Congratulations! You have been accepted to the college of your choice; now all that's left to figure out is how you're going to pay for college. Unfortunately, college costs don't end with tuition, room and board—you'll also have to pay for textbooks, meals, transportation, and a computer with working Internet. We are told that we live in a free country, but if our country is so called “free,” how come paying for education isn't? The most important thing in my case and that of many low-income students is to try to attend college and be able to pay without going into debt. I find myself, since 2010, hearing the same stories from former graduates, who fell into debt when they reached their second year of college. Excited to venture into “college life,” I'm starting to notice that paying for college isn't like paying a couple of fees in high school. While college has brought many benefits to our society, paying for it has not. At the age of fourteen we enter a completely different atmosphere, only to find that just when we feel comfortable we have to leave high school life and start over at college, but we notice that college is just like high school, except that this time we have to pay to get an education in a “free” country. Our parents or administration tell us, “Don't mess it up, it will cost you in the long run,” do we listen? Some of us do, some of us don't, then we realize when senior year rolls around, that we literally have to pay for college. The cost of attending university has become 500% higher than in 1985. The increase in university fees and the income of low-income families mean that every day fewer and fewer students obtain a university degree, unfortunately having to… .. half paper ......ips, but only 2,000 out of 40% of those admitted get scholarships. Someone is winning those scholarships and it could be you simply for applying early, but the chances of winning still remain slim, sounds more like winning a scholarship? There's not much chance of that happening. Works Cited Cohn, Scott. "The debt that won't go away." CNBC.com. Np, Dec. 20, 2010. Web. Nov. 18, 2013. Sheehy, Kelsey. “Pay for college without taking on student loan debt.” News from the United States. USNews & World Report, September 10, 2013. Web. November 18, 2013. Hero, Martin. "Construction begins on new dormitories and parking lots; note road closures." News at FIU Florida International University. Np, 09 March 2013. Web. 23 November 2013. Mosbergen, Dominique. “The cost of a college degree in the United States has increased 1,120% in 30 years, says report.” The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, August 15, 2012. Web. November 21. 2013.