“Go to college,” they say, “Follow your dream,” they say. 22-year-old Amy recalls all the stories she told her youth about college. He initially did not want to go, but his family put pressure on him, encouraging him to follow his heart, even if it meant following what they believed in. They assured him that his whole life would be full of wealth and prosperity after graduation.
They are wrong.
It wasn’t until Amy graduated from college with multiple loan debts, no open jobs, and no car or home that she realized that life wasn’t quite what it appeared the vividly painful images in her mind of her parents’ words. He is an Art major. Not only is the field competitive, but it is hard to find anyone who really takes an artist in the field. His financial situation prevented him from moving to a place where art really mattered. The only jobs he is relied on within any reasonable distance have been filled by “higher-qualified candidates.”
He seriously considered suicide, but after realizing that such an irrational act would affect his parents financially and emotionally, he reconsidered. Life or death he would be in deep debt, but the contemplation of what step to take next would never leave his mind. Amy is forced to take a dead-end job.
The stories are fictional and carry no factual identity but represent hundreds of college students who share one common denominator: college is more of a financial burden than anything. The reality of the problem is that students need more than what colleges currently provide for career support.
In a study conducted in 2014, statistics show that only 52% of respondents believe higher education establishments adequately prepare students for the world of work. (Employer After College) 83% of graduating seniors said they were unemployed in April 2014, even though 72.7% reported they were actively searching for work. Those numbers are increasing rapidly. (Employer After College)
Even more upsetting than the failure to find a job after college was the debt that dragged him down.
“On average, the class of 2015 graduates with student loan debt [would] had to pay back a little more than $35,000, according to an analysis of government data by Mark Kantrowitzpublisher in Advisor, a group of websites about college planning and paying. Even adjusted for inflation, it was still more than twice the amount borrowers had to pay two decades earlier” (Wall Street Journal)
That number does not even include state tuition-paying students, all of whom must pay double what residents of the state must pay. This is quite ironic; that students work to send themselves to school only to graduate and are forced to work even harder to pay off loan debts. A counterargument would suggest that the moral step to take is to choose a major that will really make you money, but what about Amy’s there? Students who are taught to pursue their dreams through college are left vacant when they graduate.
So, what is a bachelor’s degree really worth? Students devote their time and even worse money, to systems that can’t promise them prosperity or even a start in their careers. Something must change.
