Ever since we could comprehend words, all we've heard is "go to college because it will help you be successful in life". I absolutely do not agree but that is besides the point. No one ever tells you in the years of schooling before college that student loans and loans in general will become your life, more so than your own career. How could anyone expect students to function when the mere thought of the increasing debt? Not to mention decreasing jobs in their field is an omnipresent grey cloud that never goes away.
Everyone tells you to go to college but no one tells you how to pay for it. Also, no one prepares you for the anxiety filled days filling out financial aid forms and student loan applications that get denied time and time again. Students all over the country are graduating high school and going to colleges that raise tuition every year regardless if their student body has not a dollar to their name. It still shocks me when loan applications ask me how much money I have in my checking account.
Is the 47 dollars and 33 cents supposed to change the amount of help I receive to get a decent education that everyone so desperately insisted I needed to be successful? Millions of wealthy people in the US cut corners to save a buck and by "buck" I mean $650 million (TRUMP for example!). Why is it that a millionaire can fail to pay that enormous amount of money and the government and the IRS can look the other way? Yet, as soon as you miss a student loan payment it becomes delinquent...someone explain to me how that makes any sense. Guidance counselors, teachers, professors,etc. all tell their students that they can be whatever they want to be and college will help them achieve that dream.
But someone once told me essays don't pay bills, so with that being said students could sit at their laptops all night writing to their hearts content hoping they'll receive a scholarship that will never come or a loan that will never be approved and they will have to do whatever it takes to pay for school and live with the crippling debt that will become their life. Schools claim to be proficient in "college readiness" but neglect to tell their students that a great education comes at an incredible price. What do I know, I'm just a girl with big dreams, a indigent bank account, and $48,000 of debt with nothing to show for it. Thanks, America.
