This Point of View article is the first in a two-part series about the college search process. The writer, 17, is a senior at Bethlehem Central High School who is attending college in the fall. She has recently been accepted to the University of Vermont, Fordham University, and the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. She is (very carefully) making her decision soon.
“A Good College.” It seems my generation has been raised with those words constantly echoing from the mouths of our parents and educators. It might come from a mother threatening her child over his apathetic B’s with the classic line: “If you keep this up, you’ll never get into a good college.” Perhaps it’s from teachers, who emphasize the importance of those mind-numbing, stress-inducing, six-hour standardized tests that may just be the only ticket to “a good college.” I sit here scanning through my endless list of potential schools, through every statistic, rate and ranking, wondering not only if it is “a good college” but if it is good enough. High school seniors all over the country are losing sleep and struggling to keep their sanity intact as they wait for those acceptance letters. Floating in their nightmares is the cringe-worthy word no student ever wants to see: “waitlisted.”
We can’t help it. The overwhelming importance of getting into “a good college” has been stressed to us for years. It’s no secret that an individual’s worth suddenly increases in the eyes of others if he or she casually mentions unforgettable days playing rugby with the chaps at Harvard Yard. The school emblem on one’s diploma has, without a doubt, always held a significant amount of weight when it comes to what that individual’s opportunities might be. In their desperation, many of my peers dig themselves a hole of debt from their tuition costs that is so deep, they will work well into their 30s and still be trying to crawl out of it. Colleges know this, and they don’t care. They have no problems filling their seats. The institutions are fully aware of their high esteem in society. They thrive on the parents who take out second mortgages and sell their cars to put their child through school. But that system is collapsing. Quickly.
Every single year, the cost of tuition at state and private universities rises. According to the College Board, an organization every parent of high school age children is likely familiar with, the costs rise about 4.2 percent annually on average. Since 1980, tuition costs have risen by 945 percent. It makes me somewhat thankful to be a senior; however, I am absolutely terrified to hear what my little sister will pay for her education in seven years when it’s time for her to graduate. Unless something is done to fix the system, it will only be more difficult for a child to be able to afford an education. My parents, who went to school in Albania where I was born, could have never imagined this. They took their learning upon themselves since their education system was so corrupt that bribing one’s professors was a common practice. They took comfort in the dream that their children would be raised in America, without fear of being cheated by the education system like they had been.
And yet, that’s exactly what’s happening. Students are being cheated out of their money, paying thousands of dollars a year for that degree in psychology or anthropology and feeling so betrayed by the world that, to their financial dismay, cannot provide them with work anywhere. This dissatisfaction is so common, and the lack of outrage genuinely surprises me. How could loans on $55,000 tuitions even be considered for so many when they are more than likely to cripple the workforce and further the debt crisis?
The belief that one’s future depends on their college degree is too prominent to shake and fuels society’s delusions of what a college degree entails. Such delusions have been force fed to students for years. They are willing to pay $40,000 a year for their education because they view it as their sole ticket to success. It takes much more than a degree to succeed in the workplace. Students do not necessarily think of investing in themselves by maximizing their own motivation and taking it upon themselves to learn. Instead they focus on passing just to get that degree. As a result, they lose critical thinking or analytical skills that employers look for, and suddenly, that almighty degree that we put on a pedestal for our entire educational career, loses some of its value in the eye of the employer.
The only thing that will fix these extremely influential flaws is not a change in tuition costs, but a radical change on the attitude this standardized-test oriented, out-of-touch education system has taken on teaching their students what it really means to learn.