Today while in class...

For my final GEC class, I am taking Sociology 101. It’s a pretty easy class, one that I usually just show up and listen. Sometimes I don’t even listen to the lecture or discussion, but today I was listened intently. The subject student debt came up and the instructor of the class asked how many students expected to graduate with more than $100,000 in debt. At my own surprise about a fourth of the class raised their hands. Again, the instructor asked how many students would graduate with more than $50,000 in debt. Surprisingly again, more than half of the students in the class raised their hand. It might be more surprising if I tell you that this is a class of 300 students. This means that about 75 students of class expected to have at least a $100,000 in debt and more than 150 students expected to have $50,000.

The surprise wasn’t about there being students with this much expected debt; it was that there were so many just in this one area. In an earlier post, I talked about one some expert said that debt was just a part of going to college, which it is, I completely agree with that statement. But this same expert said that most students would graduate with a moderately manageable debt amount, say $20,000. This same expert said that students who found themselves with more than $40,000 were very rare occasions. It would seem that this expert was very wrong or that the numbers and statistics have changed dramatically over the last few years, seeing as out of 300, more than 150 students expected to have more than $50,000 in debt.

Further class discussion was focused on the economic class system, specifically the middle class. The majority of people would identify themselves as being part of the middle class, simply because the middle class is the largest class. However, do you know who qualify as middle class? The middle class are people who make anywhere from $45,000 to $110,000 a year. Students who come from middle class families, for most part, receive the same amount of financial aid no matter which part of the spectrum they come from. Is it fair or accurate to assume that a family making $50,000 can live the same lifestyle as that of a family making $110,000? No, it’s not. So why is it assumed that a student from a family making $50,000 receives the same amount of support from their family as that of a student who comes from a family making $110,000? Being in the same economic class doesn’t necessarily mean people on opposite ends of the spectrum are capable of the same things.