by Lisa Martens

Created on: April 26, 2008

I am a responsible student with a 3.94 GPA and I attend New York University. I'm working full time this summer as well as paying all my own bills. I will be severely in debt by the time I graduate.

I see, from reading these articles, the claim of the "investment" in education, learning "responsibility," and basically a bunch of nonsense that doesn't translate well into the real college tuition experience. I pay for my entire NYU bill myself - mainly through student loans. I've been to two universities (I've transferred) so I know a lot about federal and private loans.

Universities are businesses and they operate as such. Maybe there are a few counselors who truly care if you graduate with minimal debt, but, for the most part, a university is out to make money. Financial Aid is shrinking at an alarming rate, and most of my aid consists of loans and work study. Since when does working for a paycheck constitute as "aid"? Or taking out loans? Don't these two phrases contradict one another? Aid is aid - that's the point.

The price of going to university is increasing every single semester. Now the housing crisis is going to affect the ability of students to get private loans, and the economy is slumping. Students have learned that working hard and "investing in your college education" can easily get you nowhere. Speaking as a student, I can tell you that I feel lied to and cheated.

Maybe back before the 90s going to college and getting a degree was a sure-fire thing. But going to high school doesn't mean as much today. Higher education means less and less, and students have to stay in school longer to get the same job security that an Associates would have gotten you twenty years ago. Parents don't realize that they're lying to their children about the prospects of college, but they are.

The ability to succeed comes not from a college degree, even though I've been told this all my life. My parents told me from a young age that I should go to college, but they weren't going to help pay for it. Now I've accrued all this debt and it makes any of my subsequent successes cheapened. My relationship with my parents has deteriorated. I feel trapped by debt and I feel even more trapped at the thought of not continuing my education.

Many students apply for scholarships, and competition is tough. It's only a matter of time before Sallie Mae can't come to my rescue. And what are my monthly payments going to look like when I graduate? I'm already using Helium to pay for my phone bill.

I'm not receiving a lesson in responsibility, but, rather, in futility. I'm not learning to take care of myself, but that it's pointless to try. I know these lessons are wrong, but if I'm learning anything from the weight of college tuition, that's what it is.

Should I not go to such a good school, then? Are good schools not for the intelligent, but for the already wealthy? How am I supposed to crawl up, then, as is the so-called American dream?

And who should pay? Who should pay, really, when any information in a classroom can be found online? Who should pay, when this is the supposed age of information? Who should pay when parents are losing their homes, gasoline is pressing $4/gallon, and jobs are scarce? It seems like we'll all pay. Everything is linked and inter-connected.

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