College Tuition Research Paper

Teresa Jaqueline Vazquez

Prof. Siedman

Critical Thinking & Communication

23 October 2015 History Of College Tuition We all know that the true Universities were stablish around 1100-1200s in the medieval Europe, and few of them charged for tuition. While there was free tuition there were limitations. There were few fields of study such as law, medicine, theology and the arts. To get a bachelor’s degree it would take 6 years to complete and if you wanted a higher degree it would take at least 12 more years. Around 1790s Thomas Jefferson proposed a higher educational system supported by taxes. He believed that for a government to truly work and people to be good citizens, they had to be educated. But Jefferson never planned for “Free Education.”

Even though it was not expensive, only the wealthy could afford the living expenses that occurred during the study. The reason that college tuition was very low was because student had to sleep in barracks and eat less than normal. By 1870 the tuition at Harvard University was a mere of $150 a year which would equal to about $3000 in today’s dollars. Many lower class families were never able to afford the cost college tuition without scholarships. In 1920-1930 the admission started to increase and with that tuition too. But it was still fairly low, students could attend to some of the best universities for just $250 a year. In the 1940s the US government passed the G.I bill, which provides returning veterans college for free or at deducted cost. By today around 7.8 veterans have used it to receive education or complete training programs. Another bill pass by the US government is The Higher Education Act, it helps providing financial assistance to students who can’t afford the tuition rate. It is what has help stablish many financial aid programs such as low interest rates on