By: Hien Thanh Dang
Money is almost always a concern for students and their families when making a decision on a college for their future education.
Tuition cost at Seattle Central Community College is quite low; International and out of state students pay about $7,900 per year, plus about $400 in fees; for a total of $8,300 in 2009. In state students paid about $2900 per year.
The chart above shows Seattle Central Community College tuition costs and additional fees compared to the other competing and nearby colleges. The highest cost of tuition was at Green River community college with almost $10,000 per year. The other colleges with high tuition costs are Edmonds Community College, Bellevue Communtiy College and SCCC. at over $9,000 per year. By contrast, those schools with very low tuition cost which are in out lying areas have under $5,000 per year average tuition. SCCC with perfect location has much more students.
Although the average tuition cost is low about $8000 – $9000, these fees are not stable. Tuition costs seem to be increasing in recent years, growing steadily since the late 1980’s, when tuition was increasing at a nine to ten percent rate.
From the school research data, this year four year college tuition rose 9.6 percent, joined by a six percent rise in the cost of room and board. Two-year colleges are also feeling the sting of rising tuition rates. Two-year public schools increased their tuition by 7.9 percent average, while the cost of two-year private schools increased by 7.5 percent. Students going into college in the next year are supposed to see the same pattern of increase. Tuition at SCCC rose dramatically by 10 percent from $8300 in 2009 to $9300 in 2010. The Increasing tuition fee caused a huge of problems at colleges, now there are fewer students attending university and college because of higher tuition, the number of students attending school in 2010 dropped from 7,850 to 6,810 in 2009. Many students are unable to attend school because of financial reasons even though they have enough abilities. Some of them have to look for jobs or some others look for worse schools. Ha Nguyen, international student in SCCC, has to quit winter quarter to find a job to earn money for spring. This is a very small part of the students have to work to cover tuition especially international students. Higher tuition has effected largely international students due to financial problems such as: rate exchange, taxes.. Moreover, due to high tuition fees, many students graduate with a burden of debt from loans they have to ask for when they study in college. Students are forced to take jobs when they are not ready immediately after they graduate. This makes many people disappointed and distressed because they don’t have any experience. Some people say that a higher education even with the recent cost increases, and is not out of reach because of financial aid that’s available. Nevertheless these financial aid opportunities are all quickly change to hard student loans.
Another problem affecting the financial issue is college student insurance. Nhung Dang- another international student- has to pay $1200 insurance cost just because of one cut on her finger. She is going to take 4 classes in this quarter; because of this problem she has dropped a class, spending the money on paying the insurance bill. Although tuition includes insurance fees, the students still pays a part of the bill. Also because of high insurance cost, many students stay at home and take care themselves, this often causes them feel tired when attending in class and reduces the quality of college class hours.
Because of the financial reasons, many students are unable to attend college follow a straight way and also discourages young adults from getting a higher education. The good human labor is an important force to create a developing society so the government should facilitate the best conditions for development.
