To compete in today’s economy a college degree is becoming ever more important. This being said, myself along with millions of other students have to be aware of this looming stage in our lives that gets one step closer at every senior graduation. In this post I want to delve into my college experiences I have had up to this point in my life.
The first major collegiate encounter I’ve had was visiting the Maine State College Fair at Bowdoin College. The excitement of being on such a prestigious campus fueled the inner college hunting passion within us students. My first stop at the fair (a symposium type setup with representatives from each major colleges in Maine) was of course Bowdoin. I approached the stand and was greeted with a warm professional smile, this wasn’t her first rodeo. We talk about tough competitors like Bates and Colby, we talk about the great economics program at Bowdoin which is an interest of mine, we even talk about Reed Hastings the CEO of Netflix and famous alumni. Shes got me hooked. I then take a half-hearted mull over to the Bates stand, I quickly start to talk about the great Bates economics program, the cozy Bates community and even about the representatives kids! This process repeats itself a few times each with a new college/love. The problem is that all of these colleges were attractive but as a student you get one shot to pick the college you will attend (if you can even get in) and that’s it. Theres practically no switching because you changed your major and another college fits your needs or because you fall in love with another campus. As far as I’m concerned this isn’t just picking a school, its marriage.
Picking the school you want to attend for the next 4+ years of your life aside, is the financing catastrophe-waiting to happen involved with the venture. After All colleges are business nowadays, and their booming. Lack of resources keeps thousand top students out of the colleges of their dreams and increases income inequality in our society. To combat this our government has implemented measures like Pell grants and other need based aid but this does not cover all or even the majority of the expenses and leaves countless students in huge debt at the worst possible time, post graduation. This leads to a major fear for us students. Now it might not be so bad if you had debt but loved your job, you could pay it off eventually right? Well let me paint this picture, you graduate college with $30,000 debt around the Maine average, but hate your job. Every day you go to work for the sole purpose of paying off this debt and you know you can’t go back to school with this much debt already and will be stuck with the occupation for the rest of your life.
Help out a student near you.
College, Washington, Life of a Student 