College...Is it worth it?

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Welcome to our Blog. This is a raw and uncomfortable observation of the higher education system through our eyes.

To get a job, you need experience. To gain experience you need a job. And in most cases, to get a good job, you need an education. Sounds simple enough, right?

So we get an education---easy… Spend four years in an undergraduate institution… but wait, before you choose your school, how high is it ranked? What programs do they have? Do you even like the school? And how much does it cost?

 HOW MUCH? 

......O, well then I guess you should pull out loans….right? Well if your parents can write a check and call it a day, good for you, but if that’s not the case (as it isn't for most of us), get to work signing some papers, kiddo. 
So what, you can pay them off until you’re 80.

Fast-forward 4 years later to your college graduation. You walk across the raised stage with scholarly educators in fancy wizard outfits, you grab your diploma, look out to the audience to smile at Mom and Dad and then, your life begins. 

AWESOME, YOU’RE FREE.

But are you really?

Are you not just another kid with a Bachelors degree competing for a job to pay off your college debt? Did college really prepare you for the real world? Does your liberal arts degree stand a chance in a capitalistic world?

Personally, I am concerned with our higher educations system. The cost for college is way too high, leaving middle/lower class people victim to loan debt just to find a competitive marketplace awaiting them on the other side. 

According to the Department of Education survey in 2007-2008, about two-thirds of bachelor’s degree recipients borrow money to attend college, either from the government or private lenders (New York Times). For all borrowers, the average debt in 2011 was $23,300, with 10 percent owing more than $54,000 and 3 percent more than $100,000, states the Federal Reserve Bank of New York reports (New York Times). 

That’s a tremendous amount of financial pressure for an early twenty-something to have, don’t you think?

In addition, I fear that many students will exit college or university unequipped to navigate the technological and global world evolving around us. In my view, I believe that students need more experiential education,  more personal growth, before they emerge into the universe. But can we ever really be prepared? How can we be certain that the job we want will exist in 10 or 20 years? Our world is changing, our school’s are entertaining, but are we truly retaining? And how much will it cost us?

Whether we like it or not, we are all a part the higher education machine. But things didn’t used to this way. In the past, someone with a college degree, motivation and drive could work their way up and explore various avenues of the professional world. But today, a Bachelor's degree simply isn’t good enough and a Master’s degree is worth pursuing, but only if you can afford it and find a good job. 

These are the challenges of the educated young adult in America today. 

With the high price of education and fluctuating job market, what are we to do? 

What are we to demand? What are we to invent?

To put it radically, I feel exploited by the American educations system, and frankly, I’m not too pleased. I look at my friends in Europe who receive an equally meaningful, if not more, college education for nearly no cost. For many programs in the UK and Germany for example, students are required to spend a semester abroad or working on an honors thesis, a culminating work of their studies. Also, many countries encourage their recent high school graduates to take a gap-year and volunteer, travel or study abroad before their Bachelor studies. And did I mention, it’s free or remarkably less? 

WHAT HAPPENED, AMERICA?!

We acknowledge this system sucks for us, though we need the system just as much as it needs us. It’s stifling and forces us to do things that we necessarily wouldn’t want to do, but the fact is, an education matters. Knowledge is power, isn't it? I think we can all agree that having a degree is important, if not crucial and that’s why we take our place in the college machine.

It is up to us, fellow undergrad’s. 
We must take charge of our futures. We need to educate ourselves with the life skills that our professors can’t teach us. We must learn from our European friends and take an alternate route of education and experience different worlds before we dive into the collegiate circus. We must take it upon ourselves to seek out opportunities that could take us further than we thought possible, because you shouldn’t have to suffer being an intern after you graduate. And if you’re someone who’s not sure what in the world they want to do, here's a bit of advice: before jumping into another degree or getting a retail job while you figure it out, go do something different in a culturally dissimilar place--expand your mind, experience life, challenge yourself. 

We’re in this together. We’re studying, writing, analyzing and philosophizing FOR OURSELVES, no one else. At this time, I don’t have a ground-breaking answer to lowering tuition cost, but I will tell you TO SPEAK UP and find others who feel exploited too. Maybe we could really change something.... It’s not that we don’t want the education, we certainly do, but we believe that everyone has the right to receive the education without compromising their credit score.

JOIN US.

Read this article by the New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/13/business/student-loans-weighing-down-a-generation-with-heavy-debt.html?pagewanted=all