College Without Debt: How Studying Abroad Can Be a Financially Sensible Choice for U.S. Students

The other day I checked the cost of my undergraduate college just for shits and giggles. Roanoke College, a small liberal arts school tucked into the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains that nobody’s ever heard of, costs… drumroll … $48,000 … a year!

Now I don’t mean to trash Roanoke, but it’s not exactly Princeton or Harvard. It’s not even the best school in the area (see Virginia Tech). In fact, most kids who can tie their shoes and sign their name will get in. And those kids, if they’re lower or middle class like I was, will then be offered a bunch of government-backed loans to pay for the outrageous price of tuition. This is a great deal — for the school, the government, and the bank.

But the student? Well, somehow in this equation the student (and the teachers unsurprisingly) get fucked. I did. Millions of other American students did. And as we speak, schools continue to raise their prices to levels few people can actually afford, knowing that ultimately, the price doesn’t matter. The kids will come anyway, and begin their journey into adulthood in the most preposterous way; by indebting themselves for something as intangible and illiquid as education.

In the same way hospitals can charge you $15 for a Tylenol or $50 for a pair of plastic gloves, even though those are obviously not the real costs. It doesn’t matter — either you’re rich and you can pay, or insurance will pay. Perhaps the best case scenario for the hospital (and university), is that you’ll slowly pay off what you owe slowly over the course of many years, creating a stream of profit for someone.

Sometimes, I wish I could go back in time and smack the shit out of my 17-year-old self. If I could, this is what I’d say:

Listen up young Nate, you don’t know it yet, but you’re about to get screwed. Over the next four years (and then again in Grad school!), you’re going to indebt yourself to shady lenders and the U.S. government so deeply that you very well might never come out of it.

The debt will be so severe that it will affect nearly every aspect of your life: your marriage, your relationships with your family, your ability to start a business, own a house, follow your dreams, chase art , have kids — and though you will brush it under the rug for many years to try to live “freely,” debt ignored only grows stronger — like some maniac weightlifter locked in the gym for months — and when you stop ignoring it, then you will realize the severity of what you’ve done.

When you talk about your debt with your Mexican friends (one day you will marry in Mexico btw), they won’t be able to fathom it. None of them will be in debt, although they will all be well-educated. Your debt, you see, is a very American problem.

After college, every time you go to sleep, you will be losing money (and making someone else money). In essence, you will become a hamster for someone else’s wheel. Presidents will come and go talking about relief. But one day you’ll realize that NO ONE is going to help you. This will be an important realization and will set you on a mission to pay off your debt before you die.

Nobody is going to warn you about this. Sure, someone in admissions will run a promissory note by you. But your high school guidance counselor, your basketball coaches, your parents, your favorite teachers your friends — none of them are going to stop you from making the biggest financial mistake of your life. And it’s not their fault. It just so happens that none of the people in your life close to you know anything about money.

But there are companies named Sallie Mae and Navient that know about money. And Roanoke College knows about money. And the U.S. government knows about money.

So here’s some advice. Find another way to get an education without becoming someone else’s financial slave. Here’s a few things you could do:

• Go to community college. Looking back, going to community college and getting a job is much more “grown-up” thing to do then borrowing money for something you can’t afford. Many people go to college to socialize, get laid, party — and of course, learn . But in many ways, four-year American colleges infantilize students at a time when they should be becoming adults. “Free” money, cafeteria food, hall proctors— the 18-year-old college student is treated (and often acts) like a baby. Considering how much the school’s are making off the baby, it’s no surprise how much they pamper them. But going to a local community college and getting a job to pay for it could be a great way to knock two years of school out in an affordable way and to also learn what a dollar’s worth. One reason schools are so good at taking 18-year-old’s money is because they’re still kids and most of them haven’t learned what money is worth yet, how hard it is to make, to save, and to grow.
• Go to school abroad. Believe it or not, America isn’t the only country in the world. We’re just one of the only countries that rip-off our own children in the name of education. In Mexico City, where I live today, the cost of The National University of Mexico –one of the top universities in Latin America — is $250 for the semester for foreign students. Yes, two hundred and fifty dollars! Most American college students spend more than that on booze and books in a semester. And is the school better than Roanoke College? Fuck yeah. Studying abroad could also help you expand your horizons so that when you come back home, you’ll have a more unique perspective on the world.
• Get a job. At 18, why not work on a boat in Alaska, pick cherries in Canada, ride a pedicab in New Orleans, or give some form of hard work a try? You can travel the world and save some money — like the English chaps do but less drunk — and then decide if you want to go to college and how much you’re willing to pay for it. And by the time you get there, you’ll have some experience under your belt.

If I know anything about my 17-year-old self, it’s that the odds are slim that I’d ever listen to my 38-year-old self. And if I know anything about young people in general, it’s that its not easy to carve out a novel path when the world is telling you exactly what you should do. And these days, despite some movements to have student loan debt reduced or erased, most people are still telling young people they should go to college in America.

But something has to be done; some other options must be presented. Because waiting around for Biden to drop $10,000 of your student loans (when a mediocre school like Roanoke costs 48K per year) is about as useful for the country (and individual) as watching grass grow.

As we speak, American colleges continue to do a great disservice to entire generations of students. In fact, by indebting college grads through inflated tuition prices, our schools are contributing to and accelerating the fall of the American empire. At the very least, it’s about time we start calling bullshit.

So there you have it, youngin’s and curious readers. Be careful before you sign those papers, or you could end up like me, a bitter, old blogger scratching away in the dirt, hoping I can scribe enough words before I kick the bucket so that Uncle Sam never has the pleasure of garnishing my social security checks.

Peace.

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If you want to support my writing, you can buy me a cup of Joe. All “coffee” money will go to pay back student loans. :)

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