What are you going to do after high school? What college are you going to? Make sure all your applications are done! Get good grades and thank me later! These are common things that parents seemingly say to their children as soon as they enter high school. Parents these days are pushing their children to go to college because they want to ensure success in their child’s future. High school students probably do not understand or care about what their parents have to say but surely enough parents do know what they are talking about. Four year colleges provide so many opportunities for impressionable 18-year-olds to learn and grow by offering plenty of courses to take, having activities and clubs that apply to all interests, and the chance to completely be independent. All of these opportunities provide a great foundation for a successful future. People should go to college because it gives them a chance to challenge their minds, to get a liberal education, have more job opportunities, and become better versions of themselves.
People generally love to learn and challenge their minds. Once high school ends, graduates have the option to do whatever they want with their lives. There are plenty of options out there but most high school graduates decide to continue their education by going to college. College gives students the opportunity to expand their knowledge, learn about what they are interested in, and apply their new-found knowledge towards a future career. Most universities provide all different types of minors and majors so anybody could learn anything they want to. Plus getting an in-depth high-level college education on whatever major of their choosing gives students a chance to develop ideas, moral, values, skills, and learning tools to use inside and outside the classroom. Adapting these things increases the amount of productivity in all areas and helps with different nessacery life skills such as time management, positive social skills, and the ability to set and reach goals. There a various learning techniques experienced in college like learning by teaching, conflict and debate, trial and error, and research and analyzing that will not only help us develop more learning tools but also allow our minds to expand further than our wildest imagination. College-level learning gives students positive psychological effects such as confidence and motivation helping them become more likely to succeed in the real world. College gives students a chance to expand their minds in the best way possible.
Attending a four-year college gives individuals an opportunity to get a unique education. There are plenty of majors, minors, and concentrations offered at every four-year college so students are usually bound to find something that they are interested in. Colleges these days use a liberal arts foundation for their curriculum. This form of education is a sensible and effective approach to learning in the 21st century and gives students a chance to explore all different types of perspectives on all different topics. In the essay Blue-Collar Brilliance, the author Mike Rose states “When we devalue the full range of everyday cognition, we offer limited educational opportunities and fail to make fresh and meaningful instructional connections among disparate kinds of skill and knowledge” (pg 254). Liberal arts classes do not devalue the full range of everyday cognition but instead better the range of everyday cognition by challenging the mind with new theories, propositions, and rhetoric questions that would make students want to learn the material that is given to them. This mental challenge gives the students a chance to learn attributes about themselves and the world that they never would have figured out, if it was not for the education college provides. A liberal education gives people the knowledge that will help them become successful.
College give students more opportunities to get better quality jobs. In this day and age, it is hard to get a decent, high-paying job without a college degree. Jobs are getting harder to find especially in this shaky economy making the job market extremely competitive. A college education equips students for the job market by providing the knowledge and sources to ensure that each individual succeeds. The knowledge that students gain from going to college gives them a better chance of finding a quicker path to a more stable career that they will enjoy. In the essay Are Too Many People Going to College? Writer Charles Murray says that “Employers do not value what the student learned, just that the student has a degree” (pg 233) which is simply not true because how would have the student gotten the degree if they did not retain the knowledge they learned at school. Employers are looking for future employees that know what they are doing in their field so what the student learned in college actually does matter when they are on the job. A recent study showed that men and women with a college degree are seven percent more likely to be employed than men and women who do not have a college degree. This proves the value of a college degree because it decreases the level of unemployment. Most colleges usually have connections to internships and jobs so people will have access to better opportunities for low-risk, high-paying jobs. Plus having a college degree gives people more flexibility when it comes down to career choices. The more educated one is, the better off they will be in the long run. College gives everyone a fair chance to acquire a great job.
College makes people into better versions of themselves. When people attend college, they are immediately on their own. They have to wake up on their own, get their own meals, and do all their chores without mom and dad doing it for them teaching them how to live on their own. This new-found independence does not show just within the walls of the dorm but in the classroom also. As a college student myself, I have noticed that students do not have easy access to the college professors as they did with their high school teachers. This forces students to pay attention in class and get accustomed to what each professor is looking for. The lack of assistance from the professors gives students a wake-up call and a realization that they have expectations that have to be met, forcing them to learn how to be responsible. College also teaches a person how to be responsible outside of the classroom. Socializing is a big part of college life because it is the only way that connects student with the college or university. Students usually have to make the first attempt to socialize in order not to be lonely on campus. Sometimes they make friends that are worth keeping while other times they could find themselves in a toxic friendship or taken advantage of without their knowledge. If they do find themselves in the latter, they would have to negative the situation to the best of their ability. These situations make people stronger because they are put into situations that they cannot avoid so they have to find the best way to get out of it. College is a fantastic way of getting an education while learning how to be on your own at the same time.
College is mainly one big learning experience if it is done the right way. The education a person gets from inside and outside the classroom can change their lives forever. Teenagers whom have just got out of high school need something to push them to discover themselves and I firmly believe that attending a four-year college is the right way to do that. College, not only gives people an education, but it can change one’s life for the better. It could make a person a better student, a better daughter or son, or an overall better version of themselves. At the end of the day, the high-school-now-college student will be thanking their parents for nagging them to finish their applications or to get on top of their studies because they are probably having the time of their life at whatever college they decided to go to. So kids listen to your parents, do the work, and go to college because I promise you college is worth it.