What is college for?

College is supposed to be for higher education, and to help you get a better paying job. But what happens if you end up with a useless degree? It’s always a possibility that you can pick a major that doesn't have many job opportunities. So why waste thousands on thousands of your's or your parent’s money just to be in the same place as you would be, even if you never attended college? What you don't know, is that there are so many degrees that can do so much more than just what they are known for. Do you think that your degree doesn’t have many job opportunities? In reality there are plenty of career choices you can have with almost any degree. Andrew Bast says, "It's not a question of, do you have the particular classes,' but it's do you have the mindset, the temperament, the intellectual horsepower to succeed?" I believe that this is a very true statement for just about anything! Your mind is a very powerful thing. If you want to do something badly enough, you can usually make it happen if you put your mind to it. You just have to figure out what it is you want to do.

Some think college can be labeled as a four-year intelligence test that sorts out the smart, and the dumb. But personally, I don’t think any one person can be completely "dumb," and still be able to make it through four whole years of college. Some of my smartest friends, that graduated top of their class, have even struggled at the beginning. You may disagree with that, or you may agree with it, but I have realized that some people have struggles that make college a more challenging experience for them, than it would others: health, financial problems, challenges at home, or maybe their high school experience did not fully prepare them for college. So, in conclusion, I don't fully agree with the “four year intelligence test,” because there are so many people out there who are really smart but never had a fair chance to attend school, or be able to get a college degree.

Louis Menand explains what he feels the four-year intelligence test is by saying that students have to show intellectual ability, over time, and across a range of subjects. If they’re sloppy, inflexible, or obnoxious, they will struggle in school, no matter how high their I.Q. He says college also sorts people according to aptitude. For instance, it helps separate the math type from the english type. Students end up with their score, a GPA, that schools and employers can trust as a measure of their intellectual capacity and productive potential. It’s important, therefore, that everyone is taking more or less the same test.


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To many, college would be considered the best time of their lives, and they don't know what they would do if they had never gone and experienced it. They met so many people that they would probably have never met unless they had gone. But there are some people that would say they think their college years were a waste of time, because they could not find what they considered a "graduate" job, and felt that universities were no better at equipping students with transferable skills than schools or colleges. In certain places it is going to be hard to find a job with what your degree particularly covers, because there might be many others in the area that already have jobs in that particular field. When it's like that, employers are usually join to hire the person who is the best at what they do. So you always need to prepare yourself for that, "what if" situation. Make sure you're doing what you do because you want to, and because you are good at it, not because it's something someone else wants you to. You are the one who has to go to work everyday, for the rest of your life, and if you don't love it, there may be complications later.

To me, what you get out of something is what you put into it. So you can't hardly ever show up to class, or not listen, not participate, and expect to come out of that class with the decent grade. You may not even gain enough knowledge from that class. Even if you end up thinking that college is a waste of time, you still know much more than you would have without going to college. You will have this information and these skills for the rest of your life. Students need to realize that college is one of the most important things that they will do in life. What they also need to understand, is that their most important learning opportunities at college take place not only in the classroom, but outside of the classroom as well. College helps socialize all groups of people: different races, religions, and people from different backgrounds. It helps people get comfortable with being around different people all the time, and learning to talk to, and get to know people, other than your normal group of friends. It teaches you not to be shy, and that often helps you get out of your comfort zone. It helps you learn how to be able express yourself, and feel more confident with yourself. This comes in handy when you are looking for jobs. Many employers do not want to hire someone who is bashful in an interview. They usually want to hire someone who is more out going, and more sure of themselves. They usually associate that kind of behavior, with someone who is confident in their skills.

In today's time, it is a big deal to have a college education. There is really no way around it. There are so many people who now have a higher education, so why would they want someone with only a high school education? People’s support for higher education makes sense only if they respect this academic culture as a necessary part to our society. There could be job training provided. as well as basic social and moral formation for students. This is far more efficient, and it is also cheaper, than a combination of trade schools, and public service programs. This would greatly help people with financial problems that make it hard on them to be able to go to school.


Countless American families wonder whether or not sending their children to college is worth it, if they obtain jobs that pay less than the price of tuition. It makes complete sense for people to be concerned about the economic benefits of college. An author Mark Rose talks about its intellectual benefits: "Not just learning things to make a living, but also learning things to enable you to do things with your life, to enable you to find interests and pursuits that may in some way or another expand the way we see things." There are also social benefits, he says: learning to think together, learning to attack problems together, and learning how to disagree. One of the great things about bringing so many people together in this common space, is that you're almost forced to have to deal with and encounter people who see the world in a very different way from your own. College may be valuable, but it's also not for everyone. A lot of parents do feel different about college than their children do. Parents feel the need to either make their children go to college, or to deny them entry, when actually, it should be the child's choice. There are plenty financial aid options, beside student loans, that can pay for your schooling! You just have to look for all of the scholarships you can, or try to get financial aid that you don't have to pay back, as long as you meet their standards. Instead of people saying yes or no to college, they need to start looking into it further, and seeing if college is for them.


I really feel like a higher education is no longer a choice, but a must have in order to succeed in today's economy. Since society feels the great need for people to attend college, students who can't afford to pay for it, end up having to take out student loans. It is hard for students to be able to pay back their debts, until they have an adequate job, where they can support themselves. With bill collectors hounding them every day, it makes them start to wonder if and when they will ever be able to pay their debts back. This makes people feel overwhelmed, and even depressed. This can sometimes lead people to consider suicide. C. Cryn Johannsen shares a letter from a young man named Jordan:

"I plan to douse myself and light myself aflame on the

Capitol steps, to draw attention to the dire situation of the millions

of indentured educated citizens who, like me, have no options, plus a

predatory banking system coming after us.

There is no political solution to this problem . . . I will be

setting myself on fire, and the student debt debacle will hopefully

come to the forefront of public consciousness."

Even though there have been no epidemiological studies attempted to find a correlation between student loan indebtedness and suicide, or suicide attempts, experts state that they would not be surprised if one did exist. Suicide is the dark side of the student lending crisis, and despite all the media attention to the issue of student loans, it's been severely under-reported. I think it is very sad that people are resorting to suicide as a solution to their problems caused by school debt. Especially when, in the first place, they are just going to school to try to better themselves, but end up in one of the worst situations possible. People need to realize that money is never more important than human life, even if it is a constant struggle.