Break The Bank

Remember the pink ceramic piggy bank your mother gave you when you were about 10? The one you put your weekly allowance in, the one that tried to teach you the value of "saving money for a rainy day"?

Well it hasn't stopped raining in fifteen years; allowance hasn't been earned since pre adolescence, and the only people still making money in a drought are celebrities and political officials.


If you are a student between the ages of 18-26 you know exactly what it's like to eat three boxes of ramen noodles a day, only have a quarter tank of gas, and always pay your rent on the twelfth of every month. What is a continuous question among us though, is in a society that places such outrageous demands on receiving a level of higher education, why make it virtually unattainable?

I decided to go back to school a year after I got my undergrad, because I felt under qualified and inexperienced for what I was going for. I have limited structure or grammatical knowledge (good thing I was an English major, right?), but good god I have a voice! Now, I pay $7,000 a semester for two classes in an effort to get a tiny piece of paper that says "congratulations, you will still be behind a bar for the next five years". Well I'll be dammed.

In addition to the over-pricing of education, and the social hierarchy breathing down your neck to in fact, go to college, prepare yourself for insurmountable debt for the next 20 years. I spoke to one of my previous classmates over the weekend about this. Josh DeLucca is 23, getting his masters at UNH, has nearly $38,000 in student loans and is a waiter. "I should have just gone to a technical school. A two year program where I could be making close to $30 grand a year sitting at a desk. With benefits".

It's hard to disagree with this statement. This is obviously the more rational, and smarter way to obtain a career, but do you sacrifice your happiness and deplete yourself of the passion and motivation that drove you to schlep chicken parm dinners back and forth through a dining room in an effort to live your dream? No, that is why Josh is still a waiter, that is why Josh will feel complete fulfillment when his dream becomes a reality.

Did you know brick layers earn over $42,000 a year? Isn't that roughly how much Quinnipiac's yearly tuition for undergrad is?

A few warnings and guidelines to consider while spending your time receiving higher education from a university: Depending on your major, be careful what you sign. Beware the hefty course load you tackle, because with bio chemical engineering classes, comes a lot of school supplies. Make sure you always read the fine print on any kind of contract that may hold you responsible to shell out even more money than you already have. Journalism students beware of the video equipment room, the production department, and pretty much the entire technical area of the lender school of business, unless, paying $500 in late fees and fines sounds like your idea of fun.

Andrew Kufta and I had a broadcast journalism class last semester, in which, weekly we would rent video equipment to formulate our news casts. Andrew had a streak of bad luck with one of the cameras and ended up having to buy a new video camera for the department. His Quinnipiac account was put on a hold until he replaced the camera that was already insufficient when he got it the first time. Needless to say to only person who lucked out in this situation was the financial tech at best buy who made about $100 off the commission.

It’s like all students are masochists- glutens for punishment. We know the inevitable outcome of going to a university rather than community college, or not going at all. We understand the price we will be paying off until we are well into our thirties. But what other choice do we have? Society places a high demand on our pre requisites in preparation for the job market, and nothing is free.

Prepare yourself for a bit of stress, weight gain, miller high life, and a neglected piggy bank for the next four years, and remember, there will always be a place for you in the food service industry.