The Case Against Our Obsession With Public Universities

I still remember how stressful my last year of high school was. Many of my peers and I were anxious about where we would end up next. But before we even learned about different universities and programs, one thing was clear: public schools are way better than private schools, so getting into a private university immediately puts you as a second-class college kid.

The general stereotype in Indonesia is that public universities, especially one of the Big Three— University of Indonesia, Bandung Institute of Technology, and University of Gadjah Mada—guarantee a promising future. These institutions are seen as highly prestigious, and many families spend a lot of money to get their children into one of them. Often it doesn't even matter which one. Two years ago, despite the pressure, I ended up at what was once a lesser-known private university. But did that stop me from being on the right track, achieving, having a great time, and most importantly, making my parents proud? No. It made me realize, however, how unnecessary it is to pressure students to get accepted into public schools—because honestly, they're not all that.

If there's one thing I learned after more than two years in higher education is that success largely depends on me. Public universities usually have cheaper tuition, and I respect students who try their best to get accepted into those schools to reduce the financial burden on their family. But besides that, do public schools live up to all the hype, i.e. that they guarantee a better university experience and secure a brighter future? Here are reasons why public schools are overrated.

You could've saved a lot of money on bimbel

The first thing you're expected to do to stand a chance of getting accepted to a public university is to enroll into bimbel, the after-school course that prepares you for the public university national draft. Bimbel is not cheap. A bimbel business could charge anywhere from Rp 2 million ($147 USD) per month for their most standard package to Rp 10.5 million ($775 USD) for "special" packages. If you give into the pressure to get into a public school even more than usual, don't forget that the "supercamp" package exists, for a hefty cost of Rp 75 million ($5,535 USD) per month. This obsession for public schools have resulted in a big bimbel industry. Some of these bimbel centers even promise to return your money if you don't into a public school.

Then you also need those damn exercise books for SBMPTN, another standardized test that you take to get into public universities. If your parents think that you're not studying enough, comes a private tutor who charges Rp 1.5 million ($110 USD) per month on average.

This is a lot of investment—one that may not be worth it. A report even says that preparations to get into a public university could be more expensive than three years of tuition at the school itself. The bimble industry is a rip-off. If you don't even want to go to a particular public school in the first place, try convincing your parents to allocate that money to go on a family holiday or invest in the stock market or something. Trust me, it'll be more worth it.

You're still prone to fucking up anyway, anyhow

Be it getting a tattoo that you'll regret, experimenting with drugs and getting caught, joining a radical religious cult, or accidentally making your stupid tweet viral, in your 20s you are still prone to fucking up and making bad life decisions, The prestige of your public school won't be able to save you.

University life, be it at public or private institutions, could be one of the least friendly environments ever. Most people in this stage of life are now focused on figuring their own shit that they don't have that much time to look after you as well. I think that nowadays universities are good for mainly one thing only: the academic service they provide. The rest is for you to find out for yourself.

You'll eventually compete with those from private and 'lesser-known' universities Some private universities may not be prestigious, but that doesn't mean somebody from a school in East Nusa Tenggara province most people have probably never heard of can't get win a competitive scholarship to study abroad.

There's no study proving that Indonesian students who go to to local public universities do better than their private school counterparts. It doesn't stop some prospective employers to exercise their bias during a hiring process, though. But hey, do you really want to work with people who only judge you based on your alma mater alone?

Luck aside, what's most important after graduating is not your alma mater, but how people carry themselves throughout their university career, their communication skills and most importantly, how good they can convince others of what they're capable of. Eventually we'll all be trying to impress the same recruiters at job fairs or competing for the same government-funded scholarships, and hoping to get a good house mortgage. If your parents think that going to a public university grants you a nice house later, tell them that all Indonesian millennials are fucked because of the rising property prices.

Remember why you're going to a university in the first place For a lot of people, pursuing higher education after high school seems like a no-brainer. So much so that they take it for granted and don't put a lot of thought into it. If you're attending a university right now, public or private, you must have come across some "lost souls" at least once. Those are the students who sit in a classroom looking miserable and clueless. They probably don't know what they're doing, and you wonder why they're there instead of doing some serious soul-searching to figure out what they truly want in life. What if they actually had plans for their future but their parents didn't approve so they're barely surviving? There are so many options after high school, and often we're told that we only have one: going to a public university. And when we do get into one and it doesn't give us the experience we expect, we could get disappointed, or depressed. There are other plenty of ways you could make your parents proud For most people, especially those of older generations, going to a public university still puts you in a higher social status. It probably explains the fear and shame that lead Indonesian parents to pressure their children to get accepted to public universities. Since Indonesian culture puts heavy emphasis on obedience to parents, it could be difficult to go against what they want you to do. But don't all roads lead to Rome? Fighting your way to death for a place in one of Indonesia's public universities—which may not be the right fit for your needs anyway—is not the only way to make your family proud. It might take a lot of communication and negotiation to get your loved ones' full support if you choose to go for what you really want. It won't be an easy task, but I assure you it'll be worth it. It's your life, not theirs, and only you know what you can and want to do.