Being a senior… going on my fourth year of college… tuition has increased about seven percent... SEVEN PERCENT. That's quite a jump. It's as if the university gets you locked in, turns around and increases tuition. That's hard on every college student. College is getting so expensive that students can barely afford to eat.

Let's drop some facts:

According to Business Reader as of 2018...

College tuition costs have risen and student meal plans are more expensive than what the average American spends on food.

More than one-third of college students worried about not having money to eat or skipped meals in the past month, according to one survey.

A combination of colleges and universities across the country have opened pantries and food banks for in-need students.

Business Insider

During the 1980-81 school year, the average college tuition at private universities was $9,882. By 2014-15, that number exploded to $26,740.

For public universities, the tuition figures went from $2,196 to $8,534.

Student-loan debt in the US has grown to a staggering $1.3 TRILLION and many policymakers refer to the seemingly unstoppable levels of mounting debt as a crisis.

In today's job market, a college degree is widely considered to be a necessity, even in many professions where it was once considered superfluous. This has contributed to an increase in students attending college to prepare for professions where they do not necessarily need degrees. Colleges are well aware of public opinion regarding college degrees, so they are also aware that they can set tuition almost as high as they'd like and still attract a sizeable student body.

Partly because college administrators know that their product is in high demand and is guaranteed to sell at virtually any price, they sometimes view student attendance as an inevitability. Therefore, some schools tend to focus more on the demands and needs of their professors, alumni, investors and other important "customers" rather than the needs of their students.

Expensive athletic programs (supposedly benefiting alumni more than students), trustees' whims, and professors' demands are just a few examples of ways that educational institutions have been known to cater to the needs of their customers at the expense of their students.

As college student recruitment and admissions offices fork over hundreds of thousands of dollars each year to obtain enough students to keep their schools operational, that escalating student acquisition cost contributes directly to the tuition costs that wildly continue to increase to levels an average American family will soon find unfathomable.

There was a quote, not sure by who, or the exact words, but it went something like, "Imagine how many potential Einstein's, da Vinci's, Tesla's, Newton's, dead slaves working in fields, or as young men in the plethora of human wars, and how much more advanced we would be if their talents had been expressed."

This one really sticks with me, it changed my philosophy, after reading it I have made it a life goal to open a scholarship for people from lower-income families and homes, or scour third world countries in search of the next brilliant mind. I know I'm not the brightest but I was born with stupid determination… and I may play a minor role in human existence, but if I can recruit the next untapped brilliant mind, and catalyze their advancement of mankind, my role in human development will be much greater than I could ever make it on my own.

So my final question is… what if the cure for cancer is trapped inside the mind of someone who can't afford an education?