So, this is a glimpse of how the conversations during my Spring Break went ...
A: Finally said ‘No’ to ABC. I think I died a little inside
too.
B: WHATTT?! WHYY!?!?!!
A: And to DEF. And GHI.
B: Why why whyyy?!
A: I can’t pay $834659172!
B: This is breaking my heart!
A: Because I don’t get to go to my dream college and city
B: That! And because it’s a sad realization that this is
what education has come to.
A: Yeapp! Everybody wants the money.
Aunty X: Kitni daer rehh gaii hai?
Beta Y: Jee, aik dou maheenay.
Aunty X: MashAllah! Phir. Aagay ka kya karna hai?
Beta Y: ....
Aagay kya karna hai? Aagay waqaii kya karna hai?!
“Parho ge likho ge, bano ge nawaab”, loosely translated to,
“If you get educated, you’ll become successful” is what I have been hearing all
my life. To work towards and then achieve a respectable education is said to be
the only way to achieve success, both, intellectually and financially.
Recently, this notion has been challenged in my thinking realm. Coming to hear
of different cases every day of brilliant students who could not proceed for
higher education at renowned institute just because the ‘Education’ has become
too expensive! When did this happen? Were not educational institutes to work on
raw brains and give them the gift of education? Perhaps not even when, Why is
the question to be asked. Or perhaps even what, what is a brilliant focused
student to do when all his life’s hard work comes to a sudden stop just because
he cannot financially afford it?
Being in the first quarter of my expected life span, I have
always solely focused on getting a quality education. I have dreamt of walking
in a recognize institute like any other ‘nerd’. I recently hit a Quarter Life
Crisis. Rather a Quarter Life Crisis for the whole student body who stands at
the same or lesser financial standing that I am at. What am I to do if I work
all my life towards working as a very hard as a student, manage to secure
admissions in reputed universities on merit but eventually have to refuse. Why
would I have to refuse? Simply because education has become too expensive! It
may be worth the price once I eventually get a job after graduating that pays
my bills but where is the guarantee in that? Why is my family expected to pay
such heavy fees in the first place? It’s just a Quarter life crisis for an
ordinary student at the moment, I fear the day when the world will face a brain
drain in education, caused by educational institutes themselves because of
money and money alone.
#OnlyGot20DollarsInMyPocket.
ReplyDelete#IWishIHad20DollarsInMyPocketBecauseIActuallyOnlyHave20Rupees
ReplyDeleteNow to give you substantive feedback. This will come in two posts, because apparently there is a 4,096 character limit that I exceeded (yah, I wrote that much!).
ReplyDeleteI like your post and you raise important questions. Money is a perpetual constraint and one that plays out in every family. And then how one will make more money in the future, that too is an important issue.
I'll give you two personal anecdotes.
From my own experience, I chose my undergraduate institution because they provided me with a full scholarship and money for living expenses. It was an excellent school, but not the "best" one out there, or that I could have gotten into. But money made the decision easy and I'm glad I choose it. For both of my Masters programs, I received partial scholarships. Both schools I attended are considered to be among the very best institutions in the world. But to attend those schools, I had to lean on my family and they had to pay a significant chunk of change to get me through those programs. I recognize that I am very lucky in that I have a family that prioritizes education over all else and hence have spent massive amounts on all of our educations. This investment has paid dividends though, in that it has allowed not just me but my entire family to pursue their higher education to whatever extent they want. This is a privilege and I know a lot of people don't have this privilege, hence my own personal attempts to always root for - and help out - the underdogs.
Fast forward to what I'm doing now, I'm STILL in school, just like you guys. Sure I'm doing my PhD and I'm at a great school, but I'm not at one of the "best schools" in the world. Why? There are a variety of factors, but the most significant one is that they gave me the best offer (i.e. I'm fully funded, hence I can study, teach, and work without worrying too much about money).
What is this anecdote meant to show you? Hopefully a lot about education, the struggle, life, and money. Well have I gotten a good education? Heck yah, but I've had to struggle hard. Plus, I have been incredibly lucky because of familial support. But is this the only way to success? Heck no. Even with all of the degrees and such, at the end of the day, being successful is not measured by the degrees on one's wall, but by the quality of one's life. Every individual has to assess what they define as quality and ignore the aunties and uncles of the world. Remember haters gonna hate and who gives a damn about what the world thinks anyhow? Be yourself and ignore brand conscious (especially with pretentious, super expensive universities), even though that is what we are taught to worship from a young age.
Another takeaway point is that even though I do have degrees on the wall, I'm happy with my lot in life, which has been both significantly determined by financial constraints. That is just the nature of the beast and every individual/family has too deal with it.
Now the second anecdote comes from news I found out a few hours ago.
ReplyDeleteMy youngest brother is a senior just like you. He's also studying at the University of Florida (UF) with me. Since he is a senior, he applied to various master's degree programs. Well he got two good pieces of news this week. The first good piece of news was that he got into a Master's program at UF. It's a two-year program, very inexpensive, and provides a degree that he'll be able to finish and then start work right away. But then just earlier tonight, he got accepted into Oxford for a one-year Master's program. It's an academic program - whereas his other one is professional - and it's super expensive. Although he likes the Oxford program, he is currently leaning towards UF. There are a variety of reasons for this, but the biggest one is money. He will have to wait to hear about scholarship opportunities from Oxford until a few weeks from now, but he has to make a decision about where he wants to go. I mean obviously it's a great position to be in to have choices in the first place, but the money factor is huge, real, and affects us all.
Good post and look, you know have the longest response I've given on the blog yet - and it's not even directly related to IR!
Can I just say? I really liked the post. And the responses helped, a lot.
ReplyDelete