Congratulations! You (haven’t quite) made it!

Congratulations! You (haven’t quite) made it!
Congratulations! You (haven’t quite) made it!
Valentina Saavedra.

For some parents, it must feel like the year has slipped by. It’s almost the end of 2017, which means the graduating class of seniors is inching closer and closer to the finish line, desperately trying to make it to the end of their high school careers without too many speed bumps deterring them from wearing that gown and throwing that cap high in the air.

For some students, the job is done. They have chosen where they will spend the next four years, happily making arrangements for roommates and signing housing contracts. They will blissfully enjoy senior activities with little stress. Others, however, are not so lucky.

I was always told that if I worked hard on my academic record, got stellar standardized test scores, and buffed up my resume, I would, eventually, find myself at the college of my dreams. Lucky for me, my hard work has indeed payed off when it came to actually getting accepted. Yet, I was never really warned about the price tag that accompanied an acceptance.

I was accepted into Boston University. I was accepted into the Kilachand Honors Program at that university, and I was awarded 20,000 dollars in merit scholarships. All these speak to the hard work that most certainly paid off. However, the estimated cost of attendance at BU is somewhere around 68,000 dollars per year, which means I am still left with around 48,000 dollars to pay off per year. All of this rounds out to about a 144,000 dollar debt, not including, of course, added expenses like coming back to Miami to visit my family for holidays like Christmas and Thanksgiving. Though my hard work paid off, I still have to pay off a hefty student loan debt.

The reality of the situation is that it is becoming increasingly difficult to afford to go to college. Though this fact is known, it has an added layer for both me and my fellow seniors.

Where am I going to college? Am I going to have to settle for another college simply because of the financial burden? Can I really sacrifice the dream college I’ve been working for because of the implications of student loans? Does working hard really matter in the end if I got accepted, but can’t afford it? Was it all worth it?

Valentina Saavedra is a senior at Westminster Christian School. She is the President of the Book Club, the Editor in Chief of “A Made Up World: the Literary Magazine,” and the President and Founder of the Westminster Christian School chapter of the English Honors Society.


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