As an out-of-state, lower-income student at University Park, I look upon the rising tuition rates with increased trepidation. As more students are forced into looking elsewhere for schooling or perhaps dropping out of the university, Penn State's image of being a premier state institution will suffer as a result.

Families are also impacted negatively as well. What of those younger siblings whose college aspirations simply cannot be met because their parents' incomes were drained from their older brother or sister's Penn State education?

University Park offers a world of educational and career opportunities to students all over the world. It will be a sad state of affairs if that demographic dwindles down to a select group who, simply put, just happened to have the big bucks.