Dear Pitt, I Want a Refund

So I've expressed my dissatisfaction with Pitt before, but I think it's time to do something about it. It's a little ridiculous, but I'm going to ask for a refund. We live in a world where you can get a refund for almost anything, so I figured our education should be satisfaction guaranteed as well. I need help writing it though, this is what I have so far.

Dear-----
 I recently graduated from the University of Pittsburgh's College of Business Administration in December as a marketing major. My first loan repayment is coming up on July 22nd, however I'd like to ask for a refund.

I understand this is pretty unorthodox and there's nothing really I can do except ask. I also know that my loan is through the loan provider Nelnet and the federal government. However the University set the prices and I'd like to express my dissatisfaction with Pitt and I'd be remiss if I didn't request a refund.

I've attached a list of issues I have with Pitt and often they are shared with other universities. But my main concern is the price. Pitt is the most expensive public school in the country. What you gave me was not worth $90,000.

We can get into a pretty big game of "what if" if we try to explore what would've happened if I dropped out or transferred. I don’t think it’s productive to examine those scenarios, because they’re not reality. I'm aware that I signed a promissory note and that I'm obliged to pay the loan back. And I will. But I consider Pitt not worth the cost and am upset with my price.

As a seventeen year old choosing a college you don't really know how much $90,000 is, so a lot of the financial thinking is left to the parents.  My parents and all parents want the best education they can give to their child. The idea being that a better education leads to more opportunities and a richer life. However, with $33,000 (and increasing with interest) in debt, I don’t really feel free to pursue the things I want. I feel shackled to this growing financial burden. I have to find a steady job and start paying that money back. 

Personally I don’t want a steady job. I want to hike the Pacific Coast Trail, make music all day, tour the country doing stand-up, see the world, or read and write. I don’t mind having a job, I’ve been a chef, a telemarketer, and a digital marketing coordinator. I enjoy working! But when 20% of my income has to go to a loan I didn’t really feel like I got anything out of, it feels like there’s a penalty just for being alive. I feel like my degree is actually limiting me rather than expanding my opportunities.

I know a good counter-argument to this thought process would be “Hey you ordered the sandwich, ate the whole sandwich and now you want your money back?” Well yes. The sandwich gave me mild food poisoning. But I was starving so I kind of had to eat it. And it was a sandwich where you had to pay up front, per bite, and each bite was $7,500. And if you stopped eating the sandwich half way then you still had to pay for those bites if you didn't like it. And it’s not a sandwich, its education and it’s my life. 

I did have some amazing opportunities that helped me grow as a person at Pitt. I served as a director on the board of one of the nation’s best college radio stations, WPTS Radio. I volunteered in a lab studying disease transmission in sexually cannibalistic spiders, and I got an internship with a great global risk management company. I got as much out of Pitt as I could and I enjoyed many things, but it wasn’t worth what I paid.

I currently work as a strawberry consultant where I inspect crops for disease and pests.  It's a good job but doesn't pay amazingly. I make approximately $16 an hour and work 40-50 hours a week. That's ok money for a recent graduate but my repayments are coming in at $370 a month. I qualify to lower them, but of course when you do you end up paying for much longer and much more. Interest built on being poor, keeping me poor.

If you’d like, I’ll return my diploma, discontinue the use of Pitt on my resume, and you can wipe me from the academic records. I know I can’t return those experiences I had, so this may be more symbolic than pragmatic, but if it makes you feel better I can certainly concede. 

Again, I realize this is odd, and in all honesty I don’t expect you to reimburse me. But please don’t give me a stock email reply, I’d rather open up a conversation about the insane cost of tuition and how Pitt can be the University to change that. I want Pitt to be the best it can be and really I’d love to help out to find ways to lower the price for students.
 

Thank you,
-Taylor Nodell

I need help articulating the problems. I know they’re there. How many times have you gone to a class that you know was a waste of time? You just sat there and played on your phone, because the professor was uninteresting (micro and macroeconomics), annoying (I’ve had some sexist or otherwise “antiquated” professors), or just plain wrong (Meta tags are used by Google to order searches? No they’re not, Professor Whang, do your job right.)? I expect professors to be good at their jobs, not focused on research for the university and then shoehorn me in. How many of you spent your first semester alone in your dorm contemplating transferring because you didn’t really like the people you were with? Not necessarily Pitt’s fault, but certainly Pitt has a stake in that. How many of you developed drinking problems? Did other people have trouble with the administration? They put up a lot of barriers for me while trying to do events at Pitt. Is anyone else overwhelmed with the cost of college??? It keeps me up at night, literally giving me panic attacks.

I also want to understand the in’s and outs of the budget. Chancellor Gallagher gets $525,000, a year with deferred yearly "retention incentive payments" (I have no idea what that means) of $100,000 each (http://www.post-gazette.com/local/city/2014/02/08/Pitt-trustees-name-Patrick-D-Gallagher-as-chancellor-to-succeed-Nordenberg/stories/201402080133). But in the 2014 annual budget report, wages and salaries were listed at $866,178 (https://www.cfo.pitt.edu/afs.html). Does the Chancellor get more than half of all the other workers’ wages combined??? 

Also most importantly, am I the only one that feels this way? I kinda feel like I am the only one who thinks that the price of college is ridiculous.