Unlocking Word Meanings
Read the following words/expressions found in today’s article.
1. elite (adj.) [ih-leet, ey-leet] – the very best or having the highest quality
Read the following words/expressions found in today’s article.
1. elite (adj.) [ih-leet, ey-leet] – the very best or having the highest quality
Example: Harvard is an elite university.
2. debt (n.) [det] – an amount of money borrowed from someone that must be paid or returned
Example: Most US citizens are
having difficulty paying their large credit card debts.
3. owe (v.) [oh] – to have a responsibility to pay money to someone (person, bank, or other
business)
Example: Each year, I pay the income
tax that I owe to the government.
4. establish (v.) [ih-stab-lish] – to set
up or to create something that will last permanently
Example: There are plans to establish a new law that will help
students pay their tuition fees.
5. loan (n.) [lohn] – money lent to somebody for an agreed period of time
Example: The student loan given by the university will pay
for his college tuition, which he must pay back after graduation.
Article
Read the text below.
A recent Reuters
study found that in the US, graduates from lower cost public universities leave
school with more student debt than
graduates from expensive, elite universities.
The research
collected data on the average student debt of graduates in the year 2011 from
25 of the top public and private universities. The data showed that in Ivy
League universities, the most expensive top universities in the US, at least 50%
of students graduated without debts.
In Princeton
University, which has an estimated tuition of $54,780, graduates owed only an average of $5,000 to the
school. In contrast, graduates of the University of Michigan had an average
debt of $27,000, even though their tuition was about half the cost of
Princeton’s.
The differences in student
debt may be because Ivy League schools have established generous financial aid policies the past few years.
Harvard, Stanford, and Berkeley have also decided to limit their fees
depending on each student’s family income.
For example, in
Harvard, students pay nothing to the school if their family income is less
than $65,000 per year. Those with families earning less than $150,000 yearly,
on the other hand, must pay less than 10% of the total tuition fee.
Meanwhile, 74 US universities
have decided to stop offering loans
in their financial help packages, so graduates will not have difficulty
paying back the debt. Most public
universities, however, cannot afford to do this because they depend on
tuition payments to survive.
Student debt in the
US currently totals over $1 trillion.
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Viewpoint Discussion
Enjoy a discussion with your tutor.
Discussion A
·
What benefit does a school gain in helping
students financially or in giving some students free tuition?
·
Do you believe only expensive schools give high
quality education? Why or why not?
Discussion B
·
Do you believe that education is a good
investment? What makes you think so?
How
can one prepare for the costs of a university education? Suggest good ways of
lessening the burden of paying for these.