10 Reasons Why College Might Not Be For You
Your whole life you’re told go to college, get a degree, get a high paying job, get married, and then you die because that’s the American Dream. Well I’m here to tell you the American Dream is overrated. I mean sure, it sounds pretty cut and dry but for many of us, it isn’t ideal. Like going to college, there are those who think it’s the bee’s knees and then there’s me.
1. You’ll Be In Debt Forever
The cost of tuition is already astronomical. Now imagine that plus interest. You’ll be paying off Sallie Mae and Freddie Mac for the rest of your life.
2. Textbooks Cost A Fortune
Not only are they so expensive, your professors assign them to the class like a week before the semester starts, give you maybe a week after classes start to get them, and expect you to have the hundreds of dollars to pay for them. If you don’t have a magical device to automatically give you money and get your textbooks in time, you’ll fall behind on assignments.
The worst part is book buybacks. Imagine paying $150 for a book and at the end of the semester getting $10 for it. Or it could be worse, you could get nothing for it. It’s 50/50.
3. Registering For Classes
First you have to meet with your advisor to figure out which classes you need. Then you have to select the ones that are available and don’t overlap. You also have to take into consideration time to work and study. After all this preparation of putting together the perfect schedule, you go to hit enroll and some of your classes are gone from your shopping cart. That enrollment date and time is no joke. It’s pretty much a first come, first serve thing.
4. Communal. Bathrooms.
Call me a germaphobe, I don’t care, but sharing a bathroom with strangers is hands down the nastiest thing in the world. I’ve seen things.
5. Group Projects
I hate working with groups. It’s not that I hate people and I’m not a team player, it’s just 90% of the time you’re going to get lazy people who don’t contribute, or bossy people who won’t listen to anything but their own ideas. Listen, I can get an A by myself, I don’t like having my grade determined by the lack of work ethics of the people in my group.
6. Writing Essays
Oh yes, I just love writing long-winded papers about topics that I don’t care about for college classes that have nothing to do with my major. *cough* gen eds *cough*
7. Finals
On top of weekly tests and quizzes to assess your knowledge of the course, we’re also going to give you a gigantic test at the end of the semester to assess your knowledge of the course. 🙂
8. Balancing Work And School
I did this and it is not easy. Do you know how many times I thought to myself, “I could be studying for that exam right now but I have to be here.” It’s a struggle. You need the money but you also have to study. If you’re lucky, you might be able to study in between customers, but for whatever reason, they can smell when you open up your notebook to study, and that’s when they decide to come in.
9. Social Life. Good Grades. Enough Sleep. Pick 2.
I saw this chart and I immediately thought, “Yup, that’s college for you, especially if you live on campus far away from your home.
10. Your Mental Health Takes A Beating
The intense pressure of succeeding in college can make someone crack. The deadlines, piles of assignments, trying to absorb all the material; college is the toughest thing in the world mentally.
