In an effort to counteract the mind-boggling cost of college tuitions sweeping the nation, both McCain and Obama have proposed plans to make community service benefit not just others, but you (could our nation get anymore selfish).

In a special national service TIME issue, one thing is clear: whoever is elected President is going to start rewarding college students that give back to the public (and this doesn’t include giving obscene amounts of money to the local bar every Thursday night, dating a townie, or the 50 hours of community service most JMU students are sentenced to after getting caught with a red Solo cup on Port).

If America chooses Obama, a $4,000 tax credit may be in the near future for parents with children willing to complete 100 hours of community service in one calendar year. That averages out to 4 minutes and 5 seconds of caring about someone else besides yourself a day. It sounds easy, yes, but I am doubtful that many students will actually take time away from their already stressful lives filled with eating, sleeping, studying, working for money that’s going straight into their pockets, and/or consuming large amounts of alcohol and talking about it the next day, to actually complete 100 hours.

McCain, on the other hand, simply intends to expand the number of students that are given Federal Work Study, which is a program that actual pays students, rather than their parents, to do community service. This FWS money, however, is usually used for rent or beer money, and rarely goes towards college tuition debt.

Both plans have their pluses and their minuses but either way, it doesn’t much matter because no President (whether he’s Obama and professes to change the face of the nation or not) is going to decrease the cost of college tuition significantly enough to wipe away your college loans that will plague your post-graduation life for years to come.

Welcome to the real world—it’s expensive.