The Decision
The dreaded decision every student has to make, whether they should go to college or not. I remember my time as a young adult confronting this dilemma, having to choose to go or start working. Some people decide to have a year off since they became so sick and tired of school. They take the whole year off to relax or even work a part time job to gain real life experience.
On to the subject of already having a College degree, many have taken on the endeavor of 4 years of studying useless courses that have nothing to do with their career or major. Useless classes are one of the worse aspects of College and University, coming in second to tuition fees and almost non-existent professors. Don't get me wrong; I am not some crazy anti education maniac, all I am going to do is state the truth in this article.
Unnecessary Classes
Let's begin with useless classes; we are all forced to take an irrelevant class while majoring in Information Technology, or even other useless subjects that have NOTHING to do with your degree! For example from my own experience, I had to take a Health and Healing class that covered Witch craft and traditional healing while my major was General Business. An extra class does not just mean wasted time and useless knowledge. Although it is adding to the accumulation of your future debts, you pay for these courses with your loan money or your parent's life savings.
Next is ridiculous tuition fees, every year it gets more and more expensive to get an education. My micro economics professor told me it cost him over $500,000 to get his Ph.D. in Economics. That is the price of a house, he is over 40 years old right now and is STILL paying off his loans while trying to pay his mortgage. To some degree I can agree with why it can be costly, you need professionals to teach at a high caliber. Although $500,000 is hard to justify, the whole purpose of going to get a degree is to land a good job that pays well to enable us to purchase a house and raise a family.
Cost of Textbooks
On top of tuition costs, there are text book costs and residence expenses. During my time in college, the average text book cost $150 each while taking seven classes a semester equaling $1050 just on text books. Moving on to medical school textbooks total costs according to the University of British Columbia it costs $2200 just for the first year text books. I give credit and acknowledgment to the research behind writing these textbooks and professionals involved with creating them. The issue at hand is the fact these text books are just "revised" every year and forced down students throats that they cannot pass with out purchasing the "updated one" even though it is the same book as the year before with dates changed and chapters switched around.
To further the difficulty of purchasing used textbooks my College had implemented an "online code system" that obliged every student to buy a code to access their online homework. It sounds ridiculous although this program is being implemented nationally here in Canada.
At this point, I understand it may seem like a rant but please bear with me to the end as things will become clearer.
Tuition Cost Rising
The tuition costs are rising, just from 2015 to 2016 the tuition costs have increased 3%, it may seem little but as the years pass by this becomes a lot.
Heres an example of how much tuition has increased over the years, in 1976-77 tuition for four years of studies cost $2,275. Of course, there's inflation I did not forget about that. The same $2,275 tuition from 1976 would equate to today's $9,477.96, the average four years tuition cost today is $35,600. That is a 416% increase in 41 years, averaging a 10.15% increase every decade. The estimated cost of tuition in 2035 is $85,771 that is another 241% increase from now! I understand there is inflation, but inflation is only 1-2% increase annually.
Here is a list of extra expenses for the University of British Colombia: (This is just an example, I did not attend this University.)
How does one expect to pay for all of this straight out of high school let alone saving up their whole lives? Parents save up and use their life saving to "get their kids a better education." The price tag defeats the purpose of school; a house can be bought instead of going. In reality, we all aim for purchasing our first home, some end up paying back their college loans plus the accumulated interest that followed as well!
Percentage of Graduates Employed
Now the sad part of all life stories, after graduating with all this debt each person frantically searches for a job in their desired industry. The unemployment rate for college graduates in 2015 is 12.4%, and 45% of the graduates work in fields that did not require the degree. That means 57.4% of graduates find their degree to be useless and just another burden of life.
There was a time where just having a high school diploma would land you a job, those days are long gone as society becomes more and more advanced. Sadly an under grad degree is not going to cut it either; job positions are now demanding master degrees. The main thing employers look for now is experience, they would rather take a person with ten years experience than a newbie with a master's.
When it comes to becoming a doctor, lawyer or engineer, it is evident you need to have a degree. If you are getting into any other industry, I would recommend you rethink your choices when furthering your schooling. For business, all you need is a mentor rather than a bachelor's. If you have cash make the decision can I invest it or should I go to college? Many of us go because of our family and their expectation, entering into a field we hate and have no interest in it.
Exams
Every student goes through the nerve racking stress of exams and expectations of our parents to pass and get high grades. There are thousands of cases of students committing suicide due to failing a course or even because they did not get 90% on an exam. It is unfortunate, and the parents do not realize the damage done until their child is gone.
The sacrifice behind each student can write volumes up volumes in a series of books, some poor and have nothing, some rich with a lot of family pressure. Many fall into depression and regret, not knowing what to do after they finish.
My Experience
These are just my thoughts after completing just last month, I have joined the many who are indebted. I believe that if your field of work does not fall under the categories that are mandatory for an education you are better off learning on your own.
Whether you should drop out or not, this is a question I had battled for a long time, if I should drop out or finish. I decided to continue and finish because I only had a few months to complete it. Some people are also just not meant for University and are better off working instead.
A few signs that it is better for you to drop out than continue being If you are driven and organized, get things done on your own and do not need nagging to do work. Discipline is critical; nothing is worse than dropping out and becoming a loser who leeches off their parents and will not even work for their own money.
I will leave you all at that; these are my thoughts and experiences I think the educational system needs to change and update, it has been the same for over a hundred years and outdated. Exams are not even an effective method of testing a persons knowledge, thing's need to change to adapt to the new up coming generations.
Comment below your opinion on the educational system and whether you feel if you should drop out or continue. Comment if you think you are wasting your time and money, or if you feel your doing great and have your future paved.
It is a controversial topic, debate to your heart content below. Give your point and arguments and ideas for improvements to the system!
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Citations:
Tuition cost increase 2015-2016: http://globalnews.ca/news/2924898/university-tuition-fees-rise-40-per-cent-in-a-decade/
University of British Columbia Medical School Costs: http://mdprogram.med.ubc.ca/student-resources/financial-support/cost-of-an-md-student/
1976-1977 Tuition cost: https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d07/tables/dt07_320.asp
Inflation calculator: http://www.bankofcanada.ca/rates/related/inflation-calculator/
College Tuition Predictions:
https://www.heritageresp.com/the-cost-of-a-higher-education
Unemployed Graduates:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/felix-w-ortiz-iii/college-grads-are-still-hurting-over-debt-and-joblessness_b_7449460.html
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if your degree is not in STEM (science, technology, engineering , math) it's pretty much useless for getting you a job.
That's exactly my thoughts as well, once I finished and started searching for a job low and behold I find myself seeing requirements asking for X amount of years of experience. Sadly the classroom did not offer any of that experience.
yup...if it's not STEM it's a hobby.
pretty damn expensive hobbies too.
oh...one other thing.
Robots.
Oh boy, especially with artificial intelligence on the rise we are losing even the simplest of jobs. It seems that even minimum wage jobs will just be 100% taken over by automated machines. I already see kiosks at McDonald's that take the order and display it in the kitchen. No need for cashiers anymore.
be of good cheer...Human Level Artificial Intelligence is NOT very likely very soon
AI has been 'real soon now, in the next five or ten years....for the last half a century.
the more they learn..they more they learn how little they know. AI is a HARD problem.
I expect to see desktop fusion and artificial gravity first.
so..does that make you feel good? 1% of the jobs will still need people.
I truly hope so! :)
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STOPThanks
I agree wholeheartedly, higher education needs to be seen as an investment and not a necessity. Good work with this article, I'm looking forward to seeing more from you.
Thank you very much! It truly came from the heart and I felt it was needed to be mentioned.
you nailed it pretty much. Education is viewed as a profitable business now. And moreover too much focusing on STEM has created a disharmony in the economy.
I've come to realize that there's a huge deficiency of the new generation going into other fields, almost everyone if flocking into STEM related careers. We are short for labour workers and other industries as well.