College, university, whatever you want to call it. After realizing I am at a bit of a dead-end in my life, I have decided to return to college in the Fall of 2010 (if things go as planned). There are many reasons I stopped at just an Associate’s degree a few years ago. The primary reason being a lack of interest. I was making decent money employed as a web designer, I had learned most of my skills on my own or from peers, for free. College seemed pointless to continue.

One of my biggest peeves about higher education is the higher price tag. For me to go to uni this fall, tuition alone will be $11,000+. For one year. Then add on the absurd price of books (yay half.com!), overpriced food if I forget to bring any with me to the campus, plus any other fees (I’ll be in the art department, I don’t doubt there will be plenty of extras I’ll need to purchase).

Yep, a homeless man is richer than you are.

Add to the cost, all the silly hoops you have to jump through and pointless, useless classes you have to take to meet the requirements for a degree. The justification of all these extra pointless classes that have nothing to do with your goal is to “make a more well-rounded student” of you. I think that’s a pile of bullshit right there. The more classes they require you to take, the more fees and tuition they can milk out of you.

But all that money must surely be going toward getting excellent professors! I have my doubts there. College administrators drive the fanciest cars in the lots, and live very well. Is my money going toward my own advancement in life, or theirs? I think more of it is going toward theirs.

Unless you come from the kind of family where mommy and daddy could actually afford to pay cash for your college education (where the fuck do these people come from?!), you’ll be incredibly deep in debt from day 1 until fucking retirement age.

I was hoping to avoid the crushing weight of student loan debt, but alas. I think you can pretty much guarantee your résumé or job applications are trashed if you don’t have “Bachelor’s Degree” at the very least listed. It doesn’t matter what your skills and experience are in the real world. Unless you have that degree. I’d say it’s incredibly rare that an employer will look past the lack of degree and just focus on your portfolio and what you can do for them. It happens, but not often enough.

I hate that what you can do isn’t as important as something as expensive and useless (remember those pointless classes?) as a big degree. I think it’s another magnifying glass on the elitism out there. Employers will say a Bachelor’s degree shows you can put your mind toward something and accomplish it. What I’ve seen, they’re just blowing smoke up your ass. It shows you’re a part of their club.

I’m certainly not trying to knock education and learning. For fuck’s sake, learn all you can, fill your brain to the brim. With the internet, you have tons of information available to you for free. I’m just wagging my middle finger at the goddamn colleges and universities that cost an arm and a leg and don’t focus as much on truly learning as they claim to.