Higher education is becoming more expensive than ever. And student debt is growing larger and larger. Sure, schools are offering financial aid. Yes, I am from the middle class and should be able to support my education (so no scholarship for me thx). However, my family will most likely still take out loans and I shall graduate in debt. Perhaps I shall take a stable job thanks to my alma mater and pay it all back. Perhaps not. Regardless, why is college so expensive?
The list of payments goes on: tuition, room/board, dining, textbooks, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Jesus. I have not even mentioned all of the additional extracurricular activities college students enjoy aka the booze and the clubs (don't kid yourself okay everyone does it). All of these distractions combined in a world-class institution...the result can't be anything but questionable.
We watched Good Will Hunting in school today. And I can't help but notice Will Hunting has a point: you don't need a fancy elitist institution to teach you all the necessary knowledge, you just need a will and a way. We Americans all consider education to be a right, but the system we have today is not right.
Anyway, regardless of all this, I do plan to attend Harvard College this fall. I know, hypocrisy. Really, I'm buying into the Ivy League Experience (ILE as I shall now refer to it as). I mean it's Harvard for crying out loud. Even typing it out gives me chills. And that's exactly the kind of mentality the Ivy League feeds off of. That is why this college education hype is so dangerous. We all believe that Harvard, Princeton, Yale, etc are the only places that can offer us everything. And we are wrong. Disillusioned. And yet, even though I know this, I am buying into it.
I'll keep you posted on my college life. In the meantime, visit your local public library. See what you can learn without paying $60,000 every year. It might be better than you expected.
