Student Loans suck.

Ok, its hour 3 and I am still on the phone with the student loan company....name not be mentioned...they are all the same.

The whole idea of getting a loan for your education is weird. To be honest 80% of what you learn in college, you will never use....in most cases even in your own major. I went to Architecture school at the U of Minnesota. Now, it was a decent progam and all but I sat through hours and hours of architectural history and I am yet to ever be asked a question related to arch history at work....and I never will.

My project managers never ask me about the pyramids or the Partheon. There is no need to base a design idea off a Gothic church, you will only get laughed out of the room. Of course I know why I had to learn about all these things but let's be real. We can talk about Corbu and Wrightian design all day, at the end of the day its about what the client wants and can afford.....Period. Our vision is important, our design talent is important but most of what we do is based in a reality that dicates that we give up our design individuality for the good of the client.

Here is where student loans come in. Several banks give you money to go to college, get a degree in anything, get a high paying job or at least a job that with the potential to get paid well, and finally pay them back like you promissed when you signed all that paper work.

It would be nice if things really worked out that way but they never do and they never will. Here is was really happens. Several banks give you loads of money, you go off to college with more money than you have ever had and more than your parents could ever give you. With this new found wealth you realize that healthy eating is pointless, perhaps you really do need new clothes ever semester, going clubbin' is soooo needed and beer is much cheaper than when you were in high school.

You do go to classes, slide by with C's and B's finally finding yourself 4 or 5 or 6 years later having to throw yourself into the real world. That's right, college can be for the most part a fanatsy world, especially for Architecture. There are no budgets, no real clients wants and requirements to follow, no deadline that require to you stay night after night at your desk otherwise you will lose the job. It's all about YOU.

A month before graduation you sit down with someone at the Fin Aid office for what they call an exit interview...it really should be called, "This is how hard you are screwed 6 months after you leave this college."

And the screwing just keeps going for years and years....welcome to adulthood...

And now, Door #3:
http://www.turntables.de/
old school or new, you'll definately will get a kick out of this time waster...

Enjoy,
DjD