inventing arguments draft #1
TRANSCRIPT
Sell 1
Kristen Sell
Prof. DiSarro
ENG 103
November 2010
“Title”
Many believe that federal and institution aid along with inflation and tax benefits lessen
the blow of paying for higher education (Awan para. 2). As a struggling student, I disagree.
Public four-year universities raised in-state tuition and fees by eight percent this year, putting in-
state tuition, including room and board, at $16,140 (Awan para. 2). While these forms of aid do
help many students, some of us are being looked over. I am a 22-year-old freshman. As a
freshman, I receive the lowest amount of student loan available, so low an amount, it does not
even cover my tuition. As a 22-year-old adult, I live on my own (off campus). This requires me
to have a job to help me barely pay my rent and bills along with textbooks and extra costs my
financial aid does not cover. I am also somehow expected to find time to study and do well in
my classes. While I am an adult, I am not 24-years-old, so I must still consider myself to be
dependent. This means that, although I support myself, my parent’s income, instead of my own,
is still the deciding factor in whether or not I receive any aid or grants. Because my parents are
not poor and they have good credit, there are no grants made available to me. This means that I
have to ask my parents to take out part of the federal loan that is available to them (an
embarrassing and highly unwanted task for an independent adult). So the experts may say that
the overall cost of paying for college has lessened, but, from where I’m standing, the price of
higher education should be greatly decreased, if not made free.
Sell 1
So, should financial aid just help most students? Should deserving students who have no
way outside of financial aid to pay for their education be allowed to fall through the cracks and
possibly not receive the education they ought to have just because our government feels good
that the majority of students have been helped? If one of these struggling students is asked, I
believe their reply would be a resounding no. Anyone with the drive to further their education
deserves that education, regardless of how much money she or he is able to contribute.