This creative grad is auctioning off her own diploma for a very serious reason

Stephanie Ritter is your average twenty-something: She lives in LA. She’s a theatre major working as a personal assistant. She’s trying to pay down her student loans. Oh, and she’s selling her college degree on eBay.

“Why waste four years of your life going to a state school for a piece of paper when you can just buy mine?” the listing reads. “I graduated from Florida State University in 2011 and have yet to use my diploma, so save yourself the time and buy college experience featuring diploma!”

For a cool $50,000, you can own the Cum Laude Bachelor of Arts Degree in Theatre Ritter received from FSU. And if you buy it on the spot, she’ll also throw in the full FSU experience, chock full of classic collegiate memories.

The experience includes the quintessential college sights and spots: a tour of the university, a show at the FSU School of Theatre and a sporting event, season permitting. In addition, it also includes some more personal sights, like a “driving tour of the spots I got speeding tickets in between classes” and a “walking tour of all the trash cans my ex silently projectile vomited in on our way to big events.” This is not your average college tour, folks. This is the real deal!

She also hilariously lists the classes she took to earn the degree. So you really know the hard work that went into the item you’re considering purchasing. I think my favorite part about the listing is her eBay username: aaronsamuels.

“I thought this piece of paper has so much worth to so many people, but for a theater major, it couldn’t mean less,” Ritter told BuzzFeed. “I’m doing the exact same things and probably getting paid the exact same amount as people that dropped out halfway through freshman year, except I’m still $40,000 in debt and they’re, well, not.”

So, what will she do if the diploma doesn’t sell? She plans to “just do that thing where I pay the minimum for 25 years and then the government feels so bad for you that they wipe it clean.”

Sure, the diploma is just a piece of paper; no real academic honors will be bestowed upon its new owner. But Ritter’s gesture sends a message, speaking to the larger problem of mounting student loan debt in the US. Hopefully somebody funds her auction so one less grad has to deal.

(Image via Shutterstock.)