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I'm a young American, finishing my last year of college, looking down a road that gets bleaker every day. My family is dirt poor; people today seem to forget that in America today families still exist who don't have TV, who don't have A/C, whose electricity gets cut off regularly, and who can't afford to buy meat. That was -- is -- my family. I worked my ass off my whole life to get straight A's, while holding down a job to help out with bills and food; I applied for colleges from our local library because we don't have Internet, I studied with flashlights when our electricity went out, and when I was 18 it all paid off with a full-ride scholarship to George Washington University in DC.
And so I left. I left my family behind, I left my four younger siblings and my disabled sister with my single mother. I left because I didn't want the life I saw them struggling with every day. I left to be the first one to attend college, the first one to leave our state, and I had no idea how hard it would be. I left vowing to get educated, get a middle-class job, and come back to pull them out of this life. But financially stranded and on my own, I picked up two jobs my very first year in college and never stopped. Tutoring and waitressing were barely enough to pay my food and transportation in DC, not to mention my cell phone bill, and purchasing my laptop and dorm supplies.
Soon I was overwhelmed with a full course load, trying to keep my grades up for my scholarship, falling behind because I'd never had the private school preparation for the advanced courses; falling behind because I closed up the restaurant past midnight every night,
originally posted by: NthOther
We have hordes of accountants, psychologists and lawyers in this country... and almost none of them know how to fix their own toilet.
Opportunity knocks. Learn how to fix something important to people and you'll never be unemployed.
originally posted by: NthOther
7
We have hordes of accountants, psychologists and lawyers in this country... and almost none of them know how to fix their own toilet.
I do firmly believe that the student loan system we have essentially creates a population of indentured servants.
originally posted by: buster2010
a reply to: jrod
I do firmly believe that the student loan system we have essentially creates a population of indentured servants.
Of course it does because that is what it's meant to do. You have people that will be in debt for 20 to 30 years after graduating with no guarantee that they will be able to find a job in their chosen profession. So they wind up defaulting on their loans and the interest makes the debt go up even higher. College will soon be only for the wealthy because the middle class and poor simply won't be able to afford it and that is the way the wealthy want it.
originally posted by: coastlinekid
If you are not going for a degree that involves math or science, college is only good for networking with the elite through fraternities so you can skate...