Everyone knows that higher education isn’t cheap. Working students paying their way don’t have to be told this. Others, such as incoming freshmen, seem to be fifty-fifty on the issue. Sure, you may be on a scholarship or your parents may be footing the bill, but that doesn’t make it free.
Rent, food, utilities, and expensive gadgets are just a few of the things most students have to spend money on. Yet year after year,
many students seem to go into a kind of culture shock at the money involved in current college life.
Loans and credit cards (many of which are not tipped in their favor) are offered like candy. Commercials push students to spend on everything unnecessary, from ipads to mini-refrigerators. College itself is built upon this.
Most people have altruistic reasons for pursuing a degree, but in the end it all comes down to getting a high paying job. Gaining knowledge that you can transfer into a career is useful toward paying off those student loans.
Students in high school have ample time to look over college costs, save a bit of money, sign up for scholarships, and learn the dangers of credit cards and loans. Yet so many do not. There are after all, methods to beat the system, and you can hardly blame a credit card company for getting someone into debt if the person wasn’t coerced in any way.
The truth is most students aren’t prepared. They go through high school with a slanted idea of college from first and foremost, advertising and movies. The kind that portray the college lifestyle as a consumerism-social-experimenting wonderland where no studying is required, expensive game consoles, laptops and MP3 players grow on trees and success is just around the corner.
Once most students spend their first year on campus, they discover a different reality is.
On the other side of the coin, are the banks, loan agencies, credit card companies and book publishers. Most aren’t opposed to turning us into nothing more than statistics and commodities to be made a profit out of by way of unnecessary private lending subsidies, unscrupulous predatory lending or artificially inflated prices on books that will be worthless at the end of the semester.
The entire consumerist system in America can be blamed for this; after all, we’re encouraged to spend irresponsibly. Buy it now, pay it later; don’t learn your lesson.
The truth about these lenders and money turners is, they’re playing by the rules. Sure it’s a scam, but it’s also a game. Students claim to be the victims, but victims of what? Not one of these companies forced students to borrow and if the students had picked up some critical thinking skills in high school they easily could have done what any logical minded person would do and disregard unfair loans and cheap toys.
And here’s the worst part, even after you graduate (no matter what the degree) you aren’t simply guaranteed a high paying job just because you’re facing down high interest loans with a diploma in your hand. Yes, if you want to make a lot of money higher education is the way to go. However secondary education doesn’t guarantee money, especially in today’s economic climate.
If a wise man learns from the mistakes of others, and a smart man learns from his mistakes, what do you call the person who doesn’t learn at all?
David Haydon is a political science junior and may be reached at [email protected].
Might be a good idea to follow the Project on Student Debt and all the proposals before congress to help students manage tuition/college debt and several new debt forgiveness options before congress.
http://projectonstudentdebt.org/about.vp.html
Facebook also.
Students are encouraged to write their elected representative in congress to be certain they have an understanding of all the challenges that need to be addressed.
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GP
Buy books at half.com or amazon (hint: order from sellers with high ratings and lots of stars). Or use this: http://www.booksprice.com/. Several times I've sold books for more than I bought them for.
As a fortunate U of H alum that graduated in '70, I can't help but think your finances and lives are so different than ours. You could go to U of H for a year, with tuition, fees, books and parking well under $1000. You could live at the Fields for $100 a month and a little part-time on campus job, like mine in the computer center at $2.50 an hour could cover most of it. Add an off-campus one and you were ahead.
The financiers and schools, including U of H, have colluded over the past 3-4 decades to increase the costs. They are treating your education like a home. You and your parents are mortgaged to it.
Where I left school, during a recession, with a very difficult time to find solid employment, was able to be freely find opportunities where they were, and explore my life and interests, you will not. You are indentured by your obligation to pay for your education. Even if you come away, with your parents on the larger hook, with only a "car note" level of debt, it will have to be paid. You will have to begin your career immediately. In this job market, I can only offer you my best.
But the schools and finance companies used your, and your parents dreams, to enslave both of you prematurely. Many of you will have the same debt for school that your parents had on their homes. It will be difficult. Please do what you can to see through it. Raise awareness. Work hard and do the best you can. You will need to. Break a leg.