Everyone knows college prices are outrageously high. My parents were (and will be for the rest of their lives) struggling to send my brother off to college. They told us what every upper-middle-class millennial was told: the sky was the limit, we could go wherever we wanted to for college. Harvard, Yale, anywhere. It would get taken care of. My brother took their words and went to one of the most expensive universities in the country. My parents are more than happy to pay for his top-of-the-line education, but considering asking the same of them left a bad taste in my mouth. How could I do this to them?
My parents are pretty well off in their careers. My mother is a doctor with a private practice and my father is an investment manager. We've been able to take many vacations over the years and I never lacked any necessities. If we're having trouble paying for college, what about people who don't have what I have? My little cousin is going to be a freshman in high school, and he's brighter than I am, but he lives at the poverty line. Where is he and kids like him going to get aid?
Scholarships, you can answer. But there isn't enough money in the country to send every kid who fills out a FAFSA what he needs to attend the school of his dreams. Merit scholarships are more likely, but even those that are supposed to ignore economic status are rigged. Many are based at least, if not fully, in part on the ACT or SAT . "But psychologist Claude Steele pointed out that the [SAT] test has been found to measure only about 18 percent of the things that it takes to do well in school, and thus is not a very good predictor of how a student will do in college. 'The SAT is not going to get you very far with predicting who's going to do well in college' [says Steele]" (source).
So these standardized tests are kinda bunk. More than once I've been told, "It's not about knowing material, it's about knowing how to take the test. Because of this, I signed up for ACT preparatory classes. Most kids aiming for a selective school need to take preparatory classes for the test and then take the test more than once. The catch? It all costs money.
The state of Illinois gives students one free chance to take the ACT (minus the writing portion, which is mostly necessary for selective schools). Competitive students take these tests three or four times. Taking the ACT with the writing section costs more than $50. For many kids, $50 dollars is the family grocery budget for the week. ACT preparatory courses can be free, or they can cost $2,000. A poorer student has to hope she's prepared for the one test given to her. Her score will be compared with the score of the thousands of other students who could purchase those classes and extra tests. Most likely, she won't get the merit she needs.
The next way to pay for college besides scholarships and robbing your parents' retirement fund is taking out loans. Student loan rates are going up, while the job market has been down. In this job market, sometimes not even the best credentials can save you from unemployment. In fact, 8% of 25-34 year olds, the age most people will be when they need to pay back their loans, say they're unemployed or under-employed. Read the rest of the statistics, but only if you have a strong stomach. Things aren't looking good for college graduates.
In my AP Economics class, a week wouldn't go by without someone griping about the cost of college. My AP teacher would tell us, "Then don't go to college!" It's simple capitalism. If the demand for a college education goes down, so will its price. This was the main reason I was considering skipping college for the moment, at least. How could I be complicit in these high prices keeping those who desperately need education locked out?
If things are bad for college grads, they're even worse for people without college degrees.
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Nowadays, people without a college degree won't earn much more than minimum wage, which often is not enough to live on (source and source). Getting a college degree may bankrupt you and your family, but not getting one will put you into poverty or keep you there. Damned if you do and damned if you don't! Next time someone says that anybody can go to any university with enough hard work and gosh darn gumption I will probably explode. If poor high school students are aware of these facts, what motivation do they have to work hard enough to hope to compete with advantaged students just to get a place at a school no one can afford?
In response to the high rates of education, some good options have arisen. Many are turning to two year colleges and things like certified nurses assistant licenses. Unschooling, an educational philosophy is growing more popular. UnCollege teaches students ways to grow intelligence and secure great jobs through independent learning. More American students are taking gap years or work exchanges to delay or put off college entirely. In my opinion, these programs need to expand. If more and more teens go to these programs and encourage others to do so, colleges will have no choice but to pay attention. Additionally, increased lobbying of Congress will help to keep student loan rates down. In short, kids need to show the system that they are not satisfied.
I looked at UnCollege, but eventually decided to betray my economic sense and go to a four year university. I will, however, personally call my senator when the loan rates are up for discussion. Thankfully I got a merit scholarship, but it's never been something I'm proud of. I owe all of it to my parents, who could afford the tutoring, ACT prep, extra testing, and private schooling that allowed me to compete and win a scholarship. If I had been born to minimum-wage earners, it would have been a completely different story, and instead of heading off to college tomorrow, I might be punching in my Wal-Mart employee card.
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