College is the pivotal step in which we finally discover who we are and what the hell we think we’re going to do with our lives.

In its immense glory although, the higher education system is extremely flawed in various ways. These crucial facets of the college system can be detrimental to your overall college experience as well as your future endeavors.

Cut the Liberal Core

Our entire educational lives, we’ve been forced to take classes across various disciplinary field. Many colleges across America have grasped this idea that if we do the same in higher education, the student will evidently become a more well-rounded individual. This sounds beautiful on paper but the truth of the matter is it that it fails. Miserably.

Although a multitude of students may have no idea what they want to do with their lives, they certainly have a concrete of what they don’t want to do. There is no reason why colleges should mandate their students to take classes in which they have little to no interest.

Furthermore, the material will not seem enlightening and will certainly not make them more of a cultural being. What truly happens is that those are the classes that are most often skipped, failed, and most stress inducing.

Solution: Do away with the liberal arts core. It’s more of a disservice to the student than anything else. Rather than forcing these students to take these classes to graduate, give them elective space to take whatever college course that they may please. Fuck, they’re paying for it.

Too Expensive

This is pretty simple: COLLEGE IS TOO DAMN EXPENSIVE. The average tuition of a public institution is around $ 22,000 while a private one could run up to $44,000 and this isn’t even including the total cost of attendance.

It’s amazing that more & more students in Generation Y are starting to pursuit higher education, but at what cost? America is constantly showing us how depressing & how much of a setback debt can be. So why give the future of the country an average $ 27,000 student debt.

All this does is back slap the students for trying to succeed, discourage the pursuit of an even higher education ( a bachelors degree will be the equivalent of a high school degree pretty damn soon) and scare future generations & families who would like to go to college but simply can’t afford it.

Solution: Listen up American Government, how about we start spending money on things that would actually benefit the betterment of the country? The United States spends more money annually on keeping inmates in jail than they do on financial aid for their students.

Many countries have been known to offer free higher education to all their students & even free online courses as well. And as much as we boast about being the Land of Opportunity, the U.S. is ranked only as the 17th smartest nation.

T.A.

T.A.’s are either a hit or miss. They either give you all the answers to the exams and make the course extremely easy or they make the course a living hell. Here’s the problem with most TA’s: they aren’t qualified to teach. Most TA’s are graduate students who simply fulfill the TA responsibility in order to get their degree.

They have no extensive teaching training once so ever. But hey, why not put unqualified individuals to teach vital material to students who are just trying to pass in a higher learning institution.

Solution: Hire more professors; get rid of recitations; make office hours mandatory;

Funding

We always hear about how easy it is to start a club or an organization at most campuses. But what we don’t here is that most of these schools don’t give the students the flexibility to do as they please with these organizations.

Imagine if schools actually gave organizations reasonable funds so that they can operate and hold events to their fullest potential. Maybe, then maybe, a change or a voice could be heard.

Solution: Stop spending money on meaningless construction projects that won’t affect us during our four years. Reallocate the money wisely into the students & their organizations that actually make the college experience meaningful.

Misaell Cabral | Elite.