I was on general chatter this morning, had this idea in my head and posted it in a topic that it wasn't super-related to...I was wondering if anyone else in my age bracket has any comments/thoughts on this topic...here is my earlier post.
I'm a college student and last night I was having a semi-drunk conversation with my college friends about a similar topic. A number of us feel like there is a generational disconnect and our parents have unrealistic views about what things are like for us because they use their experiences “when they were our age” as a benchmark.
For example at times when I ask my mom for money, the tone in her voice and comments indicate that she thinks I am spoiled and lazy because I don’t have a job (although I would definitely consider going to school full time in a science heavy major a full time job). She will tell me how when she was my age she had her own apartment worked full time and paid her own bills. She did not go to college and got a job right out of High school…she actually ended up with a decent job. Back “when she was my age” it was possible to have a good job without a college degree…while it is possible now, it’s much harder and you’ll most likely end up with a job with little job security. I feel like it would be very irresponsible for me in this day and age to not go to college or any sort of trade school out of high school and support myself..I might be ok in the short run but this is not a good long term plan. Her comments just feel like a slap in the face after I work my butt off at school (I don’t think anyone would say upper level chem. Classes are fun/easy), participate in a handful of clubs/activities so that I have things to write down on a resume, and TA for a class. I am already super busy and feel like it is more responsible for me to devote my time to activities that will serve me when I get out of here then to try and make an extra 2-3 grand per semester. My mom doesn’t realize that nowadays simply having a degree is not all you need for jobs/grad school. You need to do activities/internships/network etc in addition to that to set yourself apart from everyone else that has a degree.
Also a lot of us felt like our parents don’t realize how difficult it is to put yourself through college. Back then college was cheaper and FAR fewer professions required grad school. Back then it was realistic to go to school for a semester then work for the summer and be able to pay for it. Also it was easy to get a low interest student loan…Hillary just gave a speech here where she said she got a loan at 2% to pay for law school and didn’t need a cosign (which made the audience gasp). A lot of my friends say their parents give them crap about having to cosign their loans…because we should have to do it ourselves…and not have a parent sign our loans so that we get the loan at a 15% less rate. Also back then the majority of college students went to school and didn’t work at the same time, they were able to only focus on school.
Wow this is getting long…to summarize we feel like our parents don’t realize how difficult it is to be a college student these days and think all we do is drink/sleep and occasionally go to class. They don’t realize how stressful it is to feel like being in college is your only option and if it doesn’t work out you’re screwed. That is costing one hundred grand plus to finance your education and whether you have to pay that back in loans or your parents paid for it..it’s a lot of money hanging over your head and it adds to the pressure. Back then people our age had more options and did not need to rely on their parents as much.