Diary of a Mad Editor

If you are planning for college you should realize a few things. First, how a plan for study. What are you going to study? How long are you prepared to go to school for your degree? Second, It almost  goes without saying that college is expensive. Not just tuition, either. Textbooks may run you as much as $500 per semester. There’s also food, room and board, or rent, transportation costs (especially if you commute or attend school in the city).Thirdly, there are many more options now than there used to be. You also have the option of studying for a degree online.

One of the mistakes I made early on, when I went to college was that I didn’t really think about what I wanted to do when I got out of college. I went to school mainly because my parents wanted me to and because I thought I was supposed to go. I majored in English Literature, with the vague notion of working in publishing. I couldn’t afford to live on campus, so I missed out on a lot of opportunities that the dorm rats took for granted. I didn’t make that many friends and I wasn’t close with any of my professors. I’d go to school in the morning, do my school work in the afternoon and work my job at night. I lived on four or five hours of sleep most nights. Some days I go no sleep at all and would go right to class and nod off there.  I graduated during a recession. There were no jobs to be had and I didn’t have the school connections to help me better myself. But at least I had paid my own way so I was not saddled with debt.

Flash forward fifteen years and I had hit a dead end in my job. I decided to go back to school for another degree. My plan for paying for college this time around was to get my employer to pay for it. The had a program that paid employees to go back to school. I thought I’d stay in the job just long enough to get through grad school, using the money I’d save on tuition to pad my rainy day fund.  Plans sometimes go awry and just before I was to start back to school, my employer eliminated my whole department leaving me out of luck. No job and no way to pay for my classes. I ended up getting a student loan. Though I eventually graduated Magna Cum Laude ( after three years), I was left with a mountain of debt I doubt I’ll ever pay off and a lot of regrets. Because even though the latest statistics demonstrate that college-educated worker do better in the job market than under-educated workers do, a bunch of degrees is no longer a bulletproof solution. Without sound financial and life planning, you may find your fancy degree isn’t quite worth the paper it’s printed on. Still, I’d rather be a snob, than a slob.