College Costs

The comic "Welcome to Economics 101, kid..." is an example of Visual Rhetoric where the rhetoric occurs via images combined with words. In the comic, there is a picture of a teenager standing with weights chained around each of his ankles. Each weight reads an idea or statement that pertains to college tuition: "Student Loans" and "Tuition Hike". The weight with "Student Loans" written on it is way bigger than the weight with "Tuition Hike" written on it. It appears that the teenager is trying to go college to get a better education for himself while also trying to figure out how he is going to pay back his student loans. This visual rhetoric suggests that college tution these days can be very expensive, and borrowing student loans from the bank in order to pay for college can be a long journey when trying to pay back the money borrowed along with interest. The title suggests that while sometimes borrowing student loans from the bank may be necessary, it is not always the most economical decison to put yourself into a deep financial hole. Unfortunately, it is very difficult for the average student to afford to go to college without having to borrow huge students loans. Most scholarships may only cover part of the tuition if not all, not to mention there are other fees to consider such as room and board, textbooks, laptops, and other supplies. In order for a student to receive a full ride to college, he either has to be really intelligent i.e. 4.0 GPA and 2100 on his SATs or he has to be an amazing athlete with an athletic scholarship from the institution to cover costs and expenses. Unfortunately, not everyone is born with those qualities, and they have to find other alternatives to pay for college. The best thing to do is to hope to graduate and get a job right after school to pay back all those student loans.