It’s the end of March. May 1st is creeping around the corner for many of America’s high school seniors. What college will they be attending? What college will their friends be attending? Picking the school that’s right for you is a huge decision and choosing to attend college in general is much the same. But has anyone ever stopped to ask themselves why they’re going to college? What is it about investing thousands of dollars into a degree that really makes it worth it?
The answer lies in the marketplace that colleges and our government have created. Higher education has become a tool not to educate the populace of America, but to generate revenue and profit for colleges and their subsidiaries.
Universities was originally established in the United States in order to educate citizens in the liberal arts and civic responsibilities. They were created to have a more cultured and educated populace as a whole in order to forward our country and government; a democratic republic that relies on having informed voters. Because this became a staple point within the country, the government increased its investment into higher education and created many public universities across many states. Even more so, it is the reason why our government has so much money to give out for federal grants and financial aid so that more and more students have access to school.
While this idea of a liberal education sounds great in theory, the current status of the college system is far removed from this idealistic model. College has changed with the times and as the United States moved towards becoming a service-based economy, its colleges moved with it. Going to college is no longer about being cultured in the arts and learning about the political process, it is about getting a degree. It’s about getting a stamp of approval so when one graduates and seeks a job their college’s name will get their “foot in the door.”
This is a wrong mentality, and one that colleges use to prey on high school seniors. This emphasis on getting the right degree has created a cutthroat culture in our schools and given colleges access to a plethora of possible profit. Colleges are able to spike tuition rates to obscene levels without worrying about losing demand because even if students can’t afford their costs the government is there to subsidize those costs. What’s even worse is that this artificial demand for schools has grown so large that there are literally “for profit” colleges like the University of Phoenix. These schools do nothing more than sell seats in a class to those people who couldn’t get in to a different school. The quality of education is abysmal and the job placement rates are just as low. This coupled with the fact that these for profit schools draw upon the majority of federal funds for higher education really exhibits the problem that we have with our current secondary education system.
So seniors, when you sit down and make your decision about where you will be going after you graduate consider this. It’s okay to break away from society’s expectations, and it’s okay to break away from your parents’ expectations. Pick the college that will provide for you the best overall experience, that will better you as a person not as just another employee.
