As the Price of a Diploma Diminishes

Many students start out with a part time job earning minimum wage just to earn a little money for the education that is promised to get them a better job. Students are told that they cannot get a satisfying job without an advance education, so they struggle through the competition, rigor, and demand to obtain a college education. This education comes at a hefty price, in the tens of thousands of dollars each year with a 5% increase in tuition each year, no matter if it is public or private. Tuition is not the only cost as books, room and board, and travel/transportation require a good chunk of change. After completing those four years, the student will have their piece of paper but will also have hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt. The student will take that piece of paper and try to get the job that they were assured from the beginning.

In today’s economy, jobs are not hiring because they do not have enough money to even keep the people they have as they lay people off. If any job is hiring, the jobs will tell them that they cannot hire the graduate unless they have experience, but the graduate cannot get experience until the job hires them. The student with their piece of paper, thousands in education debts and four years of potential income earning passed up, now goes back to living with their parents and to the part time job that earned them minimum wage. On the upside, the graduate is now able to work full time and brag about how expensive that now framed piece of paper was.

Was the student dumb? This makes my two more years till graduation a little more worth while. Let us hope for better times to come.