Is College for Everyone?

“ Is College for Everyone”
Is college for everyone? I am sure this is a question that many future, current, and even graduated college students have asked themselves at one time or another. In her blog posted in 2007 on AssociatedContent.com “Is College for Everyone”, writer, Pharinet, uses her experience, logic, emotion and reasoning as a college professor to identify the issues and answer the question, “is college for everyone?” Pharinet says that education is important and that every person has the right to an education, but that it still may not be right for every person to attend college. Pharinet describes to her readers how over the years and reasons why going to college have changed over time. She states, “often the desire for learning is not what drives students to attend college”(635). Pharinet’s main purpose of this blog is to use her experience in the college field to express her views to the future college students and maybe even their parents that going college may not be the path for everyone, and that sometimes people do not need a college education to be successful in life. Pharinet uses the statistic that approximately 50% of students who begin college never graduate(635). Not every person is ready for the “freedom” or “responsibility” that comes with going to college. Courses, homework, projects, and exams are not the only things college students are faced with. Pharinet also explains the finical aspect of attending college and says “while the cost of college can be offset by grants, scholarships and work-study programs, too many students find themselves in desperate financial situations by the end of their first semester”(635). Pharinet presents a great point when she says, “If college is for everyone, why do we rely on SAT scores and high school transcripts?”(635). That in itself should make a person question if going to college is really the right place for him or her. If a person has struggled through school up until this or her high school graduation and could not handle the course load assignments and the basic functions of grade school such as reading, writing and math, then maybe college is not the right place for him or her. If a person is not capable of doing this while in grade school and living with his or her parents, who make sure their grades are where they are suppose to be and paying the bills, what makes them think the are ready for them “freedom” or “reasonability” college has to offer. In Pharinet’s argument of “is college for everyone” she express her emotion by saying “Once upon a time, college was a place you went when you wished to learn”(636). This is followed by “Now, college is the place you go when you want to get a good job, or appease your parents, or because you are finding yourself”(636). Pharinet is right when she says this. There are so many students who enroll in college today with absolutely no idea of what they want to be or where they want their lives to go for reasons that really have no importance. Just because “C’s get degrees”(636) does not mean that it is ok to go to college and barely get by and waste everyone’s time involved. There are many successful and happy people in this world today that did not choose the path of a higher education and go to college that would not change a thing about their lives today. To make the decision whether or not to go to college is in the eye of the beholder and only that person whose future will be affected by this decision can truly make his or her own choices in life. Phairnet points out that to keep the world we live in running, we need people who are willing to admit that “College does not benefit everyone”(636). and to be willing to perform the jobs that do not call for a college education such as factory workers, semi drivers, mail carries etc. At the end of the day, people need to take a look at the big picture and, “Embrace the reality that college is not for everyone”(636).