Tuition Fees in United States Essay Example for Free

Tuition Fees in United States Essay Introduction In their best-seller book, Rich Dad Poor Dad, Robert T. Kiyosaki and his co-author Susan L. Lechter encourage people to grow their assets instead of liabilities. In other words, they suggest that we, anyone who wants to be rich, should not spend our money in any way that is no relation with assets creation. While some parts of capitalism idea are true in assets creation, Robert gives hints what to invest in today ever changing market situation. They say that knowledge is the important thing everyone should invest to succeed as his â€Å"Rich Dad† told me when he was a teenager. Knowledge does not mean that we pursue doctorate degree; instead, he suggests that we keep our eyes, ear, and other senses to any changes that we encounter everyday. In this manner, we could obtain knowledge from books, chat with a friend, magazines, pages on the Internet, and even from a barking dog. In compliance with the importance of having appropriate knowledge, in this paper we discuss the increasing number of international students who pursue their study into graduate schools and college in the U.S. To be specific, this paper discusses why international students pay more tuition fee than the U.S. citizen. Aims and Objectives Concerning the discussion of discrepancy of tuition fee between U.S. citizen and international students, this paper will discuss three aims and objectives as following: This paper intends to discuss why many international students eagerly pursue their college and graduate degree in the U.S Using the non-participant observation method, collecting data and analyzing qualitative information from journal, books, magazine and other online materials, this paper aims at discussion factors-factors that cause the tuition fee for international students are larger than the U.S. counterparts. In addition, the paper aims at highlighting the benefits that international student would obtain when they have U.S college or universities degree Attractiveness of U.S Education Institution According to Riley (2008), about 500,000 students coming from various countries in the world pursue their degree in the U.S. universities and college. There are many driving factors that encourage international students to go to the Uncle Sam land instead of to other universities in other part of the world like Europe and Japan. Currently, there are about 4,000 public and private colleges, universities, and community colleges in the U.S. This number includes more than 600 public four-year college and more than 1,650 private four-year colleges and universities (Riley, 2008). According to Riley (2008), the reason behind the increasing number of international students into U.S. education institutions is because they provide very high quality of education standards. This long-time quality is built by a strong partnership between students and their families, the federal government, individual philanthropists, and the states has created sustainable and recognized model of educational standard in the U.S. Since the quality of education can be better if they are challenged with cultural diversity, U.S. educational institution also race for attracting more international students to pursue their study in the U.S in order to create high quality experience and enrich the diversity of the universities. Figure 1  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Top Universities in the World Source: Paked, 2006   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Another factor that encourages international students to pursue their graduate in the U.S is because many times U.S. universities and college are listed as the best universities in the world. This fact becomes the main basis for students since the pride of having U.S. graduates is valuable and saleable when they return to their home countries and chase for new attractive jobs and positions. High Tuition Fee for International Students One interesting fact behind the increasing number of non-resident (international) student that comes into the U.S. to obtain a degree is the difference amount of tuition fees that they should pay to a university compared to those of U.S. residents. For example, in the Idaho State University, students from the U.S. (residents) only pay $2,580.00 per semester. Meanwhile, other students coming from outside the U.S. (Non-residents) would pay about triple than those of the residents, about $6,922.00 per semester. Figure 2  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   UCLA Tuition Fees for Resident and Non-Residents (International) Students Source: http://www.registrar.ucla.edu/fees/gradfee.htm   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Another example of the discrepancy of tuition fee for U.S residents and Non U.S. residents is on the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) that charge U.S. residents about $8,967 and $23,955 for U.S. residents (Figure 2).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Similarly, the fee for international students at University of California Berkeley is also higher than those of U.S. residents. At UC Berkeley, the tuition fee for U.S. resident is about $4,190.75 per semester. Meanwhile the tuition fee for non-U.S resident is $14,000.75, representing three times higher than the U.S. resident. Figure 3  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   UC Berkeley Tuition Fees for Resident and Non-Residents Students Source: http://registrar.berkeley.edu/Registration/feesched.html Reasons of High Tuition Fee for International Students There are many reasons underlies the decision to charge international or non U.S. resident a much higher tuition fee. They are as following Tax Subsidy According to Idaho State University (2008), the one-third tuition fee for U.S. residents can occurs since two-third of the tuition fee is paid by tax subsidy. By definition, tax subsidy refers to any kind of subsidy that recipients or students in case of tuition fee receive the benefits according to the tax system in the U.S. The origin of tax subsidy is from consumption tax, profit tax, or income tax. Law of Demand According to Open Doors, an organization that focuses on organizing and monitoring the promotion of US educations to foreign students, the number of international students enrolled in United States higher education institution decreases notable during the last 3 years. The last available data however, was regarding the number of international students enrolling in US universities in the academic year of 2003/2004, which is 2.4% lower than the previous year. The decrease in said to be caused by a variety of reasons, some of them are: Difficulties in obtaining student visas Rising of US tuition costs Vigorous recruitment activities by other English-speaking nations (International Students, 2004) This paper is dedicated to discuss the second cause, which is the rising tuition cost in United States. It has been a common knowledge that international students in United States pay two to three times tuition fees as much as those paid by US students. Thus, a considerable portion of these international students rely on grants and loans from US government or other foundations. Others rely on personal loans. The center of attention of this paper is in the persisted increase in the cost of tuition for foreign students due to inflation and decreased percentage of study cost covered by government and other grants. This continuous increase in study costs for international students raise questions on the necessity of charging such a higher tuition fees on international students compare to local students. Economic Matters The study tuition and fees in United States varies from $ 5,000 to $30,000. This does not include the cost of living which is quite high, particularly in areas around Washington, California and New York. For the particular Asian students, the cost of living varies from $ 4,000 to $ 9,000, assuming that the students will live in share apartments, live out of the campus and have less telephone bill other expenses than US students. Students receiving any type of help like TA/RA/Fellowship of GA do not need to worry about costs, but student lacks of those aids must come prepared for the considerable amount of tuition fees and living costs (Spencer, 2005). In 2005, the average cost of tuition rose to $ 5,491, which is a 7% increase from previous year. Including the costs of room and board, the average annual cost of attendance is basically increased to $12,127. Furthermore, if the costs of books, transportation and additional fees are added, the average costs become more than $15,000 nationwide. In some universities, like the University of Miami, the tuition fee alone is $35,000 per semester, with boarding, books and additional costs included, the total costs of education in the University for foreign students is approximately $ 50,000 per semester. These continuing trends of tuition fees enhancement are not without notable effects. The cuts in tuition aids programs along with increased tuition fees have put many low-income students out of college. There are even more notable phenomena where foreign students perform sexually-oriented work to pay for their tuition fees in US (The Chronicle of Higher Education, 2008). Attentive Support Just like a service company, the more benefits a customer obtain, the more expensive the price might be. This condition is also true for U.S. universities since about one-third of students (about 1.2 million students) that choose to take study abroad will land in the U. S. The reasons are because U.S. universities provide better services to their students including the Leading Technology to fast track of the student success in the future (Hyperstudy, 2007). Another reason is because education in America represents a high value in most of home-country students. This situation is somewhat similar to branded and non-branded clothing, which means that as branded universities, they charge higher tuition fees for international students (Hyperstudy, 2007). Conclusions This paper elaborates the increasing number of international students who pursue their study into graduate schools and college in the U.S. To be specific, this paper is to answer the follow why international students pay more tuition fee than the U.S. citizen. According to the analysis, the reasons behind this issue is because there are many incentives and benefits that international student may obtain from attending school in the U.S. Reference: Gorski, Paul. (2001). Multicultural Education and the Digital Divide. McGraw Hill. Retrieved April 2, 2008 from http://www.mhhe.com/socscience/education/multi/philosophy/4divide.html Hyperstudy. (2007). Study Abroad in America. Retrieved April 3, 2008 from http://www.hyperstudy.com/study-in-usa/study-guide/why-study-in-america.php Idaho State University. (2008). Non-Resident Tuition Fee Waiver. Retrieved April 4, 2008 from http://www.isu.edu/iso/feewaiver.shtml International Student Enrollment declined by 2.4% in 2003/04. 2004. Network. Retrieved April 1, 2008 from opendoors.iienetwork.org/?p=50137 Kiyosaki, Robert T., and Susan L. Lechter. (1997). Rich Dad Poor Dad. Paked. (2006). World University /College Rankings. Retrieved April 3, 2008 from http://www.paked.net/higher_education/rankings/times_rankings_2004.htm Riley, Richard W. (2008). The US college/university experience: An opportunity worth exploring. Retrieved April 3, 2008 from http://www.paked.net/higher_education/rankings/times_rankings_2004.htm Spencer, Naomi. (2005). University students in US face higher tuition and loan debt. Retrieved April 1, 2008 from http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/aug2005/tuit-a03.shtml . (2005). US colleges and universities increase tuition again. Retrieved April 1, 2008 from http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/oct2005/tuit-o27.shtml Study in the USA. Understanding American Education. Retrieved April 3, 2008 from http://www.studyusa.com/articles/understanding.asp The Chronicle of Higher Education. (2008). French Students Increasingly Become Prostitutes to Pay Tuition, 2 Books Suggest. Retrieved April 1, 2008 from http://chronicle.com/news/article/3780/french-students-increasingly-become-prostitutes-to-pay-tuition-2-books-suggest