College is a Scam

The following is difficult to explain. I'm caught in a weird paradox. I'm intellectually opposed to paying for "education." I think college is a "scam" yet I've officially been part of the process of relying on higher education by completing my Master's degree at the age of 23. I simultaneously value and devalue higher education. I realize my beliefs are logically inconsistent, so I'll ramble more, and hopefully, you as the reader can make more sense of them.

College is a scam. College costs are outrageous for what you get in return-a neatly-framed piece of paper that rarely any employer will ever ask to see again. As a high-consumption society driven by constant consumer spending, we've been lulled into believing that a college degree is the only way to earn a decent salary. Perhaps, my husband and I are so jaded due to the mountain of student loan debt we've accumulated-- student loan debt that we have to simultaneously tackle while saving for our own daughter's college education, all on my husband's salary, since I'm a SAHM. Statistically, college graduates earn more over the long run. I have to wonder if the statistics take into account those of us who had to finance college without the gracious help of college-educated parents or doting grandparents. My husband has a daily reminder of just how unnecessary college can be. The president, founder, and CEO of the company where he works is an individual who dropped out of college after one week to continue to pursue his own business ventures. He's highly successful partly because he recognized the value of not wasting four valuable years of his life confined to classrooms when the real world was beckoning him.

My cynicism gets the better of me at times, and some days I feel like Sam Elliott when he starred as Charley in Off the Map: the opportunity cost of sitting in a college classroom for four valuable years is simply too high. Of course, Charley's analogy was that having a job was too "expensive" because it took valuable time that could be spent doing things yourself. But I'm not ready to move to a remote Southwestern desert just yet.