Biggest Scam Ever? (Pt. 1)

SCAM: n. A stratagem for gain; a swindle. To swindle (someone) by means of a trick

College is a scam. There is no way around that being a true statement. We are told from day one: go to school, get good grades, and go to college. By 18, figure out what you want to do with your life and go to a good college that will get you there. Make one of the biggest decisions of your lives, and work towards that for at least the next four years. Now of course, that's not how they tell us. They sell it to us with dreams of being rich; affording expensive things; traveling based on your simple whim...this is what entices us to feel that need to go to college. But, to be fair, it's not only that; it's also because having an education can truly better your life, especially when you have people in your life that never had the chance to go and their lives turned out less than spectacular. So don't get me wrong, school is a blessing that many aren't even afforded, I'm just saying it isn't always the right choice for everyone.

We are never told about the many rich or well-off people who never even finished college, let alone attended one. I imagine it's because if enough people are told and really believe that one can make it without college, no one would go...which would in turn collapse this whole "system" we are made to believe in. But in efforts to not sound flat out crazy, I'll simply say, not going to school CAN be a good thing. Although I feel everyone should at least try, school isn't for everyone, and sometimes making certain people follow that type of structure can ruin the greatness they intended on doing. Millionaires that put off school for their passion, for instance, if they had stayed in school and done what they were "supposed" to do, they would not have the money they have today, and might never have gotten it. We may not have had certain great inventions we know and love today, because someone put off the skills they already had to go to school and have them give them a piece of paper that suddenly makes them qualified.

Biggest Scam Ever? (Pt. 2)

Now I'm not saying that doctors, lawyers, etc. shouldn't have to go to school...of course they do. But, if someone has a natural talent for computer design, going to school can always better them, but does that take away from the genius that was naturally in them? It's very unfortunate that a person can have a set of skills (that they've either taught themselves or was naturally smart enough to pick up on) but cannot start a career because they don't have a diploma, a simple piece of paper saying they are now qualified to do what they could've been doing since the age of 3. The simplest way I can put it to you is an artist, any artist. Some of these rappers, singers, poets have never been taught all of their skill. The ones who could naturally sing beautifully; grabbed a pair of drumsticks and produced a dope sound; picked up a paintbrush and painted an amazing picture. Aspects of a true artist can't be taught, so forcing someone to think school is the ONLY way to their dream is not fair to those people.

After being told for however many years that we "have" to go to school basically to be anyone of importance, we go away to school to have all of our money taken away from us. Tuition; books; meals; gas; the list goes on; we are just hit with tons of fees once we actually go to college. So what I'm basically hearing is: You have to go to school to get a good career, but I'm going to charge you all this money, sort of making it impossible for some to even attend. So you either are assed out and can't go to college = no career or you take out loans to go to college = a good career + loans that you'll be paying back for years after college. If you take out student loans, you generally have to pay these loans back within the first six months of you being out of school. So for those, like me, that's ever thought - I'll take the semester off, work and save money, to better focus on school the next semester I go back - WRONG. When you don't go to school, you'll have to start paying your student loans back. So it's really, you're damned if you do, and you're damned if you don't. Sink into a bigger whole of debt because of school, or continually stay broke because you have all these loans to pay back. Now, I don't know how anyone else sees it, but the way I see things: if you are telling me I have to do something, I try to do it, and you tell me I have to do it in this certain way with certain terms and stipulations that don't necessarily benefit me, that's a scam.