I don’t know about you, but I hate college. It’s a place where the government has another excuse to scam us out of $10,000 every year we’re there. And by the end of it all, you get a piece of paper that doesn’t even guarantee you a job in your field of study.
$10,000. That’s a lot of money that could go to something else in my life, like something that makes me happy. For example, pizza. $10,000 could buy 1,887 Hot N’ Ready pizzas from Little Caesars.
When I was in high school, nobody told me about what I needed to do in order to make it in college. I didn’t even know about the FAFSA until a year after I graduated and even when I filled one out, I only got a couple of loans that paid for half of my tuition.
I recently did some research about college overseas. Turns out, it’d be cheaper in the long run to move to Europe for four years and go to college there. Many schools in Europe have free tuition. If I went to school in Europe, then I wouldn’t have to take out all of these loans. And that sounds fantastic to me.
So I ran the idea to my parents and got the answer I expected.
“America’s the greatest country in the world! Why not go to college here? You’re better off getting a degree here where it’s cheaper than going overseas to get one.”
Actually, America’s not. The greatest country in the world. It sucks. College costs roughly $40,000, a kidney, your first born child, and your soul. Some people spend the next 30 years paying off the loans they took out for school. In three years, I’ll be starting this ugly cycle.
I’m one of the kids whose parents didn’t go to college. It’s not that they weren’t able to or they didn’t want to. It just wasn’t necessary to go. They were able to get a job without a piece of paper saying they were better than everyone else. So when I tried going to college, my parents didn’t really know how to help.
I originally signed up for 15 credit hours this semester, but thanks to my financial aid being dropped, I had to go down to 9 credit hours and pay out of pocket. Since my family makes more than $25,000 per year, the FAFSA stated that my parents would be able to pay for $8,000 of my tuition. That’s not possible.
What I find ridiculous is that I need to spend all of this money, work three jobs, and go incredibly far into debt to get a degree that allows me to do what I love to do. What’s worse is that I’m not the only person in this position. A majority of my peers struggle with tuition, gas, food, and living expenses. And many people from earlier generations who didn’t have these issues, blame us for our misfortunes.