North Texas Daily

One of the most stressful things to think about as someone who has spent thousands of dollars on a degree is if it’s going to help them in the future. Will I get a job that I love and relevant to my degree? Will I make enough money to live and pay off a student loan?  Will I be happy? Questions that universities and colleges are supposed to help answer, but only makes student’s stress out more.

Growing up, millennials, and to an extent Gen Z, were told that college is the way to go if you want to lead a happy and successful life. You take the SAT’s, try to climb up your class rank and join as many clubs as possible.

Unfortunately for the people who did all of that, the idea has since been discarded with the emergence of the internet and vocational schools. Sitting in a class listening could easily be a disadvantage if there are people out there already doing.

Internships have long been looked at as something most people would want to avoid, working without being paid.

It’s a class you have to pay for to not be paid for. There is a possibility of being hired, but it’s just that—a possibility.

Even then, there’s only so much a bachelor’s degree can do in some fields. As more people attend university, the more people become qualified. It takes more to stand out in the job market and a masters or doctorate degree will do that…if you’re willing to spend thousands of more dollars and at least another year in school.

Everything is billed as experience, the classes included, but employers rarely look at grades. College students stay up late studying, only to fail, and not have the grade matter to the person not hiring them. They should’ve just volunteered an extra 50 hours.

University sometimes hinders more than it helps while requiring students adopt a large course load on top of the jobs most students have. It’s a tough job to keep up with school work and maintain enough work hours so you can pay for your housing and classes.

College attempts to make a structure out of ideas and concepts that are abstract and learned through experience. As a journalism student, I have the resources I need to get the experience, yet I’m still worried about what I’ll do after graduation. You can only learn so much by staying in the same place listening to the same people talk.

Students who don’t have the privilege of having experience easily accessible are forced to contemplate if they made the right decision in majoring in English or take a job they’re not happy about. Students who major in a field with numerous potential job candidates are forced to fight for the same jobs or go back to school. It doesn’t leave a lot of hope for the supposed “leaders of tomorrow”.

Unfortunately, the degrees earned ten years ago had completely different curriculums compared to the ideas people are being taught now. New degrees and a combination of degrees are being created because the skills we need to be a productive society are changing.

Whether feasible or not, the price of university should be lowered. It doesn’t make sense for students to work extremely hard to make a better lives for themselves, only for them to have to pay it back when they can finally make a better life for themselves.

Eliminating the thoughts of having to pay back such large amounts of money would decrease the anxiety people have about college and give graduates one less thing to worry about.

Focusing on more practical skills should be replaced with having students take tests over a textbook that the professor themselves wrote. As a journalism major, I have NTDaily and numerous other resources to perfect my craft while also being seen, other majors don’t have that choice.

University should remain an accessible way for people to further their careers, it just shouldn’t come at the cost of their happiness and thoughts of security.

When people think of college students they probably think of some young adult using their parents credit card, coming to class hungover, and not really caring about what happens next.

In reality, it’s the opposite, we’re all kinds of ages. We’re here to make money, coming to class with no sleep, and many of us are terrified about what happens next.

Featured Image: Illustration by Austin Banzon