College Is A Scam

I’m starting this blog with a lil’ DISCLAIMER: I’m mad as Hell about the events that prompted this post, so be prepared for some unrefined language sprinkled throughout this predatory story.

The entire college pushing system is a fucking scam and I’m going to share with you my own diabolical experience that has led me to this firmly believed conclusion.

I just paid off yet ANOTHER student loan and was all prepared to celebrate this permanent reduction in my debt for now that it’s gone, I only owe on two more! For a brief moment, the light at the end of the tunnel was shining brighter than ever before. Well, my feelings of excitement were short-lived because when I started looking at the full details of the loan I’d just paid-in-full, I was INSTANTLY AND IMMEDIATELY FILLED WITH RAGE!

I opened this student loan back in July of 2010, right before my final semester at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, for a total of $6,000. I graduated in December of 2010 and as a result, had to begin paying my student loans back six months later, so June of 2011. The details of this loan showed that over the course of the past almost-eleven years, I’ve paid a whopping $12,363.53 on it! WHAT THE FUCKING FUCK!?!

I paid an ADDITIONAL 106% of this loan’s total value! The interest rate for this loan was 10%! CLEARLY I don’t understand how the fuck these interest rates are compounded because when I got this loan all those years ago I was thinking 10% wasn’t all that bad. OBVIOUSLY the joke was on me because Discover Student Loans CLEARLY knew what they were doing! They got me (and millions of others) real good!

Now I’ll readily admit, I’m ashamed that I was woefully unaware of these nauseating numbers till paying off the loan. The information was always readily available, but I failed to take the time to view it, HOWEVER, from my awareness comes a newfound responsibility to make EVERYONE else aware of what a scam college truly can be!

Digging further into this one single loan (again, please note, I have TWO MORE I’m still paying on and an additional two already paid off) I saw that of the $12,363.53 I paid Discover Student Loans, $6,692.95 of that was Principal and $5,670.58 was Interest.

First off, how in the world did I pay $692.95 MORE in Principal than the loan was ever even valued!?! WHO THE FUCK GOT MY MONEY!?! Also, while that whopping $5,670.58 in Interest paid seems extraordinary (BECAUSE IT IS) it should actually be much, MUCH worse! The ONLY reason for the Interest being less than the Principal is because of how aggressively I was paying this loan down in the past year and a half. If I would’ve only paid the minimum amount owed, I would’ve been paying on this damn loan until June of 2026 and the Interest would’ve been probably three to five times what the Principal was. This shit makes me sick.

After seeing this nightmare of information, I moved as fast as my fingers were able to see the further jarring statistics from the other two loans and what I saw there was so. much. worse.

On a $5,800 loan I took out back in August of 2009, also through Discover Student Loans, which keep in mind I began paying on back in June of 2011, I now owe $4,830 still on. So, over the course of nearly eleven years, I’ve only managed to pay down $970 of this loan’s original total. Terrible. Worse yet, I’ve paid an unconscionable $11,032.66 on this fucking loan, of that $2,554.27 has been Principal and $8,478.39 in Interest. I want to take my MacBook and just smack myself right across my stupid face for being so unaware of these nasty numbers!

From my understanding, Principal is the money that one originally agrees to pay back, so as one can figure, the original amount borrowed. Looking at this loan, I’ve paid $2,554.27 in Principal, yet like stated, still owe $4,830 on this $5,800 loan! Now I know I failed that cursed Algebra 120 course twice at SIUE, but shouldn’t I just owe $3,245.73 Principal on this loan!?! I literally need someone to explain this shit to me like I’m in kindergarten because I’m livid! These damn student loans and the entire college system they uphold are a predatory scam that are financially raping millions of people!

Now let’s focus on the fact that I’ve paid $8,578.38 in Interest on a $5,800 loan! I’ve ALREADY paid IN INTEREST $2,778.38 MORE than the total amount of the loan! This shit isn’t due to be paid off until June of 2031! I cannot even fathom how much I’d pay in Interest by that point, but we can EASILY assume that $8,578.38 would be doubled. This some real bullshit. If I kept paying their stupid ass payments I would legit end up paying Discover FOUR TIMES more than they EVER loaned me in the first place! This shit should literally be illegal.

When combining these two loans, I’ve paid Discover Student Loans an astronomical $23,396.19 on what was originally $11,800 borrowed! I’VE PAID THEM NEARLY TWICE WHAT THEY LENT ME! I’m so shook by this revelation I could just about puke. Literally, it makes me sick to my stomach! Plus, like I’ve said, I’m still paying on the one, so they have plenty more money to make off me! Not to mention the fact that I have one other student loan with a situation VERY similar to the second one showcased, so no sense in beating a dead horse! Student loans have to be one of – if not the – biggest scam in the history of humanity.

Ever since I was in middle school any authority figure in my life has pushed college, college, college, so much so that the idea of NOT attending college wasn’t even an idea at all. To clarify here, I’m not just talking about my parents and family, but teachers, counselors, pastors, neighbors, bosses, etc., literally anyone anywhere I interacted with was always asking where I was going to college after high school. Which beckons the question: WHY IN THE WORLD IS GOING TO COLLEGE RIGHT AFTER HIGH SCHOOL THE ONLY PRESENTED OPTION!?! Let me tell you what, it’s not the only option, in fact, I don’t even think its the best option for the overwhelming majority of people.

My absolute favorite person on this planet, The Original Sweet, Cody, graduated high school class of 2021 and right away joined the Carpenter’s Union. He now makes in the mid-twenty dollars per hour range as an Apprentice and will NEVER have ANY of the student loan dooming debt I’ve been saddled with! I’ve ALWAYS been so proud of Cody and cherished his extraordinary point of view for always doing the best thing, but those damn student loan reports only made me respect and admire him even more. He’s genuinely smarter than anyone I know.

Trades should be pushed as vigorously as college to our youth because as the U.S. Census Bureau reports, an estimated one-fourth of the manufacturing workforce is over the age of 55. As these individuals retire, there will not be enough young people starting careers in the trades to fill their positions. We have a real problem on the horizon! Soon our entire society will be filled with nothing but a bunch of educated idiots – myself included!

Another fine option is joining the military. When I was in high school the very thought of joining the armed forces was almost taboo. It was something those making the suggestions would only suggest to someone they didn’t see as having any other real options. It was truly viewed as a last resort when for many it should be considered first! The military even pays for one’s college, so all the student loan insanity I’m dealing with would be null and void there.

Looking back now it angers me that more options weren’t presented to me. Yes, all these other options were out there, but when you’re a young and impressionable teenager and the only time someone mentions an option that isn’t college is when they’re downgrading it, you can’t help but believe their lies. Like I just said, college isn’t for everyone, but you wouldn’t know that with how society forces it on impressionable youth. There is a wide-range of life options for after high school and everyone should be presented with every one.

Now understand this, due to a series of unfortunate events, which I will dive into in future blog posts, it took me six and a half years to graduate with my Bachelor’s Degree in English. IN FUCKING ENGLISH! Why the fuck did I go to school and get a degree in English!?! That’s a story for another day, but yes, I did write a book and clearly I write a blog, BUT did my degree really help me with either of these!?! Debatable. I would honestly like to think that I’m a more skilled and better versed writer because of the knowledge I acquired from my education, however, I truly cannot imagine the knowledge and skills I earned as a result of those classes outweighs the damning debt I also received from them. I refuse to believe there’s even an ounce of balance to be had here. The scale is extremely tipped in the direction of the student loans and the circle jerk of fascism where society pigeonholes you into going to college.

I mentioned above that I failed Algebra 120 twice. Well, let me tell you another thing about that dumbass class, I dropped it once to prevent myself from failing it a third time! I PAID FOR THAT DAMN CLASS THREE TIMES! Yes, my own fault by college standards, but why the fuck was I even being forced to take it in the first place!?!

At the time of me taking that class, my expected major was Business Administration – another useless degree because you really don’t need a college degree to do most the jobs in corporate America, outside of perhaps Accounting and possibly a couple others, but on the job training dictates everything the company wants you to know, so again, useless. When I did finally declare myself an English major, I was able to take Introduction to Dance in place of Algebra 120 to satisfy the need of that prerequisite.

I’m sorry, but why the Hell would someone majoring in English need to take an Introduction to Dance class!?! THE WHOLE DAMN SYSTEM IS A SCAM AND A CASH GRAB! Did I enjoy that Introduction to Dance class and did it give me a blog-worthy post in Raising Hell? Yes to both, but again, forcing students to be “well-rounded” is just a ploy to rob them of more money and precious time and you will NEVER convince me otherwise.

Forcing students to take a bunch of prerequisites that are not necessary or needed to their eventual degree only serves to make the university more money and force these unsuspecting students to end up owing THOUSANDS UPON THOUSANDS of dollars more in student loan debt that they’ll EASILY pay FOUR TIMES more for than they ever even received in the first place! The entire system is a sick and twisted scam and I for one am done with this shit! I will NEVER advise another single soul to go to college unless they’re seeking a degree that actually requires higher education, namely something in the sciences and mathematics fields, because liberal arts, business, and the majority of other degrees the majority of people go to get are just debt-inducing disasters.

What’s even worse than my situation is the one facing a handful of people I know. Those who went to college and never graduated, but still have to pay their student loans! That’s an even more terrifying waste than what I’m dealing with! At least I got my degree, even if it was ultimately pointless and costly, I have that stupid ass piece of paper (which I don’t even know where it is) and can utilize it to my advantage when applying to jobs that don’t actually need it, yet still require it pretending like they do.

This is why I firmly believe ALL student loan debt should be abolished. This predatory practice has ruined countless lives and prohibited so many from truly reaching their full potential. The entire college system is a scam from the very beginning and so many people are indirectly, or sadly in many cases, directly interwoven in this vicious system that is designed to help everyone BUT the students. If our society truly valued high education we would make it free to everyone, but that’s a discussion no one wants to have.

If you have student loans that you’re paying on right now I would STRONGLY ADVISE you to go look at the information they provide you with! PLEASE be better educated about what the actual fuck you’re paying than I sadly ever was! My new focus will be paying these next two student loans off with as much vigor as I did the last because I’m done allowing myself to be a victim of this stupid ass system that hasn’t really given me anything outside of some good stories and several good friends.

Well, thank you ALL so much for reading! I really appreciate your continued support! Please feel free to leave me a comment below as you know I LOVE reading and responding to them especially on hot topics like this! I’ll return next week with another all-new blog, but until then, I wish you all, all the best!