Adult 411 by Cristina

Adult 411 by Cristina - February 2022 Scholarship Essay

If I had an opportunity to design a new elective class, the class I would choose would not be an elective but a core curriculum that I think all college students should take. The class I would choose would be called “Adult 411” and it would be a course about all the common things that adult should know such as balancing a checkbook, banking, financing, paying bills, credit scores, retirement and investing. I would even include college secrets that many students do know about in school to help them if they are struggling and need help.
I have been working at a bank for 3 years and 5 months and I can tell you from experience that I get people of all ages who do not even know how a debit card works. For example, I get customers that think that debit cards have unlimited funds in them and then when their checking accounts are negative do not understand why they must pay it back. I explain it to them as simple and as patiently as possible and they still do not understand, and sadly this occurs on a weekly basis. I have had customers not understand the difference between principal and interest payments. For example, I had a gentleman in his late 40s come in and make a payment to his mortgage. His payment was a little extra so I had asked him, “Sir for the extra $10 would you like me to put it towards principle?”. He got mad at me and said, “What do you mean?”. I then responded, “Well sir by putting this toward your principle you save money on the interest you pay towards your mortgage and it could cut the time of your mortgage since you are paying more towards the original loan.” This infuriated him and he yelled, “I have been doing banking for years and no one ever explained this me, do you take me for an idiot?”. I told him gently “I am sorry sir but its pretty common knowledge and something I was taught in high school I am sorry nobody never mentioned this. I am just trying to help you save some money.” You could say that that gentleman left angry and embarrassed that day especially after the way he acted in front of everyone. I have not seen him since.
For college secrets, I would not necessarily call it secrets it is more like its not widely known or talked about. For example, for high school seniors that are done with classes and taking a bunch of electives did you know that if you take college classes in high school your district must pay for your tuition and books. Also let’s say you did very well in American History in High school and don’t want to have to take it again in college, there are exams you can take called the CLEP or DANTES DSST exams. These exams are recognized by over 2000 universities and colleges such as University of Redland and San Diego State University and are offered in over 30 different courses. I would also talk about government assistance programs that is there to help you if you are struggling to put food on your table or need help getting to and from school like I was. Unfortunately a lot of students do not know about these options or are too embarrassed to ask for help, so by making it mandatory everyone knows about these and can choose to use it or not.