College tuition rates continue to escalate at an alarming rate. Regardless of these obscene costs, the truth is that a degree does mean something. It proclaims affluence; it demands ambition and dedication to earn and, as the late and nothing short of genius author David Foster Wallace once said,  ‘a liberal arts education helps to teach us how to think’.

 

A degree won’t teach you how to efficiently manage and complete any of the jobs you obtain in life; hell I doubt a degree will even give you an advanced understanding of the Microsoft Operating Software (which by the way consists of just about 35% of all jobs in this country now, just wait until you get a question about your comprehension of Microsoft Excel Pivot Tables in a job interview…). Degrees are seemingly fast tracks to high level positions, but they help to define us and our goals. In a world where the University systems seems saturated with disoriented undergraduates, frat-tastic attitudes, and begrudging professors commanded by a bureaucratic and over-zealous faculty, I can’t help but question if the entire American Educational system has begun to dissolve into nothing more than false validation.

 

Education is a resource that allows us to succeed and achieve our dreams or, at the very least, a standard of living that keeps us smiling after that last sip of Starbucks is gone. The unfortunate revelation I’ve come to see is that just like any commodity traded on the free market, education has the potential to be nominally inflated.  As a stockbroker needs to observe the trends of a stock, bond or security before he purchases it, the simplistic parable, ‘buy low, sell high’, really is how professional investors make their money.  All commodities in the market, now including education, have the potential to be overvalued.  The bottom line -  the value of education has inflated exponentially to which point it will likely pop, leaving many with insurmountable debt, forcing students to exchange their dreams for a shot at a 'debt-free' lifestyle. 

 

I find it both comical and tragic when I think about the incredible men and women throughout history who never finished their quest for a degree (or never sought one to begin with). Many may bicker with me that as Bob Dylan once howled, the ‘Times are a changin,' and now we all need degrees to stand out. To me however, I feel like that montra is the equivalent of going to a costume party. You’re dressing yourself up just to fit in.  The gloomy truth of college students in the modern era -  we have to work harder to compete with each other as well as the rest of the world (thanks, globalization).

 

Before you start to undo your belt and head for the bathroom though I would like to end this with what I consider my silver lining to this educational charade: The way I see it you have one of two options 1) go to a highly revered college, suck up to faculty and pray you’ll be recruited fresh after graduation and start paying back your loans as you attempt to climb the American food chain. OR 2) find an abstract means of showing employers who you are and who you want to be. A degree is meant to define our goals and us. Don’t let that happen.  Use the degree to define yourself, not the other way around. Complete your education, go to a school you love and can afford, and while you’re sitting around, stop shoveling boneless chicken wings and beer into your stomach for a moment and follow your individual passions. Display it to the world with the wonder that is technology or at least with a flyer on a bulletin board somewhere. Write music, start a blog, and use your Twitter account to do something more than get back at your ex.  Build something you can be proud of and that will set you apart. You don’t need a degree to make a difference; you just need to learn how you’re going to define yourself.