Don’t Go to College Unless You Want to Be There

Over the course of teaching undergraduate college course for years, I noticed a pattern, roughly all of my classes could be split into thirds. First, there are students who want to be in college. Second, there are students who are not ready to be in college and don’t really want to be there. Third, there are students who definitely don’t want to be there. My advice: Don’t go to college unless you want to be there.

The first group is motivated, engaged, thoughtful, industrious, and serious about their coursework. These students are easy to work with and deserve a lot of credit. To be clear, I do not state that these students are smart. Intelligence is not a requirement to want to be in college. I will take a student who is less intelligent but more hard-working over a student who is more intelligent but less hard-working every single time. These students benefit the most from being in an academic environment. In my experience, the students who are most engaged in my classes also tend to be the most engaged socially. Suffice to say, a student need not solely focus on academics. On the contrary a huge part of student development is the college social experience. With this level of academic engagement comes a level of ownership, confidence, and pride in an institution that coincides with a rich social experience.

I identify with the second group the most – this was the type of undergrad I was. This group of students is not ready for college and isn’t sure they want to be there. Many of them are there because they are supposed to be there. These students were raised to believe that after high school you go to college, that’s just the flow of life. At least, that’s what I was taught. Generally, this is not a bad philosophy, but it is not universal. This group of students shows a lot of potential and glimmers of passion for deeper thinking. However, that potential is suppressed and the passion for deeper thinking is cast aside. Courses are viewed as obstacles rather than opportunities. These students would benefit from maturing professionally and attaining a greater sense of self before attending college. These are the students who, in my view, should take a gap year. If possible, they should travel to another country. This is one of the most underrated experiences of the American education system. Experiencing other cultures, through immersion, makes students reflect on themselves and their values. This allows them to attend college with a clearer picture of what they want to study and who they want to be. Importantly, all students who take a gap year should also work full-time. This teaches students the value of their time and their money. When a person makes minimum wage for a year, the price tag for college becomes more tangible. To a student who has never worked for a small sum of money, $60,000 is an abstract figure. That amount of money was unimaginable to me at 18. This leads to the most important point; a gap year working full time allows students to appropriately value their degree. Some may decide it is not worth the price tag. Others will, undoubtedly, enter college with a more serious demeanor. I wish I had done this.

The third group is the one I am most sympathetic toward. This group does not want to be in college. This is not because they are intellectually incapable. In fact, in my career, I have only had one student who was not up for the task due to a severe medical condition (it was a very sad situation). There are few genuine fools in the world but there is plenty of ignorance. Being ignorant does not make one a fool. College does not make these students happy. The life conferred by a college education does not excite them. There is a social stigma in our society regarding college. If you do not go to college, you are somehow less than someone who goes to college. This stigma is a noteworthy problem for our society and benefits no one except colleges. This third group of students feel like they have to go to college lest they become social outcasts. They do this at the cost of their own happiness. Many of these students would be happier learning a trade, working full-time, or starting a business. The students are spending a fortune on something they don’t even want, and they are wasting some of the best years of their lives doing something they don’t enjoy. Despite soaring rhetoric regarding education, college is not for everyone and that’s OK.

In sum, college is a huge investment of time and money, don’t go to college unless you want to and are ready.

Submitted March 01, 2021 at 07:26AM by Lo_Professor_Phantom https://ift.tt/3b4qHPR