When it's time to decide which college to attend, one of the deciding
factors should be the cost of tuition. Being that once you start college you
are only the young age of 18 years old, having the proper finances for such a
detrimental part of life isn’t always the way it pans out. For those potential
students, having parents who are willing to help out at any cost can be a
tremendous blessing.
This is not the case for two parents from Mattapoisset, Ma. Steven and
Paula Bonney took out $115,000 in loans to help finance their two daughters
through college. This was about a decade ago, and the Bonneys assumed that by
this time in their lives they’d be debt free, but that’s not the reality.
Unfortunately Steven had fallen off a 25-foot scaffold and broke his neck,
which had left him paralyzed from the waist down. Steven’s accident had put a
halt to the hard work he and Paula were doing to make sure the student loans
could be taken care of.
Much
like the Bonneys, in 2011 21% of parents took out loans to help finance their
children through college. That number was a serious increase from 13% in 1999.
I
personally think that when looking into which university best suits you, the
price of tuition should be one of the first things you look at. When I was
starting college and looking at schools I couldn’t believe some of the costs of
tuition. I don’t think I could ever accept my parents help, or at least to the
tune of $50,000, but that’s just me.
The story about the Bonneys can be found here
Great topic! You can never say too much about college debt and the burden for parents. This is a topic that is always timely and relevant at a time when college tuition has risen much faster than inflation decades. In these tough economic times, college debt often is a huge burden for students and for parents like Steven and Paul Bonney, who feel obligated to help pay their kids' college tuition. Their story provides great anecdotal evidence for your story. It's always good to highlight real people behind the numbers in tuition stories.
ReplyDeleteI like that at the end you share your own personal insight and experience with the topic, which adds to your credibility. Even though this is a blog and is your own independent thinking, make sure you use punctuation, particularly commas throughout your piece. Otherwise, this is a great topic as college tuition is an perpetual issue that many families must grapple with.