# Under what circumstance can people NOT go to college? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 8, 2011, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/under-what-circumstance-can-people-not-go-to-college/577677 "2011-04-08T16:20:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2011, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/under-what-circumstance-can-people-not-go-to-college/577677/101 "2011-04-17T23:27:15Z")
> [@tim314](#): > > **Or, the short version:** Being poor makes a lot of things really fucking hard. Using someone’s failure to overcome these hardships as an excuse not to care about their problems is pretty damn callous, and especially so if you haven’t ever faced that sort of hardship yourself. Dude, did you read the rest of the thread? We went round and round on a lot of that stuff already. And even in the post you quoted, I admit, it would be hard. But hard is not impossible. That was the sole point I was trying to make. I’m honestly surprised at the vitriol some people had for it. That said, I’m a librarian. I help lower income people get money or do college-related stuff all the time. I know it’s possible because I’ve seen people (a lot of people) do it. And I’m one of the one’s that help. ---
**Author:** ![Fionn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Fionn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fionn)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2011, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/under-what-circumstance-can-people-not-go-to-college/577677/102 "2011-04-18T01:23:01Z")
Vivalostwages touched on it, but there’s a difference between just going to college and succeeding in college. Going is as easy as filling out the application at the nearest community college, but doing well enough to earn some sort of credential takes a lot more sustained effort. For people who came out crappy schools or for whatever reason didn’t learn the basics the first time someone tried to teach them, they might have a year or more of developmental work to get through before they get to take classes that will actually earn a degree. Some fall into an unfortunate Catch-22: a degree would help them have more prosperous and stable lives, but in the meantime their lives are too chaotic to let them get a degree. ---
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2011, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/under-what-circumstance-can-people-not-go-to-college/577677/103 "2011-04-18T12:05:08Z")
> [@Fionn](#): > > Vivalostwages touched on it, but there’s a difference between just going to college and succeeding in college. Going is as easy as filling out the application at the nearest community college, but doing well enough to earn some sort of credential takes a lot more sustained effort. For people who came out crappy schools or for whatever reason didn’t learn the basics the first time someone tried to teach them, they might have a year or more of developmental work to get through before they get to take classes that will actually earn a degree. Some fall into an unfortunate Catch-22: a degree would help them have more prosperous and stable lives, but in the meantime their lives are too chaotic to let them get a degree. And its arguable that for most of them, the community college system they enter into is a path to a significantly more profitable job - even if they DO manage to get through CC, transfer to a four year school, and complete a B.A. or B.S. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/under-what-circumstance-can-people-not-go-to-college/577677.md?page=5)