I have always acknowledged the fact that Allegheny needs us far more than we need them, which is the case at all institutions of higher learning.
Perhaps I am jaded, blind to the true value of my education, but I think we would all be better off if we just acknowledged that our relationship with Allegheny is based solely on money.
They both want and need our money and we leave with the understanding that our $160,000 piece of paper will help us earn more than we would without it.
But if college doesn’t need you, and you don’t need college, then perhaps it’s time to start considering a change.
College stopped being about the pursuit of knowledge a long time ago.
We live in a time where information on a vast array of subjects is accessible to anyone, regardless of race, religion or socioeconomic status.
Self-education is a viable option for those who seek only knowledge and are willing to disregard the stigma that follows a person without a degree.
Formal places of higher education are at best slightly outdated and at worst archaic.
As college students, we are all viewed as scholars and academics, which is quite frankly a fucking joke.
In my time at Allegheny, I would say only about 20 percent of the people I have encountered actually fall into this category.  
I know that personally, I fall far outside of the realm of anyone who should be viewed as a scholar.
I was a sub-par high school student and am now an even worse college student.
But those facts are irrelevant to Allegheny because I’m an affluent Jew from Massachusetts and that quota hadn’t yet been filled when I was applying to school.
In many of my delusions, I try to justify my 2.6 GPA by telling myself that it’s not so low because I am intellectually inferior.
It’s just that most of this stuff bores the shit out of me.
That helps me sleep at night.
After all, I was asked to make the decision about what I was going to do with the next four or so years of my life when I was a child.
I couldn’t buy a pack of cigarettes or procure “Shemale Fiesta” from the local corner store, yet somehow I was deemed responsible enough to map out the rest of my life at the age of 17.
Back then, I was not even close to being ready to make the decision I was being asked to make.
College is the safe option, the logical next step for kids who haven’t figured out their lives by their junior year of high school.
I can say with a great degree of certainty that both Allegheny and all other colleges recognize and capitalize on this truth.
In my time at Allegheny, I have figured out that they will let you coast so long as your grades don’t slip to almost unreachable lows.
If the tuition checks keep rolling in, Allegheny isn’t too concerned with whether or not you actually belong here.
As a senior, I’m in too deep to really do much about it now.
But if you are a freshman or sophomore with no real desire to be here, then I strongly urge you to do something else.
Going to college isn’t a prerequisite for a happy life.
I will openly admit that I do the bare minimum to get by and take very little pride in my work.
I enjoy writing and find great value in it.
But rarely do I get the opportunity to write about things that I actually care about at this creativity-stifling institution.
Put honestly, I don’t fit the mold of what a college student should be,.
I never should have become one.
But fuck it, I’ve made it this far.