Corruption in Education

Throughout my education, whether it was in elementary school, middle school, high school, or college, there was always some "goal" I was supposed to work for. I don't know if the goal is the right word. Rather, we would spend endless time preparing for it because we were taught to think that it would be our end all be all. From elementary to middle school, it would be the end of the year placement tests or the NJ ASK (now called PARCC, I think). When I lived in India, we spent all of the 7th and 8th grade preparing for an exam called Checkpoint, which included Math, English, and Science, and that would determine our placement for high school when I got back to the U.S. for high school. Everyone worried about the SAT or ACT and college admissions. Everything we studied for, every club or sport we joined, every AP or Honors class we would take would be to get into a good college. I even recall kids choosing Latin as their second language in 6TH GRADE because they believed it would prepare them for the SAT 5 years later. Finally, here I am in college; this time, everything I'm working for is my career and actual life. But did all those years of stressing about all those tests and classes matter? I mean, I still ended up at a school with people that might not have worked half as hard as me and some kids that worked a lot harder than me. Was it all worth it? Well, in my opinion, no, it wasn't.

In my senior year of high school, I applied to 9 colleges and was accepted into 7 of them. I only honestly considered attending the Honors College at IU Kelley, Babson College, Northeastern, and UMD. But in the end, a combination of anxiety, nerves, and practicality pushed me to choose Rutgers Business School. I figured there was no point in paying out-of-state tuition and having to take out student loans for the education that I could get at Rutgers. Many Rutgers Alum worked alongside a colleague who went to an Ivy League or a private school anyway. So I went for it. But when I did finally pick Rutgers, it took a lot out of me. What was all the stress and anxiety that I had experienced junior year for, if I was going to end up somewhere I could've, without doing half of what I did?

But it wasn't my fault. I grew up in South Brunswick, surrounded by a surplus of Indians and Asians. The toxicity was there from the beginning; it was always a competition. While my parents never pushed me or overwhelmed me about grades and scores, I did it to myself. I was constantly comparing myself to all my friends in better classes than me, getting better scores than me, better grades than me. I was always trying to join clubs and sports in hopes of getting it on my transcript to stand out to colleges. When it was time to study for the SATs, I deleted all social media for two months and would study for 2 hours every day during the week and do 2-3 practice tests every weekend. After all, that, when I didn't get the score I wanted, it wrecked me. I found out right before spring break in the airport on the way to Portugal. I cried in the airport, on the plane to Belgium where we had a layover, and on the plane from Belgium to Portugal until I was all cried out. My mom and dad did not know what to do, and my family friends looked at me in despair. Looking back at that now, I laugh because it genuinely didn't mean anything. It didn't measure anything. I took the ACT instead, excelled at it, and was accepted into colleges because of that score. But regardless, even if I had done poorly on the ACT, it wouldn't have mattered.

We're all taught to be stressed out right from the beginning. We're forced to take classes that some of us have no interest in, and sometimes those classes are useless. But at the same time, some of those classes end up helping us find out what exactly it is we want to do. I mean, I hated Spanish throughout elementary school, so much so that I took french in 6th grade. But when I moved to India, I switched back to Spanish and fell in love with the language, and now look at me, I'm minoring in it.

If you're currently applying to colleges or trying to decide where it is, you want to go to college. Try not to get so upset over not getting into your dream college or getting so many rejections. What you do in college is way more important than where you go to college, and honestly, would you rather be in debt from student loans in a couple of years or be successful and not have to worry about that. I know many people that have done way more at Rutgers than people at other more high-profile schools. I was able to start two clubs, join two clubs, and so much more. In the end, college is indeed a scam. Nothing you learn in college means anything unless you're doing mechanical engineering or something. But honestly, you're just paying for a degree. I have not learned anything useful in the two years that I have been at Rutgers. But the school has still taken money from my parents. All we're genuinely paying for is that Rutgers Business School B.S. in Business Analytics & Information Technology at the top of your resume so that yours doesn't get thrown out of the pile of resumes. So don't worry about double or triple majoring unless you genuinely want to learn. Your major does not matter; you could end up in a line of work completely different than what you majored in. My dad majored in civil engineering (like building things), and now he's an IT Director at CitiGroup. Don't waste college being stressed out about yet another thing. Gain some skills on your own, create your own leadership positions, start a business, go crazy, and that will make you stand out and it'll make you happier.

If you want to be a software engineer, maybe don't spend four years as an engineering major when you can be a CS major and end up in the same place. Perhaps you don't even want to be a CS major, then be an ITI major or Business Analytics Major and learn some languages on your own, and you could end up in the same place. Major in art if you want and pair it with ITI or CS and become a graphic designer. I'm majoring in Business Analytics and Information Technology with a minor in Spanish, and I want to go into the fashion industry's corporate side. You can do anything you want. Don't waste all of high school or junior year stressing about one score that means nothing literally. Instead, explore different careers and subjects and learn things on your own. Put all your energy into that because either way, if you have the will, you will succeed.

In summation:

• The education system is corrupt.
• The SATs/ACTs aren't everything
• You spend like 10-100k a year for college to get a degree (not an education).
• Your major doesn't matter.
• You should do what will make YOU happy.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that there's always going to be someone who's "better," and people and your parents will always try and push you to do what they think is right. But honestly, it's up to you to make your path, and it's important not to sweat all this stuff. Now, I know that's easier said than done. I mean, I still cry when I get a bad grade or don't get an internship or something. But honestly, we're all just puppets in this massive education system that, quite frankly, corrupt.