How many of the people reading this have student loan debt? I continually wonder if the education system in the United States has evolved into little more than a money making scheme for the smartest among us. Perhaps our education system does more good than bad, but how would we quantify this? Where would the calculations even begin?

The average student loan debt per person is roughly $35,000, varying slightly state to state. In total, there is over $1.5 trillion of student debt currently waiting to be repaid. Half of those loans are attached to post-graduate degrees, like MBA’s, and medical school tuition. 

When I applied to various colleges last fall, all of them tried to convince me in one way or another that their school was better than the rest of the competition. In fact, some could give a fairly convincing argument. But I continually questioned their motives. 

I spoke with a man from Pitt about what they had to offer, but I was especially concerned with the cost of tuition. Not for a one second do I believe he had any malicious intent, but it was clear that the statements he gave were carefully worded, almost script-like. Who do you think writes those scripts? Do you think they have a background in marketing or sales? 

Sure, none of the points I’ve mentioned are criminal in nature, but it does question the validity of the people running these institutions. I get dozens of emails each week from schools touting their student to faculty ratios, or the companies their students work for post-graduation. Headlines like, “You belong here!” and, “We care about you!” fill my inbox. And immediately I think, “If you care about your students, why do you charge $2,500 for a class where the material comes from Youtube?” 

Room and board prices are so astronomically high that I wonder how any school could teach ethics while charging students, on average, $10,000 each year to live in a dorm. Numbers like this make me nauseated…

For months I’ve questioned whether or not to even attend college. Why would I take on tens of thousands of dollars in debt to read books written by ideologues and share a shower with their supporters? 

Here’s what’s unfortunate: the world values a piece of paper more than my own self-worth. It is expected, almost without question, that high school graduates should contribute to the problem for the sake of finding a good job by going into debt for a degree.

The best vocational schools do a better job solving the issue of employment than their costly competition. I attended a career center to study precision machining and manufacturing, which landed me a job making a living wage at the age of 17, still a junior in high school. How much did that education cost me? Absolutely nothing. No debt here…

The last machine shop I visited was hiring guys to work 80 hours per week. Every person in that shop is probably making $2000 each week, a salary most college graduates dream of making. Places like this value work ethic over education credentials. And most people don’t have that work ethic.

Despite all my critiques, I am still attending college this fall. Why?