Being a college student in the 21st century isn't easy, despite what the older generations believe. A college education has been deemed necessary for success for decades, however, this has all changed since even a college diploma won't guarantee you success.

Plus, even obtaining a college degree is close to impossible for many hopeful college students due to the excessive bills students incur during their four short years on campus. College tuition is rising, one textbook can range from $50 to $250, and some colleges even charge hidden fees or extremely steep prices for college necessities such as meal plans and parking passes.

I live off campus, have no where to park my car at my house, and therefore have to drive to school. What blows my mind is that if I want a parking pass for a year I have to pay the school close to $400... which doesn't even guarantee me a parking spot. How is it that schools can get away with this? How can they sell more parking passes than they have parking spots?

That's not even the worst part either... heaven forbid that I find a parking spot, and end up parking in the wrong section of the garage just because there's no more spots in my section. That's an automatic parking ticket, i.e. a $200 bill I have to pay because I have a parking pass, but there were no spots in the limited designated section I'm allowed to park my car in.

Don't worry though, IT GETS WORSE... Say I don't have the money to pay that ticket (because lets be real here, I'm a broke college kid just like you) the college then refuses me the ability to register for classes or even attempt to modify my schedule during add-drop. Is there not a point where the college acknowledges what they're doing? Why are they trying to make excess profits off of their students... is our tuition not enough?

Besides obnoxious parking ticket fees, expensive parking passes, and obscenely expensive meal plans the main culprit on campus are textbooks... and the shady professors who insist that you need to purchase the book the first week of class and then never reference them once. This is a serious issue on college campuses today.

The textbook industry is making millions of dollars off of broke students who would rather use the money on food, and not a textbook they will never need to read. AND DON'T EVEN GET ME STARTED ON ACCESS CODES. This is one of the shadiest ways the textbook companies are fighting back against students who are smart enough to buy used books. Now professors will say that you have to buy a brand new book just because you need access to the online homework system... WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO JUST POSTING HOMEWORK ONLINE OR HANDING OUT SHEETS OF PAPER?

I just don't understand why colleges would want to treat their students this way. Why don't they value us (AND OUR TUITION)? Why do they have to make a task as hard as college HARDER by making us give them even more money for this stuff? Why don't colleges value us and what we want to achieve? It's time for colleges to stop profiting off of our need to graduate. It's time to put students first for a change.