Davis and I'm a third year Aerospace Engineering student.

[APPLAUSE] And like many other Techies, I stay up really

late at night trying to complete my assignments. So, at 3 AM, late one night, or, rather, early

one morning, I decided to take a study break by writing President Obama about a topic of

great concern to me, which is college affordability. To my surprise, and great excitement, I received

a letter of response from President Obama in February. In his response letter, he spoke

of he and First Lady Michelle also struggled meeting all the costs of college. He went

on to express concern for college affordability for the nation. The part of his letter that

resonated most with me was, and I quote, "I'm working to make college more affordable so

every American, including future rocket scientists like you,"

[LAUGHTER] "can achieve their dreams without worrying

about their loans." [APPLAUSE]

And now, at this time, today, on March 10th, at our great Institute,

[APPLAUSE] to President Peterson and Mrs. Peterson, to

the faculty and to the staff, to the alumni, and to our wonderful student body that is

gathered here today, [APPLAUSE]

I have the honor and the pleasure of introducing President Barack Obama.

[MUSIC AND APPLAUSE]

THE PRESIDENT: Hello, Atlanta! [APPLAUSE]

Hello, Yellow Jackets! [APPLAUSE]

This is a pretty good-looking crowd here! [APPLAUSE]

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Thank you! THE PRESIDENT: Thank you.

[LAUGHTER] I wasn't directing it specifically at you,

but you do look pretty good -- what do you think?

[LAUGHTER] I mean, I may not be the gauge -- you should

ask some of the ladies here. [LAUGHTER]

Everybody have a seat who has got a chair. If you don't have a chair, don't sit down.

[LAUGHTER] Now, I understand George P. Burdell was supposed

to introduce me today. [LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE]

But nobody could find him. [APPLAUSE]

So I want to thank Tiffany for stepping in. What she did not mention is that her letter

to me was not just to express her concern about student loans, she said -- in her letter

she said, it was also to procrastinate from doing her Thermodynamics homework.

[LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE] That's a true story. That is true. That's

okay. [LAUGHTER]

I procrastinate sometimes. [LAUGHTER]

As long as you got it done, Tiffany. Where is Tiffany? Did you get it done?

TIFFANY: I got it done! THE PRESIDENT: Okay.

[LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE] Let's give it up for Buzz and the Georgia

Tech Band for getting us fired up. [APPLAUSE]

Also give it up for Governor Nathan Deal, who is here.

[APPLAUSE] Congressmen Hank Johnson and David Scott.

[APPLAUSE] Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed.

[APPLAUSE] And the President of this great institution,

Georgia Tech, Bud Peterson. [APPLAUSE]

That's good. You've got a high approval rating. [LAUGHTER]

You do. Absolutely. We also have a special guest with us -- this is a proud Georgia Tech

alum, who just happens also to be the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral

Sandy Winnefeld is here. Where's Sandy? There he is.

[APPLAUSE] Before he was the Vice Chairman of the Joint

Chiefs of Staff, he was a Navy fighter pilot, which is cooler. Now he just goes to meetings.

[LAUGHTER] What's up with that? I told him he's got to

get back on a plane. It is great to be at one of the finest technical institutes in

the world. [APPLAUSE]

One of the finest in the world. I mean, you've got to be if the Ramblin' Wreck is still running

after all these years. [APPLAUSE]

That's a Georgia Tech reference that some of you may not know.

[LAUGHTER] I also know that Georgia Tech is terrific

because we've actually worked with you on several fronts -– from promoting advanced

manufacturing to unlocking the mysteries of the brain to helping more students become

entrepreneurs. [APPLAUSE]

And the reason I wanted to come here today is because I believe that higher education,

as you believe, is one of the best investments that anybody can make in their future. And

it's also one of the best investments you can make in our country's future. So I'm here

to say thank you and to tell you I'm proud of you, because I know that it's not always

easy to do what you're doing. It takes perseverance. A lot of late nights in the library and the

lab, and you're wrapping your minds around complex formulas and concepts that, frankly,

I don't understand. [LAUGHTER]

But I know they're complex. [LAUGHTER]

And some of you are holding jobs down at the same time, which makes it even harder. But

as frustrating as it may be, and Tiffany expressed some frustrations on occasion, it is worth

it. Higher education has never been more important. And the message I want to deliver today, not

just to you but to the entire country, is the entire nation has to treat it as a priority.

Right now, our economy is growing steadily. It's creating new jobs. You're going to be

going into a job market that's much better than the one that existed when I came into

office six years ago. [APPLAUSE]

After the worst economic crisis of our lifetimes, over the past five years, our businesses have

now created 12 million new jobs. Unemployment continues to come down, and obviously that's

good news for those of you who are graduating soon.

[APPLAUSE] Yes, that's right, you want a job.

[LAUGHTER] Your parents also want you to have a job.

They don't want you on the couch. [LAUGHTER]

But I didn't run for President just to get us back to where we were -– I ran for President

to get us to where we need to go. [APPLAUSE]

And where we need to go is a growing middle class with rising incomes and opportunities

for everybody who's willing to work hard. An America where no matter who you are, what

you look like, where you came from, how you started, who you love, what faith you're a

part of, you can make it in this country if you try.

[APPLAUSE] That's what America is all about.

[APPLAUSE] And today, a college degree is the surest

ticket to the middle class and beyond. It's the key to getting a good job that pays a

good income. And it offers a measure of security, because a college degree tells employers that

you don't just have one set of skills; that you've got the continuous capacity to learn

new skills, which is going to be particularly important for your generation because the

economy is going to churn and change in ways that none of us can even anticipate. Before

we came out here, I was talking to a group, including Sandy Winnefeld, and your Mayor

Kasim Reed, Tyler Perry buddy -- [LAUGHTER]

-- he wasn't in Madea, he was Tyler. [LAUGHTER]

And we were talking about how rapidly the technology is transforming everything we understand,

everything we know --everything from drones, to artificial intelligence, to driver-less

cars. And we don't yet know how all that is going to shape the nation that you inherit,

but we know it's going to shape it dramatically. And in order for you to be able to be successful,

you're going to have to adapt, continuously. The days where you work at one place for 30,

40 years, those days are over. And so the skill-sets you are getting now are going to

keep you in that job market. You're going to have multiple jobs before you're 30. Some

of you will have multiple careers. And we live in a 21st-century economy, where your

most valuable asset is your imagination, your knowledge, your ability to analyze tough problems.

And that's not just true for individual Americans, it's true for our whole country. The ability

to compete in the global economy depends on us having the world's most skilled, best-educated

workforce. And by the way, let me just add, it's also going to be critical for us to maintain

our democracy in a complex, diverse society. [APPLAUSE]

Understandably, when I come to college campuses, there's a lot of just bread and butter, nuts

and bolts, how does this translate into jobs, careers. But part of what has made America

the exceptional nation that it is, is our diversity and our ability to draw from every

corner of the world -- all the talent, all the ideas -- and create this amazing stew.

And the more complex this society, the tougher that becomes. And so to have all of you possess

the ability to listen and to learn from people who aren't like you -- that's also what you're

learning here, and that's going to make you more effective to every employer out there.

[APPLAUSE] But it's also -- it's going to make you better

citizens, and it's going to make our democracy function better. But back to the jobs thing.

[LAUGHTER] Jobs and businesses will go wherever the best

workers are. And I don't want them to have to look any further than the United States

of America. I want businesses investing here. I want Americans getting those new jobs. That's

how we're going to lead the world in this century just like we did in the 20th century.

[APPLAUSE] So here's the challenge: Higher education

has never been more important, but it's also never been more expensive. The average undergrad

who borrows money to pay for college graduates with about $28,000 in student loan debt. That's

just the average; some students end up with a lot more than that -- you know who you are.

[LAUGHTER] I'm not telling you anything you don't know.

And let me say that it's been established time and time again that Georgia Tech is one

of the best bargains around. You are getting a great education for a great value.

[APPLAUSE] Which is one of the reasons I'm here; obviously,

I wouldn't go to a place that was a bad bargain and really expensive and no value. That would

not make sense. [LAUGHTER]

But even here at Georgia Tech, even with the great value it is, it's expensive. And I'm

here to tell you, I'm with you. I believe that America is not a place where higher education

is a privilege that is reserved for the few. America needs to be a place where higher education

has to be available for every single person who's willing to strive for it, who's willing

to work for it. [APPLAUSE]

And I've said this before: I take this personally. My grandfather had a chance to go to college

because this country decided that when veterans returned home from World War II, they should

be able to go to college. And this government stepped up. My mother was able to raise two

kids by herself, in part because she got grants that helped pay for her education. And I am

only standing here -– and Michelle is only where she is today –- because of scholarships

and student loans and work study. We did not come from families of means.

[APPLAUSE] We didn't come from families of means, but

we knew that if we worked hard, there was help out there to make sure we got a great

education. That's what this country gave to us. And that's why this has been such a priority

for me. I take it personally because when I look out at all of you, I see myself. And

I remember the fact that it took me 10 years to pay off all our student loans. We were

paying more for our student loans than our mortgage, even after Malia and Sasha were

born. We were supposed to be saving for their college education; we were still paying off

ours. And that's why we've acted again and again to make college more affordable. Five

years ago this month, we enacted the largest reforms to the student loan program in history.

[APPLAUSE] We cut out the big banks that were taking

taxpayer dollars and serving as middlemen in the student loan game, and we said, well,

let's just give the money directly to the students like you.

[APPLAUSE] So as a result of that change, we saved billions

of dollars. We were to expand tax credits and Pell grants, and put college within reach

for millions more middle-class and low-income students across the country. Then we fought

to keep interest rates on student rates -- interest rates on student loans low and capped how

high those rates can rise. And as a result, the typical undergrad is saving about $1,500.

We also acted to let millions of graduates cap their loan payments at 10 percent of their

incomes, so they don't have to choose between paying the rent and paying back their debt.

[APPLAUSE] And by the way, everybody here, if you don't

already know about the income-based repayment program, you need to learn about it because

it's still under-utilized. But it gives you an opportunity to make sure that if you make

a career choice that doesn't make tons of money, you're still able to do the responsible

thing and pay back your loans at a pace that also allows you to build a family and buy

a home and live your lives. And graduates who go into lower-paying fields like social

work or teaching, they're not going to pay a price for following their dreams because

they're going to have even better options in terms of how they repay their loans.

[APPLAUSE] So that's what we did on the student loan

side. Meanwhile, we're working to hold down the cost of a college education. So we're

partnering with schools like Georgia Tech on innovative ways to increase value -– like

your online master's program in computer science --

[APPLAUSE] -- which costs just a fraction of the price

of an in-classroom program. And I sent Congress a bold new plan to bring down the cost of

community college to zero. [APPLAUSE]

Because not everybody may be prepared right away to start a four-year university. But

also, in some cases, even if they could, they may choose to get two years of college free,

and then be able to transfer the credits for their four-year education. We want to make

community college, at minimum, just as free and universal as high school is today. That

should be our new baseline. We want to get out ahead of the curve in terms of where we