off their debt within a year, but those with a bachelor's degree commonly have a higher pay scaling than those with an associate that has a lower pay scaling; Also there are more degree options available for a bachelor's degree, some of those degree options will take the same amount of time as any other bachelors degree but have a higher starting average salary; Even if they both end up with the same amount of debt depending on the degree option one student could be better off than another because of the average starting salary of his/hers degree. The slower someone with an associate's takes to pay off their debt the more dire the consequences they will have versus someone with a bachelor's degree; Additionally, those that get an associate's and then a full-time job in their careers will have out-of-school for a while but wouldn't have the same long-term earning potential as someone with a bachelors who has a higher pay scaling.
One of the main character archetypes of poverty- single mother households- have 30% of their families living under the poverty line but other research has shown just 13 percent of single mothers who hold a bachelor's degree live in poverty compared with 41 percent with only a high school diploma (Single Mothers with College Degrees Much Less Likely to Live in Poverty). This is significant because though it is unconventional to think of single mothers when discussing college as the typical college attendee wouldn't be one statistically, we are discussing lower-income students where this archetype is conventional. Therefore it is critical to consider the increased rates of tuition.
One popular solution would be to consider applying for FAFSA, though it isn't as easy as it seems. Studies showed fafsa's maximum award at $5,400 for the 2005-06 school year which was still under the average tuition and fees cost of a four-year public university (Packer) and is still prevalent now; many students do not even receive the maximum award and the average tuition for that school year of a private university was $30,000, which FAFSA doesn't even come close to and is still relevant today (Packer). Tuition and fees plus room and board averaged 50,770 in the 2020-21 school year according to the college board for private universities and 22,180 for four-year, in-state public universities (Wheaton).
The college board tracks college pricing and student aid and is a site that develops and administers standardized tests and curricula used by K-12. The Southern Regional Education Board - An organization dedicated to advocating for affordable education - did a study for new college affordability profiles and revealed average families still had to chunk 31% of their income after financial aid was disbursed for all educational expenses for a full-time student at a four-year university (COSTS OF FOUR-YEAR). It gets worse for lower-income families earning less than 30,000 a year that have to pay more than their annual salary to attend one year of college even after financial aid has been exhausted (COSTS OF FOUR-YEAR).
Another solution would be to have the tuition costs of a university reflect the real costs. A lot of universities offer extra amenities that do not reflect the true educational value of the institution; Things such as fast food services and other luxury amenities drive the cost of attendance up and happen to be more expensive than they would be outside of campus because they are on campus. Nowadays colleges have become more than a place of education, colleges should focus on what they do best, focusing on educating students, not providing students with fun when they can get it from other industries that specialize in it. Driving the costs of college with anything other than education isn't an honest move. Higher-income students will still have the option to have fun regardless of them having extra luxury amenities located on campus because they have the income to venture outside of campus anyway but lower-income students will feel the burden of tuition costs rising because of extra amenities. An example of this occurring happened at High-point University which is a small liberal arts college that spent 700 million, mainly financed by student borrowing and fees to expand its campus (Swartz). The university now boasts a movie theater (Swartz) dorm with plasma-screen televisions (Swartz), a shuttle service around campus (Swartz), much like Arizona State University's shuttle service, and many other amenities that have absolutely nothing to do with education. This has caused the university to have more enrollments (Swartz), not due to the improved educational services but due to luxurious amenities. I do believe that some amenities do matter, such as proper air conditioning but universities should not be modeled after a luxurious resort because when the tuition rises because of those luxurious amenities the students that could have gotten those amenities regardless because of higher incomes will not feel the burden but those students that want nothing more but to just be educated so they can improve their social class will feel the burden of rising tuition costs. As a disclaimer, I do not argue that universities should get rid of all sorts of food options, but if those food options are more of a luxury than supporting proper nutrition I think it is reasonable to get rid of them. And if universities can not price the food to its actual market value like actual grocery stores they need to allow the proper industry that has the proper experience and expertise to do so.
Time Management And School
Many lower-income students have limited time to dedicate to studying and a multitude of issues arise from that; Because of the need to work they'll suffer decreased grades; The costs of college contribute to this issue. Fifty-nine percent of Students that worked more than 15 hours a week had an average grade of C (Carnevale); Although it is hardly possible to stop lower-income students from needing to work considering the traditional background of many lower-income students; The increased costs of college exacerbate the issue. Lower-income students could look for other ways to decrease their need for work through the possibility of shared living spaces such as sharing living spaces with roommates; That way lower-income students have more flexibility on the number of hours they work so they can ease the conflict of having to work too many hours that can cause their grades to suffer. With the costs of college rising though it could take away that flexibility and roommates can no longer be a solution that helps with reducing the financial burden. Imagine if the costs of tuition can be lowered and lower-income students are then able to focus on lowering the costs of rent through roommates and cheaper housing, But if the costs of college are not lowered then regardless of roommates the students will have to pick up more hours that can cause them to drop out of school. With each additional hour added to the schedule of lower-income students because of the need to pay for school then the costs of outside factors are inconsiderable because while they can control the amount of rent they pay they can not control the amount of money they pay for classes, tuition, room and board because they are uncompromising and out of the control of the students. It isn't realistic to expect the students to grab as many roommates as possible just to ease the financial burden of school instead of the financial burden of rent because picking roommates is another separate issue on its own and adding constant roommates just to match the rising costs of school then becomes no longer a rent issue but a school issue which can cause the students to drop out. Currently, 8 out of ten students work while in school (Carnevale) and lower-income students are less likely to earn a credential overall even if they're coming from an upper-end of the academic performance distribution (Balancing Work and Learning); This then becomes a problem of failing school not because of merit but failing school because of financial hards; Though that percentage can be slightly lowered with the lowering of college costs;
Students should have the possibility of compromising certain things such as the traditional student life by going online and therefore having lowered costs but that doesn't happen. Instead, students are still expected to pay the same price as students attending classes on campus even though it doesn't equate to the same benefits that the students would get if they were attending classes on campus. More than 93% of students believed that their tuition should be lowered because of online instruction (Hess). Students are the ones that know first hand the difference between online instruction and in-person instruction and the benefits and consequences that come with it. Even with schools saving more money with online learning, that saving isn't passed on to the students (Will Online Learning Lower the Price of College?)students still pay the same amount of money or in some cases pay more due to taking online classes. A survey conducted by the Adult College Completion showed students chunking out more money as much as 64% of colleges charging the same amount as a traditional in-person class with seven percent charging less and 29% of colleges charging more for online classes (Will Online Learning Lower the Price of College?).
The prevalence of Food insecurity
With financial resources already suffering many handicaps due to outside sources out of the control of colleges and college costs, many lower-income students find themselves having limited access to food. Many lower-income students try to access government incentives such as Snap benefits but run into issues. Financial aid already doesn't cover all expenses of college and many students do not receive snap due to eligibility restrictions (Better Information Could Help Eligible College Students Access Federal Food Assistance Benefits) in-fact 57% of potentially eligible students don't receive any sort of Snap benefits (Better Information Could Help Eligible College Students Access Federal Food Assistance Benefits); This forces students into a dilemma, do they choose food over their education? Well, that situation causes lower-income students to not fix the issue that they've gone to school for which would be to find financial independence through education. One study estimated that 2-year colleges had the bulk of students that had the most food insecurity; this makes sense considering that community colleges are usually where lower-income students start first (Better Information Could Help Eligible College Students Access Federal Food Assistance Benefits) and therefore have the highest percentages of lower-income students. Although I stated before that colleges shouldn't focus on providing luxurious food options such as fast food options because of increased college costs associated with it, I believe if there are instances where colleges are providing food it should be through emergency assistance that assists with food insecurity. This way colleges are spending money to retain students that otherwise might drop out to work more hours to sustain themselves.
Colleges should focus their efforts on needs instead of wants for students. Not to provide students with a delicacy in the form of a quarter pounder on campus through an onsight Mcdonald's that would cost schools more but low-cost nutritional options, such as grains from pasta. The higher-income students that would have been able to venture out and afford those fast food options will still be able to do so but not at the expense of lower-income students. An example of this occurring occurs at The University of Oklahoma where the school boasts 30 different fast-food places to eat on campus ( Hatton). The schools often benefit financially from the students purchasing food on campus instead of venturing outside of campus ( Hatton), Although I believe the students would be better off having less luxurious food and more foods that are meant to sustain them only because of the cheaper costs. With these food options on campus you would probably expect schools would save more money but instead due to franchise costs and other costs name-brand fast food options cost schools 7 to 10 percent more ( Hatton).
Summary and Policy Recommendations
Though common knowledge has evidence of increased college attainment in today's age, it isn't prevalent among lower-income students. Most demographics that commonly come from lower-income families are still having a hard time completing college due to financial constraints within the college's control and without. These financial constraints that result from the increased price of colleges are harming other traditional factors that lower-income students already have a hard time with, such as food insecurity, managing school and personal obligations, and increased rates of college costs. Though I believe those burdens can be eased with more research into the solutions I've been able to find through research that all share a connection and further exacerbate the problem of limiting social mobility. To respond to these obstacles colleges and universities can work together for the development of better incentives to increase social mobility for lower-income students. Other countries in the Western world have demonstrated how college prices can be lowered or even become free in some instances so I believe with the problems I have outlined already there is a way to ease them or almost eliminate them from learning from their examples.
Works Cited
