It is a known fact that college tuition prices can be expensive. It is also a fact that the prices for tuition are rising every year. College tuition prices have more than doubled since the 1980’s. The number of students who want to go to college has drastically increased, as well, which is believed to be the cause of the rising of tuition prices.

“I want to go to college, despite the large tuition price,” senior Jillian Burrows said, “because in the long run, having an education will be really beneficial.”

The average college tuition price range between 2018 and 2019 was $35,676 at private colleges, $21,629 for students who live out of state, and $9,716 for students who live in the same state that they are attending college in.

“There are two steps. First, you want to apply for scholarships,” principal Tom Lietz said. “Then you make a decision for where you want to be in the long run. Use footholds that will get you to where you wanna go.”

Over $150 billion in financial aid was available for undergraduates as of 2018, meaning that applying for scholarships will most likely decrease the amount of debt that college students end up with every year.

Since college tuition prices are rising so much, more and more students are choosing colleges based off of price range rather than based off of personal opportunity.

“I tried not to let tuition price affect my decision when I decided where to go to college, and I’m happy with my decision,” Burrows said.

There are various tools to help calculate your tuition/college fees, such as the college cost calculator on College Board or Naviance.

“You students have very helpful tools,’ Lietz said, “like Naviance, to help [with calculating] college tuition prices.”