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Ilona Idlis is so brimming with intellectual passion that she'll engage random bus riders in discussions on tax reform – and win them over to her side. This spring, the University of Washington sophomore is studying in Prague to force herself outside of her Puget Sound comfort zone. She's studying journalism and political science and already has as many credits as a third-year student after taking advanced courses and community college classes while in high school.

Idlis chose the UW in large part because of its relative affordability. But since she enrolled, that has changed. Tuition has spiked more than 13 percent in each of the past two years. Scholarships from her freshman year are gone, and despite qualifying for state and federal financial aid and working part time at a Hallmark store, Idlis is coming up short.

Gone is the pride that she felt from putting herself through school her first year. By the end of this year, Idlis will have borrowed up to $6,000.