Should High School Students Succeed In College?
Higher education has come a long way, college now provides an answer for excluded groups who face a disadvantage. “Since World War II, U.S. higher education has been engaged in a process of “massification,” that is, expanding to serve students from all walks of life,” (Eckel, King 20) these students include women, middle class, and minorities who need the economic and social change. Now in the twenty-first century college is just a natural progression for high school students.
In this day and age, is going to college important? Throughout high school, students are pressured to continue their academic career by attending a four year college as soon as senior year is over. College might not be the answer for most students, there are many disadvantages …show more content…
to attending college. The debate over whether or not college is an investment all students should make is very extensive. The answer is not black or white, but a very murky grey that is completely based on the student's situation.
There are definitely compelling arguments that support attending college, the most important reason to attend college is the higher chances of obtaining a job after graduation. Having a bachelor’s degree guarantees making more than a high school graduate, “On average, a college graduate with a bachelor’s degree earned $30,000 more per year than a high school graduate, or about $500,000 more over a lifetime, as of Apr. 2013.” (Procon.org). That alone should be incentive for high school students to go to college, but there is also the issue of tuition. There are multiple solutions to the tuition issue from scholarships to federal aid. Financial aid is an option for many students, but there are also many scholarship that can fund 4 complete years for a student. There are options such as work-study, loans, and federal grants that are funded by the United States Department of Education. There are also options for students who are not eligible for federal aid, from state aid to nonprofit/private organization opportunities. All of these options make it possible for anybody to attend college to have a way to make their lives better. In April of 2015, the United States Department of Labor put out statistics about the unemployment rates of individuals age 25 or older arranged by level of education attained, the data clearly shows that the less education an individual has the higher the unemployment rate. College is an investment that will pay itself back, but the unemployment rate for college graduates is much lower than of a high school graduate, “For people age 25 and older with a bachelor's degree or more education, the unemployment rate was 2.7 percent in April 2015, down from 3.3 percent a year earlier. For people with some college or an associate degree, the unemployment rate was 4.7 percent in April 2015”. For employers having a college degree on a resume shows that you have some interpersonal skills that college can only teach, these skills range from self motivation and being able to accomplish long term goals effectively, “You know how to prioritize and have the ability to put off the need for immediate gratification and see the bigger picture … You know how to be a part of a team …. You probably know how to speak in front of a small group” (Anderberg, 2014). College also allows personal connections with employers for future employment in your field. Being in a major allows students to connect with other like minded individuals who they possibly, in the future, will meet again in the field they studied.
Another widely popularized option for high school students is the gap year. This is a year students can take after high school before they attend college, so once college begins they have a clear understanding of what those four years will be leading towards. Presumably this year would be spent trying to figure out what they want to do with their lives, “...all with the shared purpose of increasing self-awareness, learning about different cultural perspectives, and experimenting with future possible careers.” (American Gap Association) This is a possible answer for students who feel academically exhausted and need to experience the real world. During this gap year students can also start working in order to save up for college, or the year can provide them with many opportunities that college doesn’t seem like a good option anymore.
Why is there such a premium on attending a four year school? All through high school students are constantly being told to go to a four year school because it will do them well, most students are not ready for college. The National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education wrote an article called “Beyond The Rhetoric The Gap Between Enrolling in College and Being Ready for College” about how unprepared high school students are for college, “Increasingly, it appears that states or postsecondary institutions may be enrolling students under false pretenses. Even those students who have done everything they were told to do to prepare for college find, often after they arrive, that their new institution has deemed them unprepared. Their high school diploma, college-preparatory curriculum, and high school exit examination scores did not ensure college readiness.” (“Beyond the rhetoric”, 2010). If having the grades, attitude, and experience is not enough, then what does it take to succeed in college?
There is a gap between how and what students are taught and what is demanded of them as adults, high school should teach students how to motivate themselves. If the students are not ready for college, then how are they expected to pay for possible guaranteed failure? The result of these not so ready students are the dropping college graduation rates, either from the financial or academic burden. The cost of college alone is a major concern, most students need to depend on financial aid, loans, or working while in school. It does benefit the economy when students attend college, but the loan debt crisis is getting worse every year. The Joint Economic Committee of the Unites States Congress released the executive summary of the report on student loan debt, “Student loan debt has almost doubled in the past five years, increasing from $550 billion in the fourth quarter of 2007 to just under $1 trillion in the first quarter of 2013. Two-thirds of recent graduates have student loans, with an average balance of more than $27,000.” (Klobuchar, 2013) This coupled with the increasing cost of tuition should make any student and parent hesitant. After college students then need to pay off their loans plus the interest that started piling up as soon as they graduated. This is a problem for these students because it blocks them from being able to buy a car, a house, or to start saving for retirement. This burden then forces these recent graduates to take jobs that doesn’t require a college degree to start paying off the
debt.
Instead of stressing college, which is not the end all be all, schools should also stress trade schools. Elsa Brenner wrote “Educators Try to Overcome The Stigma of Vocational Classes” for The New York Times about trade schools not being a bad option for most students, they provide students an education while being paid. This stigma towards trade schools as a last option is completely irrational, “But too often, program administrators say, vocational education is stereotyped as a dumping ground for students who cannot make it academically.”(Brenner, 1991) This is a great option for students who cannot go to college because they need to financially support a family or students who do not want to go through four more years of school. There is this underlying social hierarchy that schools teach to students, it’s better for students to be doctors than to be electricians or plumbers. In some areas plumbers and electricians charge hourly rates that are more than doctors make an hour. Going to college is a fine option, but getting a degree does not guarantee a job. Many college graduates end up working jobs that either do not require a degree or have nothing to do with the degree they studied for, “1 in 3 college graduates had a job that required a high school diploma or less in 2012.” (Procon.org). There are many examples of very successful people who either never attended college, dropped out, or made a career without using their degree. College is a helpful tool if used properly, but there is so much more to success than a 4 year degree. An excellent example of someone who pursued their dreams without a college degree is Bill Gates. The tech mobile attended Harvard University before he decided to drop out to start his computer software business. According to the Forbes The World’s Most Powerful People, Bill Gates comes in at number seven and is worth over 86 billion. Another Harvard dropout that is three steps down from Bill Gates is Mark Zuckerberg, he is the cofounder, chairman, and CEO of facebook. He is currently worth over 50 Billion dollars.(Forbes, 2016) The central theme between these individuals is their drive, self-motivation, vigor and passion that led them to pursue their dreams.
Currently having no degree is very limited, but 20-30 years ago a high school diploma was a sure fire way to being successful. There will come a time when having a bachelor’s degree will limit job prospects, then students will be advised to obtain master’s degrees and PhDs.
To sum it up, having the option of either or is very important for students. Life is all about options and choosing what is the right fit. For some students college might not be the option, but for others college is the only way to get a better life.
In this day and age, is going to college important? Throughout high school, students are pressured to continue their academic career by attending a four year college as soon as senior year is over. College might not be the answer for most students, there are many disadvantages …show more content…
to attending college. The debate over whether or not college is an investment all students should make is very extensive. The answer is not black or white, but a very murky grey that is completely based on the student's situation.
There are definitely compelling arguments that support attending college, the most important reason to attend college is the higher chances of obtaining a job after graduation. Having a bachelor’s degree guarantees making more than a high school graduate, “On average, a college graduate with a bachelor’s degree earned $30,000 more per year than a high school graduate, or about $500,000 more over a lifetime, as of Apr. 2013.” (Procon.org). That alone should be incentive for high school students to go to college, but there is also the issue of tuition. There are multiple solutions to the tuition issue from scholarships to federal aid. Financial aid is an option for many students, but there are also many scholarship that can fund 4 complete years for a student. There are options such as work-study, loans, and federal grants that are funded by the United States Department of Education. There are also options for students who are not eligible for federal aid, from state aid to nonprofit/private organization opportunities. All of these options make it possible for anybody to attend college to have a way to make their lives better. In April of 2015, the United States Department of Labor put out statistics about the unemployment rates of individuals age 25 or older arranged by level of education attained, the data clearly shows that the less education an individual has the higher the unemployment rate. College is an investment that will pay itself back, but the unemployment rate for college graduates is much lower than of a high school graduate, “For people age 25 and older with a bachelor's degree or more education, the unemployment rate was 2.7 percent in April 2015, down from 3.3 percent a year earlier. For people with some college or an associate degree, the unemployment rate was 4.7 percent in April 2015”. For employers having a college degree on a resume shows that you have some interpersonal skills that college can only teach, these skills range from self motivation and being able to accomplish long term goals effectively, “You know how to prioritize and have the ability to put off the need for immediate gratification and see the bigger picture … You know how to be a part of a team …. You probably know how to speak in front of a small group” (Anderberg, 2014). College also allows personal connections with employers for future employment in your field. Being in a major allows students to connect with other like minded individuals who they possibly, in the future, will meet again in the field they studied.
Another widely popularized option for high school students is the gap year. This is a year students can take after high school before they attend college, so once college begins they have a clear understanding of what those four years will be leading towards. Presumably this year would be spent trying to figure out what they want to do with their lives, “...all with the shared purpose of increasing self-awareness, learning about different cultural perspectives, and experimenting with future possible careers.” (American Gap Association) This is a possible answer for students who feel academically exhausted and need to experience the real world. During this gap year students can also start working in order to save up for college, or the year can provide them with many opportunities that college doesn’t seem like a good option anymore.
Why is there such a premium on attending a four year school? All through high school students are constantly being told to go to a four year school because it will do them well, most students are not ready for college. The National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education wrote an article called “Beyond The Rhetoric The Gap Between Enrolling in College and Being Ready for College” about how unprepared high school students are for college, “Increasingly, it appears that states or postsecondary institutions may be enrolling students under false pretenses. Even those students who have done everything they were told to do to prepare for college find, often after they arrive, that their new institution has deemed them unprepared. Their high school diploma, college-preparatory curriculum, and high school exit examination scores did not ensure college readiness.” (“Beyond the rhetoric”, 2010). If having the grades, attitude, and experience is not enough, then what does it take to succeed in college?
There is a gap between how and what students are taught and what is demanded of them as adults, high school should teach students how to motivate themselves. If the students are not ready for college, then how are they expected to pay for possible guaranteed failure? The result of these not so ready students are the dropping college graduation rates, either from the financial or academic burden. The cost of college alone is a major concern, most students need to depend on financial aid, loans, or working while in school. It does benefit the economy when students attend college, but the loan debt crisis is getting worse every year. The Joint Economic Committee of the Unites States Congress released the executive summary of the report on student loan debt, “Student loan debt has almost doubled in the past five years, increasing from $550 billion in the fourth quarter of 2007 to just under $1 trillion in the first quarter of 2013. Two-thirds of recent graduates have student loans, with an average balance of more than $27,000.” (Klobuchar, 2013) This coupled with the increasing cost of tuition should make any student and parent hesitant. After college students then need to pay off their loans plus the interest that started piling up as soon as they graduated. This is a problem for these students because it blocks them from being able to buy a car, a house, or to start saving for retirement. This burden then forces these recent graduates to take jobs that doesn’t require a college degree to start paying off the
debt.
Instead of stressing college, which is not the end all be all, schools should also stress trade schools. Elsa Brenner wrote “Educators Try to Overcome The Stigma of Vocational Classes” for The New York Times about trade schools not being a bad option for most students, they provide students an education while being paid. This stigma towards trade schools as a last option is completely irrational, “But too often, program administrators say, vocational education is stereotyped as a dumping ground for students who cannot make it academically.”(Brenner, 1991) This is a great option for students who cannot go to college because they need to financially support a family or students who do not want to go through four more years of school. There is this underlying social hierarchy that schools teach to students, it’s better for students to be doctors than to be electricians or plumbers. In some areas plumbers and electricians charge hourly rates that are more than doctors make an hour. Going to college is a fine option, but getting a degree does not guarantee a job. Many college graduates end up working jobs that either do not require a degree or have nothing to do with the degree they studied for, “1 in 3 college graduates had a job that required a high school diploma or less in 2012.” (Procon.org). There are many examples of very successful people who either never attended college, dropped out, or made a career without using their degree. College is a helpful tool if used properly, but there is so much more to success than a 4 year degree. An excellent example of someone who pursued their dreams without a college degree is Bill Gates. The tech mobile attended Harvard University before he decided to drop out to start his computer software business. According to the Forbes The World’s Most Powerful People, Bill Gates comes in at number seven and is worth over 86 billion. Another Harvard dropout that is three steps down from Bill Gates is Mark Zuckerberg, he is the cofounder, chairman, and CEO of facebook. He is currently worth over 50 Billion dollars.(Forbes, 2016) The central theme between these individuals is their drive, self-motivation, vigor and passion that led them to pursue their dreams.
Currently having no degree is very limited, but 20-30 years ago a high school diploma was a sure fire way to being successful. There will come a time when having a bachelor’s degree will limit job prospects, then students will be advised to obtain master’s degrees and PhDs.
To sum it up, having the option of either or is very important for students. Life is all about options and choosing what is the right fit. For some students college might not be the option, but for others college is the only way to get a better life.