I hear this all the time. People tell me that there are a lot of extenuating circumstances that keep people from going to college. And that’swhy they are stuck with their shitty jobs making shitty wages. And I’m supposed to feel sorry for them.
I’m willing to admit I may be naive on this subject if someone can provide me with a convincing arguement. But seriously, any hypothetical I can think of, when you put it under a microscope just boils down to the person wasn’t determined enough to find a way to go.
As far as the money thing goes; Hell, I’m white and
I hear this all the time. People tell me that there are a lot of extenuating circumstances that keep people from going to college. And that’swhy they are stuck with their shitty jobs making shitty wages. And I’m supposed to feel sorry for them.
I’m willing to admit I may be naive on this subject if someone can provide me with a convincing argument. But seriously, any hypothetical I can think of, when you put it under a microscope just boils down to the person wasn’t determined enough to find a way to go.
As far as the money thing goes; Hell, I’m white and my parents are loaded and I still got enough financial aid to go. (Including living expenses.)
My brother only attended a semester - but he has a good job and makes a good living. So I can’t answer directly about extenuating circumstances.
Whatever you do after high school will likely require extra training and education if you are going to be successful. This is as true of doctors and lawyers as it is of chefs, concert pianists and plumbers.
Anyone can go to a college somewhere though. A large number of colleges don’t have any admission standards at all especially if you work your way up through the community college system. You don’t even have to have a high school diploma to go to college. My little brother has a college degree but no high school diploma and he is a Coast Guard Officer now. I have another relative who is a PhD college professor but has no high school diploma. By starting over at community college, there is no restriction on what you can end up achieving.
I know another person who had a serious brain injury when he was very young and ended up borderline retarded. He managed to keep a nice steady low-level government job for his entire working life and they payed for college classes. It took him forever but he has a degree now too.
Strictly speaking, there is no true barrier to getting a degree somewhere over some long period of time unless you have incredibly severe personal obligations. Even that isn’t true as much now that you can take so many classes online.
Going by vague memory here, so excuse anything that doesn’t sound right…
A friend of mine was stuck at home in the rural area around a small city supporting her parents who had various issues (diabetes, kidney dialysis, alcoholism) leaving them incapable of caring for themselves or driving (dad’s license was pulled, but he still tried to drive constantly, and her mom had never learned). Her parents had alienated any other family that was still in the area, and their neighbors.
Because they owned a house that had a lot of land, and her dad had a small pension, they weren’t really eligible for government assistance even though they didn’t really have money. Her dad’s “disability” was lifelong alcoholism and he wasn’t about to give it up. Her mom needed to go to dialysis three times a week, IIRC, and it was hard enough driving her mom (no reliable medical car service there for someone who wasn’t elderly or physically handicapped, IIRC) and keeping down a job without trying to fit classes in at a community college or something.
Her mom dying actually was, as much as I hate to say it, an indirect blessing. She had more freedom and was able to start taking classes part-time.
Well, I agree with this. But I’m also thinking “So?” Not everyone has the same ambitions. I don’t think the choice not to go to college has to be justified.
Possibly some might understand they themselves are not clever enough for college, and make an informed decision based on that lack ? Since it would be a waste of time for them and the professors.
Having any intelligence is not a virtue. It’s the luck of the draw.
The determination thing is the answer, but some people require very little determination to go to college (they have the funding, they have the time, they have the aptitude) and for others those three things aren’t there and it takes a LOT of determination. And possibly a different set of priorities - like walking out on your dying mother and alcoholic father to pursue your own life.
(I got no financial aid - white and middle class - when I went to college.)
In general, I think there are a lot of ways a person can find a way to go to college, but understand that it is a lot more expensive than it used to be. Community colleges are still affordable, but tuition at state schools can easily run $10K a year, so even if you work full time to cover your living expenses and then go to school full time (which is no picnic), even those last two years of school (after community college) can land you $20K in debt. Pell grants will offset some of that, but not much, and lots of people don’t qualify for Pell grants.
If you include living expenses and a four-year plan, even state colleges are quickly becoming a bad bargain for most: the University of Texas estimates that the total cost of education there is over $20K a year for books, tuition, room and board. Someone borrowing all of that is looking at leaving college $80K in debt. There just aren’t many degrees that are worth it.
Again, I am not saying it’s impossible, but the days when you could work full time and a low-skill job and make enough that that income + financial aid would cover your nut are over, especially at four year schools.
It’s also worth noting that non-citizen legal residents do not qualify for many financial aid services, including Pell grants (technically, permanent residents qualify, but IME most college age legal residents haven’t reached the “permanent resident” status and are still on some sort of visa. The process takes years).
young unwed mom whose family says it’s her responsibility to take care of her baby (because she “went and got herself pregnant”) and won’t babysit if she wants to take classes
teenagers whose parents refuse to fill out the financial aid form (FAFSA?) for college, and IIRC the government won’t believe you’re completely unsupported by your parents until you’re 25
Those are at least pretty big obstacles that might take years to overcome, though not be permanent bars to attendance.
Oh my goodness! Well-to-do white people make out fine under our current system of funding assistance for college education?! Wonders truly never cease!
Gosh, if affluent white people don’t have a problem obtaining grants and loans for college educations (or, as xtisme pointed out in a thread about voter identification, obtaining ID cards), then think of how much easier it must be for poor people! I mean, we talk, talk, talk all the time about aid for the poor. And about how affluent white people have it so bad because of all this money we give to poor people. Why, if I didn’t know better, I might say something like “It’s almost as if you can’t pay a tuition bill with inspiring rhetoric.” But surely that’s not the case. All these white people wouldn’t be complaining if poor people really had a problem, right?
It was the late 1930s, but my father didn’t go because his mother was terribly poor and he needed to start making money as soon as he got out of high school. This was New York, so tuition was free and he’d live at home anyway, so those weren’t problems. But getting out of poverty was.
My mother’s father was a plumber, and did ok, so all four of his daughters went to various CCNY colleges for free.
