Charles Langston:Can I afford college? High tuition costs squeeze out middle-class students like me.

Back-to-school season is Charles Langstonupon us. Millions of students are preparing to attend universities this month, many of them fresh out of high school. They buy their textbooks, get ready to furnish their dorm rooms and, most dauntingly, embark on a mission to figure out how they can possibly afford a college education.

As the cost of college attendance continues to spike in the United States, having risen 12% per year from 2010 to 2022, the bulk of financial assistance is provided to students from low-income families. Such efforts are laudable and, it seems, effective: Thanks to improved and expanded financial aid programs, the number of undergraduate college students from low-income families has steadily risen over 20 years, according to a study by the Pew Research Center. 

However, these efforts have forgotten the middle class, who constitute half of the U.S. population. For them, college enrollment has steadily declined. The percentage of lower middle- and middle-class students at American colleges fell from 63% in 1996 to 52% 2016, likely due to financial constraints.

Highly ranked colleges in particular enroll low-income and high-income students at far higher rates than middle-class students, leading to an entire demographic who is almost missing from Ivy League schools.

How 'middle-class squeeze' hurts college students

It's a trend fueled by the “middle-class squeeze”: The majority of middle-class families make too much money to qualify for significant financial aid or grants, but don’t make enough to pay the high out-of-pocket costs of college. Low-income students can qualify for Pell Grants or apply to need-based scholarships; wealthy students don’t need financial assistance. 

As a result, middle-income students disproportionately take out loans to pay for higher education. In fact, students whose families make $80,000 to $89,000 a year wind up with the most student loan debt in proportion to their family income, and twice as much − 51.4% of the family income − as students in the lowest income bracket, with an annual family income of less than $20,000.

The weight of this debt could be contributing to the shrinking of the middle class and increasing poverty rates in the United States.

FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid) is open to all students, promising aid to any who need it, but a government form can never adequately reflect a family’s financial situation.

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When you factor in cost of living, medical expenses and family obligations, the dollar amount of a family’s yearly income only means so much. An annual salary of $150,000 does not always translate to wealth or heaps of disposable income, especially for larger families.

As of this year, the sibling discount, which took into account the number of children a family would send to college, has been removed from FAFSA. Instead of dividing the Expected Family Contribution evenly among children, the change sets the Student Aid Index amount as the expected payment for each child attending college. Even upper middle-class families can’t afford this change.

I'm from a large family. FAFSA doesn't take that into account.

As a college student, this change is especially concerning to me.

I am one of seven children. If I were an only child, my parents would be able to pay for my education. But I have siblings who hope to attend college, so my family’s college fund has to be split seven ways.

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My parents have been as generous as they can, but I am responsible for funding the majority of my college career. FAFSA doesn’t consider this.

Tuition assistance programs ought to acknowledge that the skyrocketing price of college doesn’t affect only those living in poverty. It also renders higher education inaccessible to a vast percentage of our country and drives the largest social class the furthest into debt.

It’s time for the government to walk alongside middle-class families as well. Everyone deserves an education.

Christine Schueckler is a USA TODAY Opinion intern and a rising third year student at the University of Virginia, where she studies English and French. At UVA, she writes for The Jefferson Independent and performs with the UVA University Singers.