UNITED STATES—What is the price of an education? I want you to truly think about that and I’m not just referring to the mandate that all Americans are expected to at least graduate from high school, but what happens if you choose to pursue a higher education? It comes with a cost, but it doesn’t come with a guarantee. There are many individuals who have gone directly into a trade or employment right after high school and have achieved success.
There are plenty who go to college, get to string out just a little longer that decision on what they want to actually do with their lives. I have always been a proponent that college opens the doors for you to experience and learn things that perhaps you wouldn’t know if you didn’t. Should the price of knowledge and information be so extreme to the point that it is today? No, but as much as I hate to say it, college is a business. If you can afford it, the better, if not it can be a struggle beyond struggle to achieve it at times.
With that said, I want to dive into the discussion as to WHY college is so expensive. Anyone who spent a semester in college, a year, or the entire four-five years to complete your degree can fully understand the costs that come with schooling. I’ll never forget my freshman year because the university was so adamant about me taking out loans to cover my tuition for the second half of the semester and I was adamantly against it. Why?
I had scholarship money at my fingertips, and I wanted those funds to be used. The university argued back and forth with me (in particular, the financial aid office) telling me that scholarship money couldn’t be used at my discretion. Thank God, I kept my letter with those details on the scholarship that I had earned because it revealed otherwise. It specifically noted that I could use those funds at my discretion whenever I choose. Thank God, I had that letter because it allowed me to focus my attention on my studies and not that worry about how I am going to pay for school or having to work a strenuous work schedule.
With that said, I did my absolute best to limit any loans that I took out as I focused on obtaining my degree. I had friends who were just taking out loans just for the sake of taking them out. Making the situation worse instead of using that money to pay for tuition, they were using it for shopping sprees and spring break travel. That was quite worrisome to say the least.
I was a struggling college student and for me achieving my degree meant a ton for me because I knew it was an opportunity to have a chance of furthering my goals of a successful career. However, as a liberal arts major it was no guarantee that I would have a job waiting for me upon graduation. I had earned an internship; it was an unpaid one at that. That ultimately turned into actual employment with a successful company, but that doesn’t happen to everyone.
I had plenty of pals who spent easily $40,000 to $50,000 for their college education and didn’t find a job for nearly a year after being out of school. They were taking part-time sales gigs in retail to keep afloat until they could find something.
It is just so bothersome that as a taxpayer, I can’t go to a public university that gets a portion of my tax dollars to operate because I applied, I didn’t get in. This notion of taking the ACT or SAT to determine one’s ‘ability’ to excel at the collegiate level is just stupid. A test is a test, it doesn’t predict success. And people can try to make that argument about diversity BS all they want, I’m not buying it, because yes, you do need more diversity at public universities across the country and when your university is not showing that, questions must be raised whether you want to believe it or not.
With that said, I had pals that got exceptional scores on the ACT and SAT exams, but didn’t last a semester or year in college. So that exam that gained them entry into the university didn’t prove anything when it came to success. The education system needs to be a bit savvier to find a way to not only make education fun, but ensure students are learning things of importance. You shouldn’t be taking classes just for the sake of taking them because the university or school deems them to be ‘important’ to making a well-rounded student.
Yeah, there were a lot of those classes during my first two years as an undergraduate. Like I’m paying thousands of dollars for these classes, and a lot of this knowledge is never going to be used my many people. I’d rather spend my money if I have to spend it, only classes in my profession obtaining knowledge that matters to me and will help me in my daily life. Of course, math and reading are vital, and there are a lot of students who don’t have those basic skills. Why? Might be more focused on advanced literature and advanced math that many people don’t use daily.
Let’s not just make money to make it in the educational system, let’s ensure it benefits the student because at the end of the day, isn’t that the goal of education? Perhaps some actual institutions need to think about that.
Written By Zoe Mitchell