College is a scam Options

[Whinoa]

While I was in college still trying to figure what I was supposed to do there, I heard a speaker who said college was the biggest scam on earth.

You see as a young kid you don’t realize how much college costs. For some, your parents will pay for it, for others you’ll take out a loan. “Yaay, the government is going to pay for me.”

You have a great time. Parties, drinking, occasional class, more parties, then you finally graduate (Yippee!) You spend more time partying and drinking with friends after graduation. You’re living it up, life can’t get any better right?

Then comes the first letter, BAM! It hits you right in the face:

“Dear Johnny Boy, you owe a gazillion dollars in debt, we’d like it very soon or we’ll come after you because the country is in debt”

At this point, you’ve already run to your mommy and daddy, crying and asking for help. They can’t help you because you’ve yelled and screamed at them and moved out of the house. You wanted to be a “man”.

But also because they have no money to give you. You see while you were busy going out and living your life, they lost their jobs and now are wondering how to get it back.

So you find a crappy job and you start working 90+ hours a week to pay off the debt. You’re always tired and still broke. You’re friends stop calling you, since you can’t go out anymore. You’re girlfriend dumps you, since you can’t go out anymore. Oh what to do?

Do you ever wonder if college is a scam considering many educated people can’t get jobs or are over qualified for a position? How are you getting your college or future college education paid for?

http://weblog.dollarish.com/dollarish/6860...tml?itemrelated

any thoughts?

[mipadi]

The article itself is silly, but it poses a question that is worth discussing. As a recent college graduate, I sometimes wonder what my degree really means. The importance of college has changed in just a few generations; two or three generations ago, obtaining a college degree was a truly worthwhile accomplishment that differentiated one from his peers. Now, a college degree itself doesn't really mean much; in fact, its the lack of a degree that speaks louder than having a degree. Nowadays, college more or less just shows that you can start something and finish it. A lot of people don't even work in their degree area once they get out into the workplace. Colleges are businesses; the product they sell is education. Like any good business, they've managed to convince everyone -- employers included -- that you need their product. That's right -- a degree is little more than a product, and students are little more than consumers.

Anyone who's been to college can see the truth in that statement. How many people in college really want to be there? Most people go not because they have a thirst for learning, not because they're intellectual curious, but because it's expected; and it's required to have a degree -- any degree will do -- in order to get any sort of decent job. This demand for a piece of paper has driven the cost of college tuition through the roof.

So college is probably a scam, insofar as any business is a "scam". But that doesn't mean that a clever, intellectual, or driven student can't make the most of his education to change the world for the better. The problem that I see is that college is so expensive that most students, upon leaving, are really only concerned with "making a lot of money", and not actually actively using their education to better the world around them. Sure, most students pay lip service to the idea of making the world a better place, but how many actually go out there and do it after graduating? Certainly a good chunk do, but I'd wager that most don't.