Hidden Costs of College
Everyone’s aware that college is expensive. Year after year tuition prices jump as politicians pay lip service to their constituents about the need for affordable education and expensive new collegiate “John F. Doe Centers for Academic Excellence and Social Unity” are raised on campuses across the country for purposes a number of administrative committees can firmly and vaguely explain. Memes about ramen and textbook prices proliferate across social media as young people resort to a sort of gallows humor to cope with feelings of helplessness. Parents co-sign loans on figures that are so large that it’s no surprise we’ve begun to become numb to the potential damage those numbers can inflict.
The cost of a standard public in-state tuition is around $10k/year. Add to that room and board, transportation and books, and, on its face, you’re already seeing upwards of $50k in expenses. Double that if you’re going to a private university. This doesn’t even take into account the interest that will be paid on debt accrued, a payment that often moves along to the tune of a 4–7% APR.
Many stop there in their assessment of the cost of college. They shouldn’t, though, because alongside the $100k plus investment they’ll be required to give up some things that are even more valuable: time and opportunity.
Life branches out before us in a wild array of possibilities, and, due to the limits imposed on us by the underlying physics of the universe, we may only choose one of those branches at a time. This means that a nineteen year old that rushes off to college will be, in effect, ignoring virtually all branches of possibility that would see them making income and participating in the marketplace, a position they’ll necessarily be forced to return to at a later date. That means that while they’re accruing $100k plus in debt, they’ll be giving up the opportunity to make $25–45k a year. They will be giving up on the opportunity to build work experience and increase the market value of their skills and knowledge via participation in the marketplace.
Beyond the financial aspects, they’ll be giving up the opportunity to spend their youth exploring a wide array of global cultural experiences. Rather than having the freedom to experiment at will with their professional identity, they’ll be required to pigeonhole themselves. To pick out a label and stick to it.
For many, this trade off continues well after college as a great number of students re-enter the real world and discover they’re no closer to the “good life” than they were at nineteen. Only, this time they’re four years late to the party and servicing debt. Any opportunity they might have had left to re-invent themselves or experiment is destroyed as they’re forced to find a way to make sure Sallie Mae gets paid.
When ALL of the costs are taken into account, it becomes apparent that price of college can’t be considered in a vacuum. It MUST be evaluated in regards to all other avenues of possibility. For some, primarily those in the STEM fields, they may find that these costs are necessary due to federally mandated licensing schemes or that they’re a safe investment due to market demands. The cost calculation for others unfortunately, is much less clear, and it is of vital importance that it be done correctly, because miscalculation of the return on an investment in a college degree can not only be ridiculously expensive, but it can be downright destructive for years and years to come.
