The Cost of College: How students are preparing to pay for college

Dear students and community members of Shawnee Mission East,

In the East environment, it’s easy to measure one’s post-high school success on the prestige or distance of the college they choose to attend. It’s also easy to assume that because you go to East, paying for college will be easy. After all, the East community is known for high income and million dollar homes.

However, this stereotype is false, setting unrealistic financial expectations for many families. College is expensive. It is for everyone. But this misconception leaves students to feel that they’re settling or forced to sacrifice what they desire in a school for what they can actually afford. Though the school provides a start to financial resources, it’s a daunting process with overwhelming amounts of information. Most conversations when it comes to college for upperclassmen put a heavy emphasis on standardized test preparation, scheduling college visits and boosting resumes in order to apply. Though they’re all important aspects to the college admission process, they come with a price tag — and little to no guidance on how to lower that.

With this, we hope to share the story behind the acceptance letters and college announcement Instagram posts. The story of struggling to find a way to pay for it and preparing for what college will look like for the students of East.

– The Editorial Board

Senior Bella Lynch sat at the table with her parents to look at a price range for the colleges she was considering. And as they continued to look at the price tags of enrollment while considering their financials, Lynch had to cross out more and more schools. 

She wanted to attend them. The environment, the programs, the people. Those colleges seemed perfect. But she didn’t want to put the pressure of paying for college brought onto her parents. It wasn’t fair to them, she said. 

So she crossed them off. 

With a boastful list of alumni attending high ranked colleges, East students are known to graduate with strong resumes, top scores and a slew of extracurriculars — all the elements needed to earn a place at the school of their liking. But even when they get in, the cost of tuition and room and board isn’t an affordable reality for them — leaving them to either take out loans or to find a more affordable option. 

Prairie Village has a higher average income and lower poverty rate than the national average. But even with a higher average income, the costly strain of college is still felt throughout the student body —  a reflection of the high price tag on most college tuition.

72% of East students say they’re concerned about the cost of college, according to an Instagram poll of 246. As a result, many students find themselves working overtime to save up money to make their enrollment deposit, or scouring third-party scholarship sites to apply for every small thousand-dollar scholarship that can make a difference.  

Senior Lydia Dorton had to reconsider several of the colleges she had applied to due to cost. She had never wanted to be in debt and is even more cautious to take out any student loans. Lydia finds she isn’t alone in her group of friends — many around her agree with her.  

“East has many wealthy families,” Dorton said. “But at the same time, college is a completely different thing than going on a vacation. It’s a very big investment. You can be wealthy and still have to pull out student loans and still have to think about financial decisions…There’s that misconception that, ‘Oh, people are wealthy. They can afford college’, but there’s a very big difference between being ‘wealthy’ and being able to drop $500,000 on college.”

Though there are numerous ways to save money through scholarships and government financial aid, that only goes so far, with many students coming to terms with in-state tuition as the only viable option. Although many students may choose in-state schools simply because they want to, many students end up choosing it for the affordability and reality of the price tag. 

In 2022-2023, public four-year institutions cost an average of $10,940 for in-state students but $28,240 for out-of-state students — nearly an $18,000 difference, according to the College Board. Calculating flights and longer car rides to out-of-state schools on top of that tuition adds up, often leaving students without the means to come home to their family for Thanksgiving break, or parents unable to visit their children during family weekends. 

Lynch didn’t fully understand the scope of how much college would cost until she sat down with her counselor this year and began to consider how she could pay for college. Lynch wants to go to an out-of-state school and with more diverse student bodies, but she has found it difficult to find a college in her family’s price range that would best fit her desired nursing programs. 

Though she’d taken Financial Literacy and filled out the district’s required career-planning program, Xello, both designed to prepare students for the post-graduation real-world, she says neither of them prepared her for the realities of taking out student loans or balancing going to a school she can afford rather than a school she loves. 

Lynch received scholarships from a few schools she was considering at Scholarship Shawnee Mission’s annual scholarships presentation in the fall — where over $789,440,944 in scholarships were awarded to the senior class. Students were presented scholarships from schools across the area, but with most in-state or a few hours away. Although Lynch appreciated the scholarship, it re-inforced the idea that if she wanted to go out-of-state, it would cost more. 

East also provides “College Resources” and “Financial Aid & Scholarships Web Resources”  sections on the school website, but there’s not much actual verbal assistance to highlight these resources. Many students find themselves going out of their way to meet with counselors for help, or simply researching financial aid information on their own, according to Dorton and Lynch.

“I feel like the counselors themselves don’t really ever make a point to be like, ‘Hey, if you’re worried about paying for college, come talk to us and let us tell you your options,” Lynch said. “Because I didn’t know my options until I went in there and set up an appointment and was like, ‘I don’t know what I’m doing. I need some guidance.’ It’s more of you have to reach out and know what you’re looking for and to be able to get that sort of help, that’s actually gonna be beneficial for you.”

Dorton resorted to speaking with a financial aid counselor from a college she applied to after she wasn’t able to find enough help from her East counselors. She would’ve liked to receive direct support from the counselors, but the financial aid counselor gave her specific information for that college’s specific tuition.

With acceptance rates decreasing each year, students are casting a wider net in where they apply, hoping that at least one school will accept them. But with a wider net comes a higher application fee total – another price tag.

Senior Michael Newbold feels that colleges take advantage of students charging between $60-$90 for application fees — yet another cost in the process. Newbold applied to over 25 schools, and saw how quickly application fees can compound into costing hundreds or even thousands of dollars. 

While Lynch didn’t even apply to some schools because she didn’t want to be accepted only to be unable to afford it, as possibility of acceptance only to be forced to decline due to financial reasons would’ve been too disappointing for her. 

Psychology teacher Brett Kramer graduated from Kansas State University in 2008, with 207 credit hours. At the time of his enrollment, one credit hour cost $137. Now, 15 years later, the cost is $375. Tuition is increasing, especially more rapidly with inflation. Students who could’ve afford the tuition 20 years ago aren’t able to anymore.

“There are people that will never be out of debt,” Kramer said. “And I would be one of those people if I tried to do what I did 20 years ago. It’s a lifetime of debt.”

Lynch is concerned about entering the workforce with debt and an entry-level salary not high enough to support any loans she takes out while still maintaining a standard quality of life.  

“I don’t want to be $100,000 in debt from nursing school and only be making $60 or $70,000 a year,” Lynch said. “You’re losing quality of life that way. That’s kind of scary to think about because I want to make sure that I’m making the right decision for myself, but also not putting myself in a bad position [for] the future.”