I suppose I should have seen it coming, really.
To illustrate the way this school is run, I'm going to present two cases, both completely true, but with names removed for privacy.
Student A is a high-GPA student with a peaceful demeanor and the seeming incapability to intentionally bring harm to anyone or anything. After one of his scholarships failed to renew, due to circumstances outside his control, he was put $3,000 in debt to the school. The school kicked him out with two weeks remaining in the semester, and banned him from the school grounds, stating that any attempt to return would result in an arrest being made.
Student B is, quite literally, a 0.0 GPA student. He attended few classes his first semester, and even fewer his second. He was caught selling weed to an undercover, and his dorm was raided. Finding large amounts of weed in his room, the police arrested him and a judge set his bail at $160,000. His mom promptly flew here, bailed him out, bought him an apartment off-campus, and is now fighting the arrest. The school, knowing without a shadow of a doubt that he has no interest in a higher education, has allowed him to finish this semester and continue his tenure next semester as well, so long as he is only on campus for classes.
The person who wanted, needed, and deserved an education is being deprived of one, where the one who can pay for the schooling in full (despite showing no interest in it whatsoever) is wasting it. I can't believe that this is what the world has come to- the Almighty Currency. Never has this glaring fact been so apparent to me. I've known it for a long time, but I never imagined it spread as far and as densely as it has.
Right now, the school is becoming so overwhelmingly costly that my parents can't afford the interest on my loans for my first year. It's that bad. My merit scholarship is up for review, and without that the bulk of my financial aid is gone. Essentially, if my merit scholarship doesn't renew, I can't go back. If I can't find $18,000 in scholarships in the next three months, I can't go back. If any part of a delicate situation slips, falls through, breaks, whatever- I can't go back.
The problem is, I'm not sure I want to go back. The school has driven off many of the people that I care about, mostly for money. My best friend at the school is leaving because she hates how much like a high school the place is. A lot of the people there seem to be a soulless fucking shell of a human being, following blindly their high school habits and becoming the pathetic "Animal House" stereotype. The genuine people, the ones that wanted a quality education, the ones with personalities beyond "get laid, party 'til you puke, and do it all over again tomorrow" are leaving. And why?
The Almighty Currency.
This should be the part where I talk about how we could improve the system, or boycott it, or rally against it, or fight for reform, or something else. I'm not so self-absorbed to think that I can make a difference on the scale I want to, so I'm not even going to bother.
So to you, my FIT friends, I will miss all of you, but I'm not coming back next semester, or ever. I doubt I'll ever set foot in Melbourne again if I don't have to. To my closest friend from FIT (you know who you are), I will miss you more than words can describe. It's been an honor to know you all, but I can't foresee a means of me coming back to that hellhole. I can't bring myself to do it.
