In the last week, as was reported by the Dayton Daily News, we all found out that the Ohio Board of Nursing was revoking the approval of Miami-Jacobs’ nursing program. We are not here to throw stones at them, because any school can have problems. Sinclair’s nursing program was also put on provisional approval recently, so no one is exempt.
But, as students, we are sympathetic to what the current and former students of Miami-Jacobs are now dealing with. Miami-Jacobs, like any college or university, is not a cheap place to get an education. Students paid a lot of money – or came into a high amount of debt – to get an education they thought would be beneficial to them in the job market.
Students go to college so they can become prepared to start a career. If, after graduation, after all that money was spent, you now find out that maybe you aren’t as prepared as you thought you were, how would that make you feel? Pretty terrified.
Employers could be concerned with hiring people from the college. We doubt that those concerns would out weigh having the proper references, but still.
We don’t wish to single-out Miami-Jacobs here. Imagine if you were studying law at Harvard and this happened. The idea we are presenting is, what if your education, that you spent all kinds of time and resources on, was suddenly losing valuable in the job market?
Going to college is now almost a requirement to have any non-entry level job. There are no factory jobs that pay $80,000 a year. Those don’t exist in this country anymore. Getting a degree is so important, and we accept that. Anyone growing up in today’s America understands that. We understand the cost and dedication required to do that.
But, there is risk.
Risk that you won’t find a job and the debt you carry might crush you. Risk that your degree provides limited avenues to find work. And, now, risk that the degree you worked so hard for might suddenly start losing value, though no fault of your own.
There is some security in knowing that Sinclair is regarded so highly in the Dayton community and in the nation. It’s nice to know that the college cares about giving us the highest quality of education available.
The biggest lesson to learn here is to do your research before investing in anything you think is worth spending your money on.