For the past two weeks, I have seen countless videos of university students flooding my Explore page. These students are asking for help with paying their tuition and other school fees. I have always seen videos like these, but never at this scale. It’s extremely alarming because no one should have to beg on social media for money. When did education become not just a privilege, but also about taking advantage of students? Universities are charging exorbitant amounts, and yet their offerings don’t match the cost of attendance. This exploitation needs to stop.
Universities and colleges, especially in the United States, didn’t always charge such high amounts for tuition. Up until the 1960s, institutes of higher education in the United States were free or at least low cost. As the economy worsened, state governments allocated less and less to funding universities. Thus, tuition prices increased and have kept increasing with each subsequent school year1. At Duke University, the total cost of attendance in the 2002-2003 school year was $35,756, and was $83,263 for the 2023-2024 school year2 . With a 133% increase, no wonder students are relying on random strangers to help cover costs.
Like many of the students in the videos, every year I go through the same period of stress trying to figure out how to pay my tuition. I hate the idea of taking out more loans than required, and thankfully my parents can financially support me, but it’s never simple. Between the day I get my financial aid offer in late June to around the third week of school, I am riddled with all this guilt and stress. I am worried about how I’m going to make the tuition payments, but I also feel guilty for putting this burden on my parents as well. I love my university, and the opportunities it has given me, but at what cost?
It’s not fair to have students scrambling at the last minute to find funding for school. I’m completely baffled at how it seems like many individuals with the authority to make attending college more accessible care so little. If they truly did care, then seeing videos of students asking for money would be enough to overhaul the system.
What saddens me the most is when I see a video like this, and it has just a few likes. I can’t even begin to imagine how demoralizing that feels. The student has exhausted all other options, works up the courage to make a video, posts it, and the engagement is low. Students shouldn’t have to go through this embarrassment.
To be honest, I don’t have a concrete solution to this problem in higher education. All I can say is keep speaking up for yourselves. If you don’t like your financial aid offer, send an email or call the financial aid office. You should always ask for better. Even if you don’t get what you want, you at least tried. Maybe your feedback is the final push to get your university to overhaul its aid process.
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- https://www.history.com/articles/american-colleges-tuition-free ↩︎
- https://dukechronicle.com/article/duke-university-tuition-cost-of-attendance-increases-over-the-years-duke-ivy-plus-atlantic-coast-conference-integrated-postsecondary-education-data-system-analysis-20250303 ↩︎