Is College Worth It?

via Gordon Stratton

NEWSBAD.COM

'Is college worth it? Is a college education really worth the investment of time, money and energy? Is a college degree really worth becoming enslaved to student loan debt that will haunt you for decades? The truth is that a college education is a massive gamble. For millions of Americans it works out well, but millions of other college graduates have found themselves completely unable to get a quality job in this economy and yet they are still trapped in a nightmare of student loan debt from which there is no escape. Millions of young Americans have discovered that they have become "indentured servants" the moment they graduate. The entire system encourages our young people to take out whatever college loans they "need" without worrying how they will pay them back because a college education is such a good "investment". Once upon a time, a college education was actually an almost automatic ticket to the middle class. Today, a college education does not guarantee you anything, but for millions of Americans it does turn out to be an automatic ticket to student loan hell.

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Now that a college degree won't open the same doors that it used to, is college really worth it?

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For some fields, a college degree is absolutely necessary. That doesn't mean that a job will be there when you graduate, but if you are determined to work in a field where a college degree is 100% required, then it might be a gamble you are willing to take.

However, for millions of others young Americans college is simply not worth it.

There are literally millions of disillusioned young college graduates out there today. Large numbers of them are living back at home with their parents. Many of them have fallen into deep depression.

As a recent article on canada.com noted, an increasing number of our young people (especially our young men) are just "checking out" and giving up hope....

What is perhaps one of the saddest things of all is that our colleges and universities are all about training our young people to become part of the "system". Most parents have no idea how much indoctrination goes on inside college classrooms. In a previous article, I described what I saw during my 8 years at American universities....

Another open secret is that most of our colleges and universities are little more than indoctrination centers. Most people would be absolutely shocked at how much unfiltered propaganda is being pounded into the heads of our young people.

At most colleges and universities, when it comes to the "big questions" there is a "right answer" and there is virtually no discussion of any other alternatives.

In most fields there is an "orthodoxy" that you had better adhere to if you want to get good grades.

Let's just say that "independent thought" and "critical thinking" are not really encouraged at most of our institutions of higher learning.

The reality is that college is a very expensive joke. It is a 4 (or 5 or 6) year vacation away from reality. If you can ignore all of the establishment propaganda that they try to pound into your head, it can be a lot of fun.

However, if you have to take out loans, going to college can be an incredibly painful financial decision as well.

So is college worth it?'

Emmy Bowden replied:

I don't know if I agree with a lot of what that articles says, especially about the amount of learning and time spent studying. I usually spend 3-5hrs/day studying, and that is on top of spending 5-6hrs/day in class and working 15hr/week. I do socialize, but usually just on the weekends because I'm too busy during the week. Also, just in the last year I have learned more than in my 3 previous years in college combined, gained work experience through my on-campus job, and had an internship in my field which has now gotten my research published (critical when applying for grad schools) and got me an internship abroad where I will continue my research on a larger scale. I also learned a plethora of transferable skills that will help me get a job in a different field if I cannot find an immediate opening in mine when I graduate.

Then again, I'm not going to a conventional university. I was, and I dropped out for many of the reasons listed and transferred to Evergreen. Also, while out of school I had a hell of a time finding a job that didn't require a degree, including some jobs as a cook or waitress.