Upper Hand

3Playing the Game Around Us

The True Cost of College

$125,000 in principal amortized over the past 10 years with an average 6 percent interest rate is what I have paid for the privilege of telling the world that I followed the formula of going to college. And this is with the scholarships and grants I managed to hustle to help pay for both my undergraduate and graduate education.

Like many of the millions of millennials entering a dismal job market that had been severely impacted by the 2008 recession, I'd felt bamboozled right out of undergrad. The formula that had been preached to us over the last 20 years did not account for an economic fallout, low salaries, and job prospects that made the four‐year commitment of time and money feel like a waste. There was no golden ticket at the end of our time served.

No one cared that I had a degree when the sky was falling.

It was mostly hustling and the wake of an increasingly digital environment that helped me to stand out in the job market. In fact, most of the internships and eventually post‐graduate jobs and freelance work I managed to land were the result of having created a dynamic public persona and reputation online.

As blogging became popular in the early 2000s, I joined the bandwagon, crafting sentences and manipulating WordPress templates. I carved out a niche in a very crowded, yet lucrative, culture of the emerging and early “influencers” covering beauty, fashion, and other general interest sites covering cultural trends. ...