Is College a Scam?

Author: Valerie Svaldi
Essay Topic: College Tuition

Is College a Scam? 

College is a scam. Not a computer pop up that comes is when you are on a sketchy website, or a fake Prada bag that you bought in the not-so-nice part of town. No, instead college is a scam that is designed to cheat young people out of our well deserved and highly fundamental higher education. The cost and time and energy that goes into college greatly outweigh the benefits that are ‘promised’ by our society for attending, yet most people don’t know the truth behind what college is actually about and this is the problem. The truth of the matter is that college is a corporation like any other business that is trying to wring dry the pockets of innocent people and, that is not how education should be.  

First it is important to determine the main goal of those who are going to college. Every student is different but the motivation to attend college stems from the desire to get a higher quality job that allows them to make more money. Doesn’t money always seem to be the motivation? Alright so if money is the goal then why isn’t college set us up to lead us there? Matthew Crawford, Matthew B. Crawford is an American writer and research fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture at the University of Virginia, “If the goal is to earn a living, then maybe it isn’t really true that an 18-year-old need to be imparted with a sense of panic about getting into college.”(Crawford, 11).  The overwhelming conformity of a straight out of high school student is going to be forced with the financial decision if they should spend all of the money they haven’t even made yet, on college... This idea of taking out loans to be able to afford to go to school is outrageous to me.

In Germany they offer alternative schools that specialize in trade and are paid for the government, as well as most corporations provide paid internships that will result in a well trained future employee because 85% of paid internships result in a long term employee(CNN,12). This would be a more effective way for society to be divided so that going to a good college to get a degree in order to be able to work for a company that may fire you because they want experienced people but you were to busy going to college.

The fact of the matter is that young people are needing a way to make a living without the risk or upfront of cash, or the sitting namelessly in an auditorium while a professor that is disappointed in his own life, rambles on about something that doesn’t even apply to your major or career of choice. Information is available in every form at nothing more than a click or a button or at your fingertips. Being placed into the labor market in order to do your career of choice seems like a more viable and cheaper option.  According to the Princeton economist Alan Blinder, “the crucial distinction in the emerging labor market is not between those whose services in the emerging labor market is not between those with more or less education. but between those whose services can be delivered over a wire and those who must do their work in person or on site.” With the new technologies in our modern world we have so many opportunities and information. Anyone can become an expert on any topic nowadays with the internet. And yet it seems like we wait to have the largest debt and six more year of schooling before people are allowed to get a job and be what they want to be. I find myself asking the same question as Michael Roth an American academic and university administrator. He became the 16th president of Wesleyan University, “What does liberal learning have to do with the harsh realities that our graduates are going to face after college?” How does learning from a pre-planned curriculum help me have a better knowledge of creating a life for myself? It really doesn’t.

Yet the pressure still remains, graduates of high school are expected to go to a good college, graduate in four years after racking up student debt and then get a great paying job and pay off their debt and work their butt off the rest of their life. But no student is guaranteed a job, in fact they are not guaranteed anything. College takes all of your money and then gives you a piece of paper at the end to proof your hard work. “As college students head back to the classroom this semester, a harsh reality confronts them- the reward for the time, energy, and money that young people put into college are less than they were a decade ago!’ (Shierholz,11) Entry level wages are nearly $1.50 less hourly than before. This matched with the fact that college is also more money then it has even been to attend, makes me truly question and debate the actual worth of a college education. Why is it that high schools feel the need to pressure every student to attend college and take this risky financial decision.

I can’t see myself with a life-time worth of debt all for a couple years at a university to get a job that doesn’t pay enough or to not find a job at all. However, the only other option is to work for minimum wage the rest of your life and barely be able to afford a two-bedroom apartment.

According to Ben Wieder, author for the Chronicle of Higher Education, “Students today are taking on more debt, and recently tightened bankruptcy laws make it more difficult to shake that debt, he argues, and those factors make higher education a risky investment.” The article also concluded with a quote from Mr. Thiel- the co-founder of PayPal, where he states, “If you get this wrong, it is actually a mistake that is hard to undo for the rest of your life.”(Wieder,11).

This terrifying and daunting truth of what youths entire futures could end up as is being pressured and pushed on teens who only now are being allowed to leave the room without raising their hand. No amount of time before adulthood can prepare you for the decision that a 18 year old old with the choice of going to college or not. Some people are willing to take the risk blindly but I urge you to really question to value of college, before jumping through their hoops.

For every individual the situation is going to be different, but the real effectiveness of the system needs to be questioned.  In the end the question really is, whether college is worth it, but every answer from numerical, logical, financial, emotional, or logistic clearly indicates no. No, college is not worth the hundreds or thousands of dollars.College really can’t be considered worth the money you pay and yet you end up paying it anyway in fear or having a bad future. It is a scam and no one should have to be scammed out of an education.

Works Cited

1. Crawford, Matthew B. “The Case for Working with Your Hands.” New York Time Magazine. New York Times, 24 May 2009. Web. 19 Dec. 2011.
2. Roth, Michael. “What’s a Liberal Arts Education Good For?” Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 1 Dec. 2008. Web. 20 Dec. 2011.
3. Shierholz, Heidi. “New college grads losing ground on wages.” Economic Policy Institute. economic Policy Institute, 21 Aug. 2011. Web. 20 Dec. 2011.
4. Wieder, Ben. “Thiel Fellowship Pays 24 Talented Students $100,000 Not to Attend College.” The Chronicle of Higher Education. The Chronicle of Higher Education, 25 May 2011. Web. 20 Dec. 2011.
5. Zakaria, Fareed. "Putting America To Work." CNN. Cable News Network, 23 Sept. 2012. Web. 12 Oct. 2015. <http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1209/23/fzgps.02.html>.