By PAIGE ESLINGER
Contributing Writer
Heck No!
Since I have been at Piedmont, tuition has increased every year. Having three siblings is always tough financially for my family, and it makes it harder when school is so expensive. I think that there should be more academic scholarships to help offset the huge expense for tuition and to make it more affordable.
This would not only be beneficial for the students, but also for the college. I think one of the reasons that Piedmont does not have a great retention rate is because of how expensive it is.
Many other schools in the state are less expensive and provide more opportunities to experience new things.
Piedmont should take these things into consideration as they try to better the college. Over the last three and a half years, many of my friends and people I know have transferred to other schools in order to stay out of debt.
Since graduation is approaching quickly, I have definitely begun to realize how important it is to start off without any debt. My parents have always taught me to stay out of debt no matter the costs. Growing up, my family and I always lived below our means and it created much less stress if we were ever in tight spots financially. School takes up a large part of our early life and there should be no reason that our education should come back and haunt us as we try to start out our adult lives.
If students had more help with scholarship money, it would be much easier for us to kickstart our independent lives.
School is supposed to make your life easier after graduation; it should not be a burden because of how much you had to pay for it.
Like I said earlier, if Piedmont’s tuition was lower and there were more scholarships, I think that we would have the ability to keep all the students that come here as freshmen and make the overall population larger.
By TAYLOR MITCHAM
Contributing Writer
Heck Yes!
Since this is my first year of school, I haven’t experienced years and years of adding up debt with student loans, but I know that it’s something that many students struggle with after they graduate. Hopefully I won’t have to.
Having debt right out of college is a hard thing to deal with, and it makes it harder to start your life right away.
I love being at Piedmont.
It’s a great school and I’ve learned a lot, not only about myself, but about others. I’ve made a lot of friends, created so many memories and had an absolute blast.
I just wish that the fun didn’t cost my family and I so much so that I could enjoy it just a tiny bit more. Piedmont’s tuition is pretty expensive and from what I’ve heard it just goes higher and higher every year.
I think Piedmont is very fair in the amount of scholarships that they give to students. I also think that the scholarships are extremely random.
The balance of how expensive the tuition is and the amount of scholarships that we receive kind of balances out.
Unfortunately, the Hope scholarship is being reduced, which means less money for us.
One thing that still gets me is the lack of athletic scholarships.
I understand that other divisions are allowed to give athletic scholarships and Division III isn’t, but it’s not very fair.
All Division III athletes work hard to do what they love and maintain their grades without any payment for it.
So yes, I do think that Piedmont gives enough scholarships, but I think that tuition needs to freeze and stay where it is.
When you get the same amount of scholarship money every year, but the tuition keeps going up, it’s hard to see that the scholarships are even helping.