With the way scholarships are awarded for American universities we have created a gap. Kids who fall below the poverty line have their schooling basically paid for, kids who come from families that can afford to pay tens of thousands of dollars every semester are covered and kids with athletic ability and kids who are a certain ethnicity are good, too. So, what about the middle class ordinary white college student? Where do they fall? Somewhere between students loans, debt and emptying their parents bank accounts.

Just because a family isn’t, by definition, poor does not mean they can afford to pay full price tuition to universities. The result is devastating. Too often you meet adults who have families of their own who are still paying off loans from college. We live in a society where it’s becoming impossible to be successful without a college degree yet we’ve made it nearly impossible to get by the rising cost of tuition and lack of available scholarships/financial aid for middle class families. Because of these issues it’s becoming very challenging, if not impossible, for these students to attend a four year university.

While there are many problems in America that are complex and hard to find a solution to, this is not one. Tuition cost needs to be lowered, more scholarships need to be available and these new scholarships need to be based on capability. Not skin color or income because while it is necessary for the students coming from these backgrounds to receive some help, those coming from middle class families do as well. It’s time to stop overlooking the middle class.