The Price of Higher Education: Or the Cost of Ruin

We all have heard the advertisements and seen the great notions for going to college. To advance yourself into in finding some career and make life better for yourself and loved ones. While that is fine and good, there are many stories, many of those who go never to find the pot of gold of prosperity. It’s not for reasons of effort, nor the dreams of ambition to do it, but the almighty dollar. Most are not born in to affluent families who can fork over a blank check and pay for it. Working your way through school is a valid option and many do it; however, more burn out and not finish because of the strains of maintaining your class load along with your workload is too much for many. Then many are not smart, or fortunate enough to obtain any significant scholarships without jumping through flaming hoops like a circus animal. You hear about free money around just for the taking, sadly to get it, you must have “certain” qualifications or restrictions to receive it.

Which leans the last and mostly the worse option, the all fun student loan. I know most would not think of it as such and that it’s just a way to pay for school. But, many have been trapped into a pitfall of amassed loans which you will have to repay the minute you get your degree. I know it’s a loan and you must treat it as such but the way some companies and most schools have excusive contracts or agreements to use only one provider. It’s amazing how one company in particular have a clear cut monopoly upon those who seek a higher education. And, with this power, they can impose just about anything they want, using financial blackmail to sign agreements of loans to pay for school, especially when grants and scholarships run out. Higher interest rates and a mob style tactics that only care about their bottom line profits than the concerns of the reason to go to school, obtain an education.

I have heard many of the horror stories of some company, which shall be remain nameless. Because I don’t need the libel suit. Hell not like that I care about that, can’t squeeze a dollar from a nickel. But, then again. I can use a small change to ensure the CYA plan. And for you home players out there who don’t speak Ghettoese, CYA means Cover Your Ass. The truth is that most people ask is college even worth it? With today’s economy as bad as it is and few opportunities out there to even have any employment that don’t ask you the question “do you want fries what that?” so limited., it just seems very discouraging to even enroll. However, we heard our parents preach over and over that you cannot get anywhere without some higher degree, but honestly, those days have long since gone.

So now, I have been fighting this student loan provider, let’s call her Mallie Sae, and this woman has been nothing more than a predatory, bitch in the worse order. I don’t know if I can even begin to express just the pure disgust I have for them. Their gang style tactics has been nothing but deplorable and add a school like SuckUDry (now I know why Jay Leno makes fun of the place) it’s a crazy tag-team that cause more than a share of headaches. Now this is a combination of one place that only offers one set of loans if you wish to go to school there, I graduate and the economy takes a nosedive. Finding a job that’s suitable for my degree is near impossible. I STILL know people who graduated still can’t anything worthwhile. Hell, I really think that my degree is a joke.

And the crazy thing is that recently, I saw a few commercials from my so called old school giving so much praise about how they are do diverse and how many students can find employment within their field upon graduation. I am like false, misleading advertising. And to be honest, I call total and complete BULL! I known people who had graduated with me had good grades who could not find a job in their field; because either 1 they were over qualified, or 2 did not have the significant experience for the job; which now of days is the only thing to secure any type of employment. And I am asking myself after looking at the piece of lying propaganda, are they for real? Unless they are talking about other campuses, there is no way and I mean no way on this green, dustball that we call earth they have this many folks getting jobs.

But, I get so many letters from the alumni association to join and discuss our experiences with our school and how we are getting along outside the confided walls of that insane, educational asylum. I am trying to keep folks from going there not attend. I mean seriously, it would be a public service to keep anyone from making the mistakes many of us have made.

Now that I have discussed that, let’s continue this lecture about the price tag of this. I know schools in general are about giving an education – but the price of that cost was crazy. Schools are for profits, the almighty dollar. And, anyone who says otherwise is lying or very good in their marketing department. However, the worse lot the providers of said loans. Now that the education bill is supposed to help eliminate many of the problems students face, I still get calls from them constantly. I now know that they are trying to reclaim, lost profits, with the downturn as it is.

Looking back at the experience at SuckUDry, were not a total waste of time, I have met some good people that I have made some lasting friendships so it was not a nightmare in its entirety, yet, looking at where I am at now and where I was suppose to be with the goals I was setting out to do at school and what they was to help provide, nothing has come out of it. Funny thing is that there suppose to be so many leaders industry that suppose to pluck many students from here, yet you don’t hear many give such praises about them now days. I have to look at the research and get a true estimate of it.

So, now I look at everything that has come full circle. The poor swindler who came to my house in the little blue Toyota truck who left my house in Morton, Mississippi with a guy knee deep in debt from Mallie Sae and a degree that is about worth the price of a piece of used bubble gum, and constant phone calls from loan/debt collectors who call at all parts of the day and night, who is about to get me to go ghetto on their asses. I need to do some research about them harassing a guy and stuff. Maybe sue them to get my bills paid. Only a dream huh? Isn’t that what school is suppose to do? Help you build a dream of a career. Unless you are a scholarship athlete or a child prodigy, it don’t happen very often. Which makes me ask, what is the price of a higher education? Most would say your eternal soul, plus 32.55% interest. I think that in today’s time, that price for such an education from such a disaster technical/trade school is not worth it. You can clearly get something better form Daisy’s Jean school of hair and nails and have something better and tangible. But, I shall do what I always done in my life, endure on and carry on the struggle, and laugh at the constant jokes that many people throw upon my school and the student loans that are launched by many people. I find it funny, they seen the truth that many others don’t who are caught in the web of expensive deception.

just something I wrote

many of those who know me, I don't have much a poetic bone in my body. And to conjure up anything that is not a haiku is rare at best. But for some reason, this I wrote just came out. I almost decided not to post it anywhere but I figured why not..

A Dream a Requiem

The last song, sung into the wind,
only the angels and bird can hear its melody.
The final words been written,
a lost masterpiece, only read by the recycle bin.
The great painting, one brush away from completion,
now forever covered by a layer of white.
All things, gone into obscurity.

Ambitions, like the turning of the seasons, change anew.
Some are nurtured, others starve for attention.
The true survival of the fittest – survival is viability,
success is the harvest, failure is the famine.
The lost, locked away in a steam trunk in our minds,
never to be opened – abandoned and forgotten.

The song, silenced into a box and placed in the trunk,
for it was not suitable for the ears of many.
The book, one that could shape a society, bound in cloth,
the words unworthy to be seen by others.
A painting, rolled into a tube of cardboard,
not enough strength to be considered a classic.

Multitude of others just like this, each one a small wish,
each one a desire of our own secret heart – a thought.
The trunks of one’s deepest mind, the sanctuary of forgetfulness,
this is where dreams to go die.
The unfinished picture of the singer who wanted her songs heard,
from the words she written – all connected and all gone.

This is the requiem of what was never achieved.
All those broken and abandoned desires – your song.
Each one, like a friend saying goodbye, farewell.
To a dream, here is a requiem.
If not for anyone or anything, for the last dreams never to shine.
All can be given is a small words of regret.
To a dream…a requiem.

© Sicc-n-da-head Productions 2010