University: Is it truly essential, or just the ultimate gamble?

The rule of thumb in most cases, is that you generally lose money on an investment.  That doesn't m-ean the investment has no benefits, just that you will not experience any financial gain from it.  For example: buying a new car.  Generally the cheapest brand new vehicle you can purchase/lease/finance/etc. starts at around $12,000-$13,000.  Well the second you drive off the lot in your new baby, the value begins to depreciate, until, in a few years it's worth next to nothing.  Such is the case with many things we strive to own and do.

However, unlike cars, we all "need" some kind of post-secondary education to get by in life, right?  But is that really true?  Now more than ever, the students who genuinely work hard to get into university seem to be questioning this.  While there are many compelling arguments for either side, I tend to agree with those that feel a degree should be an asset, not an essential, and here's why:

First off, the role of universities has changed in the last several decades, becoming a more easily accessible commodity which is available to almost everyone, as opposed to the wealthy elites like before the 1950's or so.  But has it really?  It seems that I hear more and more students every day complaining not only about cost of tuition, but about struggling to survive in the university environment.  Although schools are marketed as being available to anybody, the reality is that this is untrue.  With good grades, or being part of a minority perhaps scholarships and bursaries are open, but even they usually don't cover enough.  With the desire to graduate with good grades so crucial, why is that standards and costs are raised every year, rather than lowered?  Enough students already struggle to cope with mountains of homework, never mind those whose parents haven't footed the bill and have to work a job on the side.  The rule of thumb is that for every hour of class you have, you should have three hours of homework, every week.

So let's do the math.  At my school, which I'm to understand is pretty much like the rest, the standard course load is 5 courses/semester.  Now, if each course is on average 3 hours, that works out to be 15 hours a week in class.  Now factor in the 3-1 rule. Which would be 15 (total number of hours) multiplied by 3 (factoring in homework and research time).  45 hours.  Every.  Single.  Week.  With more and more students having to work throughout the school year, like myself, in order to simply come up only slightly in debt, is it any wonder that professors have complained about falling averages?  What are we supposed to do?  Work in a fast food restaurant out of high school until we've saved enough (which incidentally will get harder every year as tuition is raised)?  Spend all of our savings on lottery tickets and hope we'll win enough for school?  But of course not, says my first year history professor.  According to him (whose name I won't mention), if you can't afford university by the time you arrive, you ought to look at doing something else.  Period.  We only want the rich, sorry, find something else.  Well that works for me, except for one small problem...

There isn't much else without a degree or diploma.

This is a sad, but true reality.  While many jobs still are open, you almost always need extra education in order to break the poverty line now.  Fewer and fewer jobs are available with those to little post-secondary education or experience, which doesn't fare so well for the student that can't afford or does not want to go to university.  This really brings me to my next point.

I am in a history program at school.  Most of those around me are looking to graduate, and eventually become teachers at elementary or high schools.  Naturally, as history is a major teachable subject in high school, this program will help them prepare for that goal, correct?

Not even close.

Frankly, at my school, most of the professors don't care.  I don't mean don't care in the high school way, ie. they aren't going to chase you down for late assignments, but that most genuinely don't care.  They copy articles from the textbook onto a PowerPoint presentation, and then read directly from the book.  Many are usually the last one in the class and the first one out.  You have questions?  Email the teacher, or the T.A.  No guarantees the prof. will get back to you though, sorry.  How does this help anybody learn?  If I wanted to pay over $1,000 per course to learn only what's in a textbook, I would have simply bought the textbook and saved $900 or so, which, incidentally, we have to do anyways. 

So where does our money really go?  Most schools in Ontario, seem to be like this, at least those that I have friends at.  I know our money goes to expanding the school and making it look like a miniature Ivy League, in order to impress parents, but where does it go education-wise?

I sure don't know.  I have more to say about our grading system as well, but that's for another day I think.  In the meantime, I would simply encourage students to think about their decision beforehand.  The world as we know it is very fragile.  All it takes is enough people with enough passion to instigate change.  But then, it seems in our world there is no such thing as passion about our lifestyle anymore.  Most of us, especially young people, are much more interested in what Lady Gaga wore last night, or who Taylor Swift is dating.  I'd like to think that we still have a chance to change the way things work, but then again, maybe we don't.

Although I haven't given up quite like Professor Robert Martin of the University of Western Ontario.  Maybe it's because in his words, I am an "illiterate, ignorant cretin," but I think it's more because Professor Martin is a self-absorbed gargoyle incapable of accepting that he is part of the very thing he hates.  To that respect, maybe we should all form our own businesses?  A handful are bound to be successful, and in my opinion success is measured by what you leave behind in life; your legacy if you will, rather than the amount of "bits of paper" you have.  I just thought I would add this in as an afterthought, as this really irked me.  If you'd like to read an excerpt of this miserable man's writings, click here, otherwise, thanks for reading, and maybe we could all do with proving people like him wrong.  I know I'm trying to.