Read this…then tell me it doesn’t make you a little upset….
Then read this Census information…
http://www.census.gov/statab/ranks/rank19.html
So let me get this straight. New York has 31.9 percent of people, 25 or older, carrying around a Bachelors degree. It is ranked number nine in the country as far as most educated in that manner. However, we give an average of $55,000 to an International student in New York at Skidmore College apparently for Liberal arts degrees? I have a problem with this and so should everyone else out there. Yale and Stanford as well give out a lot of aid to international students. Why should one person receive so much and another so little? Why should where you are born dictate what opportunities you have? I am honestly disgusted with this information. Disgusted in a way that churns my stomach and bowels and makes me want to scream for not just myself but for others who grew up here and bought into the student debt dream.
There are people out there with student debt that are born here. The average debt of an undergrad is around 33,000. Graduate doubles. These people face a 30 percent unemployment rate in areas like upstate NY which has seen residents selling property and moving further south or east. Taxes and the cost of food is soaring as well. Rent increases are common considering property taxes seem to go up all the time and there is limited section eight housing for people. It is becoming clear what the problems are but there is a lack of response. This lack of response continues a path that lets certain people benefit more than others.
Let’s take a look at the FAFSA for a regular student. It does not allow a student to be independent until they are 24. I repeat, 24. Your parents income has to be on it, and if they are divorced then one has to be on it. If you have lived on your own without them it doesn’t matter. Even if you have years of bills under your belt, had a job at 15. It doesn’t matter. You have to basically fight the college in order to change this and usually nothing changes.
It is set up in a way which doesn’t work for people who had limited support at home at a young age. It creates a generational issue. One generation cannot supports itself so the next generation cannot as well. This is why we see people moving around for jobs. They relocate for a new start. So this is not just an issue of aid to me but all the destruction of the family structure. What could have been salvaged now cannot be because people have to move away in order to provide for themselves and not be a burden on their own families? Too many college graduates go back home to live and get on their feet but what about the one who don’t even have that? Shouldn’t our educational system be backing them and not awarding so much aid to one international student? Couldn’t the 55,000 be dispersed between five students so each one has less debt? Wouldn’t this maybe have an impact on the large student debt crisis we have? Why would you chose to impact one person when you could impact many?
The entire way we think about intelligence and education needs to be addressed as well. It is almost as if when you step on a campus you feel a sort of culture there. The architecture, the logos, the nationalities of people, and even the way language is used is all part of this. It is almost as if you cannot help but feel this boost of esteem being around it. But is it real? To me, it isn’t real until you graduate, enter the real job market, and try to pay off your loans. it won’t matter where you graduated from if people ask you in the real world, ‘hey do you have a job?” And you tell them you freelance. That works for a certain amount of time. I guess my point is this whole idea of what education should be creates an idea that is not applicable to the current job market all the time. Colleges are trying to compete for students, changing programs, and trying to stay in tune with the latest promising careers. However, if one college excels at doing this, while another does not, it creates a sort of unbalanced curriculum. You have some students graduating prepared while others are totally unprepared for the real world. This is why the intent of colleges matter. I understand they must make money to run but the hike in tuition in the 2000’s was justified? Putting a bunch of technically underemployed or unemployed people into debt, banking they will all get a job sounds sort of ridiculous to me. Realistically if 30 percent of people have a degree in a state which doesn’t have enough jobs it isn’t going to matter who went where. And do we want people leaving a state rather than contributing to it? I wouldn’t think so.
Intelligence shouldn’t be measured on what college you went to because opportunity isn’t given in the same way to intelligent people. Some of us must walk the tightrope to get as far as someone who didn’t have a tightrope, they had stairs. It needs to change so our children and their children can provide for themselves.
Responses to the Absurdities in Life. The Funny and the Not So Funny. 