Am I broke?

In the year 2005 2.3 million African American students attended college, which was about a one million student increase from the the previous fifteen years. In the growing rate of college attendees more and more African American students are trying to figure out the amount of money they will need in order to attend college as well as take care of outside expenses. To gain a higher education students have been placed under the pressure of paying for school with exorbitant loans that embody high interest rates that run up to 15 percent. Many historically Black colleges and universities are privately owned which automatically hikes the prices of education. At Clark Atlanta University the average tuition for an undergraduate student is approximately 8,050 dollars per semester, excluding room and board. With the addition of having to live on campus and a meal plan plus other cost, tuition overall for a year is about 26, 000 dollars. The question is posed: How does the cost of education affect the African American student? The continuos complaint that HBCU’s (historically black colleges and universities) are not fully funded and thus students lose opportunities to gain scholarships and grants, haunts the minds of those who can not afford tuition.
I interviewed Matthew Charles Parker, a twenty-two year old Senior at Clark Atlanta University, who has transferred from the community college Georgia Perimeter college, which is a community college located in close proximity to CAU. He has experienced campus life on two different campuses. I asked him if he felt that his amounted money borrowed in loans was well spent on attending a private university instead of a school which cost less with the same programs. He reassured me that with the extra cost, he felt like he was gaining a better education that included an environment that a community college could not provide. Yet, he did not realize that private loans would amount to leaving him in extreme debt. After almost five years attending college Matthew has accumulated almost a hundred thousand dollars in loan money. In debt before even graduating from college and previous to even stepping into a career, students find themselves in a bind of having to pay loans with barely enough money to support themselves once the exit their “grand institutions”. Added to this pressure is the issue that many students, while away from home have been suckered into using credit cards. Now, at the end of his undergraduate journey Matthew has ensured the fact that he will not allow the weight of his loans to pressure him into deep depth while he works towards obtaining a high income. Unfortunately, with the plummet of today’s economy, the average college graduate can not find a job in their field and must reduce themselves back down to just finding a job that “works”. It will be a constant struggle for African American students as well as other races to stay afloat in a world that is controlled by economic stature. However, college was supposed to help with that climb, instead it has made many fall.