It is near impossible for middle-income students to afford college.

Question

Students today have many opportunities to pay for secondary education: scholarships, financial aid, and even family checks. Oppositely, many students do not have this similar choice. Middle-income students do not have wealthy families to pay out of pocket, and they make slightly too much to afford financial aid. Middle-income students are stuck in a financial gap that allows for minimal opportunities to pay for school. These students have to turn to scholarships, which, on average, give $14,000 to a student per year. This amount is barely scratching the surface for public universities, let alone private ones, forcing students to turn to community college or immediately enter the work force (Education Data Initiative).

Middle-income students add stress to their families as well, forcing additional financial burdens on them that they spent their own working years to get out of themselves. Families have to start looking for things to sell or invest in to hopefully lessen the blow on their kids (NPR). From 1996 to 2016, there has been a decrease in middle-income students on campuses across America from 45% to 37%. Instead of combating this by finding new ways to aid these students in their education, they have raised the prices of public education by an average of $50,000 per term each year. This leaves only 1% to 5% of middle-income students able to afford secondary education (NASFAA).

Answer 1

     The statement, "It is near impossible for middle-income students to afford college" id say is true but a bit exaggerated or misleading in some ways. But you do point out that the ways that make it possible put a huge burden on middle level income households with things like student loans or having to sell assets for tuition money. The NPR article you link describes how some private non profit universities are trying to market financial aid to those middle class students for their enrollment. So there are things being done to lessen the cost at private universities but my main argument about it being misleading would be the fact that community college is still college. According to scholarships360.org around 35 states currently offer some form of free tuition for an associates degree which is well over half the country. For those in states that don't offer things like this, yes It will be harder to pay for school and for middle income households to send students to state colleges. Average cost of instate state college students living on campus is around 30,000 a year according to education data initiative. The median household income is around 75,000 so to afford school you're using over a third of that household income. Furthermore FAFSA doesn't only look at income and some parts they don't account for it at all so saying they can't get financial aid at all is also incorrect. But all that being said aid is not a guarantee and loans for anyone is a burden so I agree that it's hard for middle class families to afford sending students to college.

Sources:

Bloomburg

Scholarships360.org

Education Data Initiative 

1. Write a brief overall summary of your findings.
2. What primary sources did you find (e.g., transcripts, videos of politician speeches, tweets from public figures, scientific studies)? For each source, write at least one or two sentences explaining what you learned. Include all links.
3. What secondary sources did you find (e.g., newspapers, magazines)? Only use secondary sources if sufficient primary sources are not available. For each source, write at least one or two sentences explaining what you learned. Include all links.
4. What potential biases or interests might each of your sources have?
5. What evidence supports the claim you are fact-checking?
6. What evidence undermines the claim you are fact-checking?
7. What happened when you tried contacting the person or group who made the original claim? (Always try to contact them—it’s okay if you don’t get a reply. For example, if the claim is that the president said something, try reaching out to the administration. If it was a Bluesky user, message that user on Bluesky.)

Answer 2

I think that the claim “It’s near impossible for middle-income students to afford college” is exaggerated but not false. The NPR article that was used as a primary source is creditable and NPR is common alt regarded as a creditable news source. The NPR article is also backing up the claim made by highlighting in the article that middle class families have been struggling more with the rising costs of colleges. However there are specific statistics used in the claim that are not found in the NPR article, like the 45% to 37% enrollment drop. The Institute of Higher Education Policy also released an article called “New analysis finds most families can’t cover college costs”  which also helps back up the claim made that Higher education is getting progressively harder to afford for middle class families. However I would say both the primary and secondary sources are stating that college is getting progressively harder for middle class families to afford and not that it is “near impossible for them to afford” like the claim states. So I would say overall that the claim is over-exaggerated. 

Comments

What are your sources to back up your fact-check? Always cite in-text and provide URL source links. Thanks!

Answer 3

While "impossible" may be an exaggeration, college has become far more expensive, especially for middle and lower class people in the United States. As stated by the Education Data Initiative and JP Morgan, the cost of a college education has risen more sharply than even housing, medical care, and food. This is in line with the statistics cited by the NPR article, and shows a steep rise in costs that will most likely exclude many people, even from families that before would have been able to afford upper education without relative hardship. Therefore, while "impossible" may be an exaggeration, it is hard to deny that the costs have made it much more difficult for many people to attain a college degree. 

Answer 4

While deeming it "impossible" may be extreme, the claim that it is near impossible for middle-income students to afford college is mainly accurate. According to NPR, many middle-income families are frustrated by the cost of higher education, feeling they earn too much for financial aid, but not enough to pay for it themselves. Author Jon Marcus expressed that "Families with annual incomes of from $75,000 to $110,000 get less than half as much financial aid as people who make under $48,000, federal figures show." The first range of income represents middle-income salaries, showing that those groups are statistically less supported by financial aid from universities. Additionally, Georgetown University wrote "that a middle-income household would need to pay, on average, 35% of its annual income to cover the full cost of college attendance minus grants and scholarships." Seeing this information, it is evident that middle-income families will struggle to afford the costs of college, especially when 35% of their income needs to go to that. While that percent isn't terribly large, when put into perspective, it is a large amount of money that could be spent on the family's homes, foods, etc. Further in the article, the author expresses that the amount of middle-income students enrolled in college has dropped from 45% to 37% in 20 years, which displays the clear impact of middle-class families not being able to afford college.