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Recently, I’ve been helping out a friend with a video project for his Web site.
The Web site’s main premise is to be a premiere for college-bound students in his home state. I ran by the idea of having short video interviews with current college students. He liked the idea, gave me a couple of questions and I began experimenting with the camera. I nabbed two of my friends and interviewed them for their thoughts and comments on college life. The interviews went fine; my friends were able to answer three out of the four questions asked and gave me some good material and insight to work with. However, when it came to the last question, a bit of a problem arose. The question seemed relatively simple at the time, “With college costing so much these days, do you feel it’s worth the money you pay?” When asked why it was hard to answer that, my friends didn’t feel comfortable answering such a loaded question. I thought it over and realized that I couldn’t answer it either.
It’s probably something that every college student in every field asks themselves at one point or another, during the course of their college career. It is one of the biggest dilemmas students have to deal with. It’s something I’ve thought about. It’s something you’ve thought about. Are we getting what we want, what we need, out of the academic portion of our college experience?
Everyone knows that attending a university isn’t cheap. The cost can vary from easily affordable to insanely expensive. We attend a state university and because many of us are from Maine, our cost of tuition is significantly less then a college like Bowdoin or Yale. But the question still lingers, while it’s not as costly as other schools, are we still getting a worthwhile education? What about those who attend from out of state? Do out of state students feel that they’re getting the same?
We are often confronted with these questions when we register for our next semester: Which classes will teach me the things I feel I need to know? Which classes will waste my time? Obviously, one of the major factors is the responsibility of students to learn. But sometimes, isn’t it the responsibility of professors to teach students what they need to know? How many times have you sat in a class, wondering if the teacher is covering what the class is supposed to be covering, or if they’re more interested in pushing their own agenda? Rather than saying, “Hey, this is important if you want to do something similar with your life,” they’re on a completely different topic.
Every student’s answers are different; I can’t speak for anyone else. But if there’s any sort of fear that looms over every college student’s head, it’s that lone question. Can I do anything about that fear? In this day and age, probably not. As a student, all I can do is study, wish for the best and hope that someday students can be asked that loaded question and defuse it with a simple answer.
Paul Goodman is a second year new media major.
