An investment for the future.

So at the moment my sister is busying herself with university applications. She stressed herself out over her Cambridge application to the point of hysteria. So today my question is, why is there so much pressure on what university you go to? Why do we crave Ivy League status when state universities are just as good? Students who can’t even afford to attend the likes of Harvard, Princeton and Yale fight their way through junior and senior year to get into the top 10% and then find out that sometimes all their hard work, their lack of a social life and a strained sense of cool was all for nothing. The most costly school this year was the Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, estimated at around tuition of $57,556 per year. I, myself have faced the pressure of applying to universities that do not suit me or I am not interested in because of the name, such as Harvard and Stanford. It makes me sad when I hear that many students because of their high goals and ambitions sit in a pile of debt, sometimes thousands of dollars. Sarah Lawrence College defends its hefty price tag by saying that unlike other colleges, they believe in weekly meetings with faculty members. So we are paying for weekly seminars with our professors? It makes me angry when some people work hard their whole lives and then their dreams are crushed by a ludicrous price tag. Maybe American universities need to take advice from British universities? The British government is adamant in sending their students to university and depending from university to university for a UK national or citizen, annual tuition fees vary from ₤2000-4000 without books of course and board, I believe but boarding will only add an ₤1000 or so, that is around $3164-7911 a year, including the best schools such as Oxford and Cambridge. I think it’s time to make universities more affordable.