You know what’s crazy? I’ll tell you what’s crazy.™
Getting your kid into college. It’s so freaking hard, so damn scary, so unbelievably stressful, it should be a penalty levied upon ax murderers, not hard working moms and dads.
I have been sweating the financials all summer long.
Scholarships. Loans. Grants. Work Study.
My God. It’s a full time job.
Trying to figure out how much school costs and what you need to save and borrow and steal is like trying to do Chinese Algebra.
I’ve been sitting up at night with a protractor, a slide rule and the university hot line on my speed dial.
I’ve called Sallie Mae and the Financial aid office 20 times. When I am not harassing them, I’m talking to the housing office. I’m asking about the food plan and the parking plan and the football plan.
What’s that mascot’s name again? It’s nuts.
It’s a dizzying assortment of pit falls and tasks to perform and boxes to check.
It’s a full time job.
The tax statements. The verification of income. The co-signers and credit checks and my God, you need a college education just to figure out how to pay for a college education.
I’m sick of it.
It should be easier. There should be a better way to make the best kids in the best country in the world as great as they can be.
But college is stupid expensive. It’s an arm and a leg and a kick in the groin. I’m doubled over right now over an entrance document and I’m bleeding out of my eyes.
I’m not saying that everyone should be able to go to college for free or that the government should give us a hand out. I’m just saying that it shouldn’t be this hard to educate a child past high school.
I’m not trying to smuggle a family of 8 over the border. That’s apparently easy in this country. I’m not trying to buy liquor with food stamps. That’s a given, box checked. I’m not trying to go on my 10th smoke break before noon.
I just want my son to go to college in Alabama. Is that too much to ask?
The last time I checked, Alabama was number 48 in every conceivable category. Reading writing skinny girls at the beach.
48th in everything but how much it costs for an out of state kid to go to an in state college.
Give or take: $40,000 dollars a year to send a kid there simply because he lives out of state.
$40,000 to go to Alabama? Seriously? I’m not trying to buy a double wide.
Tennessee borders Alabama and I have to pay forty large.
It’s not like I’m trying to get into Harvard mind you.
The system is rigged. The deck is stacked against the little guy. If you ain’t a trust fund baby, educating your off spring is an exercise in futility.
It just seems that children who could prosper are sliding through the cracks, failing into the sewer of life, and the greatest nation on Earth is allowing it to happen.
How can we compete with the Japanese and Chinese and Indians and Europe if our best and brightest can’t even go to college because they can’t afford it or it’s too damn hard to qualify for loans, grants, and scholarships to get in.
If I am having trouble paying for college, and I consider myself reasonably astute, I can’t imagine what less fortunate moms and dads are doing to get their young people educated.
If I can’t get a straight answer about grants and loans and I have a four year degree, what the hell?
Quite honestly, the whole thing pisses me off.
Maybe college is a waste of time. I wasn’t brought up to think that, but based on how much effort I’m putting into this and how little satisfaction I currently feel, I am thinking about going on permanent Spring Break.
whose got the beer bong?
Education in this country -It’s a shame. It’s a nightmare. It’s crazy.™