Post by EmberRoze on Sept 8, 2009 20:56:15 GMT -6
Like a well rehearsed play that is suddenly and illogically visited by Murphy, my sense of security concerning my future is coming crashing in over my head. I’m reviewing my grades, the classes that I’ve taken, and the courses I will take in an almost obsessive compulsive manner. I’m pushing myself harder to raise my GPA that extra .8 percentage, I’m struggling to wade through oceans of homework that threaten to drown me should I doze for but a moment, and I’m fighting with my classmates to be noted as one of the top five or even top ten of my class. I’m losing sleep to squeeze in just one more class, to jam in one more extra curricular so I’ll stand out in a crowd when I have to put my life on paper. “But why?” a more logical person might ask.
I need money. Not for a silly reason like books or CDs, but for something that will forever change how comfortably I live my life, and how comfortably I’m able to raise my children should I ever have a family. This is money that I need to continue my edjumacation once I graduate from high school. Unfortunately for me and for the thousands of others staring this same situation in the eye, this need isn’t a situation where “Well, wouldn’t it be nice?”. No. It’s a set-in-stone, fly-or-die situation. Without this money, I won’t be able to go on with my education and obtain a degree. Without that slip of paper that certifies that I’m qualified, I’ll be left clinging to the poverty level as it rises higher and higher.
When, in another year, I’m planning on what classes to take my senior year, I’ll also be entering the gauntlet known as “college admissions” where I’ll be forced to compete with the other hoards of graduating seniors of the class of 2011 across the entire nation, and even across the world. The race is a hard one to which many will succumb. If the first stretch, the applications, doesn’t fray a persons nerves, the second and third stretches, the acceptance/rejection letters, and financial aid applications will certainly take a person down for the count. Those who do make it through the bloody siege will have succeeded in entering into the university system.
The question that continually plagues my mind when I enter this state of pseudo-panic at the starting line is a simple one. Why? Why should we have to subject ourselves to such pains to simply continue our education? It shouldn’t have to be so difficult to make the transition from high school to college. Moreover, the concept of having to pay off the debt we’re forced to take to further our education to get a job that we must have certification for is entirely illogical, and rings vaguely of indentured servitude.
People pay thousands of dollars a year to attend university. For each credit, a person must pay hundreds of dollars. It seems to even take a breath on campus you have to pay a fee. The basic tuition, which may reach over fifty thousand dollars (US) a year, doesn’t cover the cost of books, of boarding, or of some class fees.
Frustration continues to mount for those looking into college as they look at the sky high costs of attending a university, and realize that their savings from their job, and if they’re lucky, from their savings, will cover only a semester to as much as a couple years of education, depending on the cost of the university chosen. It’s at that time that a person starts to look at their other options: scholarships, grants, and, student loans.
Scholarships have a nice ring to them, and everyone who looks to attend university hopes to nab a couple to help ease the pressure of the cost. However, unless a person does especially well in a sport, scholarships can be hard to find and a full ride is almost non existent. In many schools, most of their scholarships are to be given out only to athletes. This places others in a bind.
The average Joe will have a hard time finding a way to stand out on an application for a scholarship, and thus, will often have to get by without them. This leads to grants or student loans. Grants are easy enough to apply for and have relatively low interest rates if your parents make less than a standard amount of money from year to year. If a student’s parents make a decent living, and the student is an average “B” student, this leads him to door number three: student loans.
Student loans seem like a godsend in the beginning. They take care of a person’s tuition and they allow a student to breeze through university without any fear of not being able to pay for expenses. That is, if he pull out a large enough loan. Even then, a person won’t want to pull out too large a loan because once the student graduates from university and leaves the scholarly world forever and takes his first step into the real, working world, he will have to start paying his loans back. The interest on these are generally very high, and it can take many years to pay them back.
Without a higher education and a degree, a person will be trapped in entry level or low pay jobs for most of their life. They will more than likely make little money, and may or may not straddle the poverty line at times. A person may even have to hold multiple jobs just to get by.
If this is the case, then why must it be so difficult to better ourselves and thus better society? Education is a gift and a treasure that we as humans alone have on this planet. The fact that we limit our education to those who are willing to trap themselves in a web of servitude to pay back their debt is an illogical, backwards way of thinking. Education should be free and available to all who wish to gain more knowledge or move up on the financial ladder. People should not have to put themselves through huge strains, mentally and financially, to enter into the university system and stay there and eventually enter into the real world.
I need money. Not for a silly reason like books or CDs, but for something that will forever change how comfortably I live my life, and how comfortably I’m able to raise my children should I ever have a family. This is money that I need to continue my edjumacation once I graduate from high school. Unfortunately for me and for the thousands of others staring this same situation in the eye, this need isn’t a situation where “Well, wouldn’t it be nice?”. No. It’s a set-in-stone, fly-or-die situation. Without this money, I won’t be able to go on with my education and obtain a degree. Without that slip of paper that certifies that I’m qualified, I’ll be left clinging to the poverty level as it rises higher and higher.
When, in another year, I’m planning on what classes to take my senior year, I’ll also be entering the gauntlet known as “college admissions” where I’ll be forced to compete with the other hoards of graduating seniors of the class of 2011 across the entire nation, and even across the world. The race is a hard one to which many will succumb. If the first stretch, the applications, doesn’t fray a persons nerves, the second and third stretches, the acceptance/rejection letters, and financial aid applications will certainly take a person down for the count. Those who do make it through the bloody siege will have succeeded in entering into the university system.
The question that continually plagues my mind when I enter this state of pseudo-panic at the starting line is a simple one. Why? Why should we have to subject ourselves to such pains to simply continue our education? It shouldn’t have to be so difficult to make the transition from high school to college. Moreover, the concept of having to pay off the debt we’re forced to take to further our education to get a job that we must have certification for is entirely illogical, and rings vaguely of indentured servitude.
People pay thousands of dollars a year to attend university. For each credit, a person must pay hundreds of dollars. It seems to even take a breath on campus you have to pay a fee. The basic tuition, which may reach over fifty thousand dollars (US) a year, doesn’t cover the cost of books, of boarding, or of some class fees.
Frustration continues to mount for those looking into college as they look at the sky high costs of attending a university, and realize that their savings from their job, and if they’re lucky, from their savings, will cover only a semester to as much as a couple years of education, depending on the cost of the university chosen. It’s at that time that a person starts to look at their other options: scholarships, grants, and, student loans.
Scholarships have a nice ring to them, and everyone who looks to attend university hopes to nab a couple to help ease the pressure of the cost. However, unless a person does especially well in a sport, scholarships can be hard to find and a full ride is almost non existent. In many schools, most of their scholarships are to be given out only to athletes. This places others in a bind.
The average Joe will have a hard time finding a way to stand out on an application for a scholarship, and thus, will often have to get by without them. This leads to grants or student loans. Grants are easy enough to apply for and have relatively low interest rates if your parents make less than a standard amount of money from year to year. If a student’s parents make a decent living, and the student is an average “B” student, this leads him to door number three: student loans.
Student loans seem like a godsend in the beginning. They take care of a person’s tuition and they allow a student to breeze through university without any fear of not being able to pay for expenses. That is, if he pull out a large enough loan. Even then, a person won’t want to pull out too large a loan because once the student graduates from university and leaves the scholarly world forever and takes his first step into the real, working world, he will have to start paying his loans back. The interest on these are generally very high, and it can take many years to pay them back.
Without a higher education and a degree, a person will be trapped in entry level or low pay jobs for most of their life. They will more than likely make little money, and may or may not straddle the poverty line at times. A person may even have to hold multiple jobs just to get by.
If this is the case, then why must it be so difficult to better ourselves and thus better society? Education is a gift and a treasure that we as humans alone have on this planet. The fact that we limit our education to those who are willing to trap themselves in a web of servitude to pay back their debt is an illogical, backwards way of thinking. Education should be free and available to all who wish to gain more knowledge or move up on the financial ladder. People should not have to put themselves through huge strains, mentally and financially, to enter into the university system and stay there and eventually enter into the real world.