Nine years ago I was a college freshman student who thought that having been approved for student loans was the coolest thing ever. Today, I struggle to even pay a monthly $100 interest bill toward my loans. I must be near the $50,000 by now, but I wouldn’t know exactly because whenever I log in to my account I get a headache and have to log back out right away.
I would have never guessed that my education could get this expensive. Considering the fact that I only studied languages and some other stuff that I already knew, this bill is pretty fat. Other countries provide better education and it is still free. In Spain, for instance, I studied for one semester and learned that even public education is great. The workload is tremendous, and professors do expect a hell lot from you, but it motivates you and it shows that, there, education is a priority. When I came back home, I didn’t even mind paying my dues for the credits I did in Spain. If education in the U.S. was as challenging as in Europe, I wouldn’t be so upset about how expensive student loans can be.
Even Harvard, George Washington, and NYU I consider being ridiculously high priced universities. Of course the education there is good, but still not affordable for the average people. The problem is that it seems that all America cares about is prestige, and education is the last priority. If it was a priority, then the government or whatever laws govern it would have lowered tuition. Instead, tuition goes up almost each year, making it really difficult for low-income families to send their kids to college. We wouldn’t even be touching this subject right now if education was free in the U.S. or if at least it was half of what it costs today to go to a community college.
There aren’t that many programs and scholarships available either. At least for us, the ones who focused in school, followed the rules, and want nothing but to be successful in life, there should be some sort of assistance with student loans. Big institutions that already have a way of making their own millions get bailed out while some of us, the future of this nation, haven’t even been able to find work in the field we studied.
But I’m not mad at the government because, maybe, I chose the wrong career and know I cannot put in affect what I just graduated from; I’m upset because they know that it doesn’t always work, that a $40,000 tuition doesn’t guarantee you a job the first year you graduate from school. In view of that, they should implement a law where students don’t have to sacrifice so much and get so little. They should reduce interests and the cost of education in general. And if that’s not an option, then yes, they should bail us out.