They’re both excellent reasons, though sadly far too many people only go for the second one.
No matter how bright you are or how much you read, college will expose you to subjects you weren’t familiar with and give you a much stronger infrastructure to build upon. The problem with autodidacticism is that you’ll be able to speak for 12 hours on the artwork of Kandinsky or the Fourth Crusade but you’ll give a remedial stare when somebody mentions a gravity well or the Fibonacci series. Formal education helps fill in the gaps and strengthen the infrastructure on which to build further knowledge.
( I am a huge lover of the interrelatedness of ideas and knowledge [i.e. how geology affects history affects literature affects religions affects medicine affects communications affects meteorology, etc.]. Had I never gone to college I’d have had no backing in science or math with which to better understand and contextualize these connections. )
OTOH, don’t underestimate the importance of a degree. You know you’re smart, your friends and family and enemies know your smart, but your employer doesn’t know and doesn’t really care to hear your opinion. The degree proves
1- you started and finished something that requires focus and dedication
2- there is documentary quantitative evidence of your intellectual strengths and weaknesses
Since I don’t plan to have kids of my own as it would fufill way too many prophecies, I’ll give you the advice I’d give my third through seventh daughters:
Go to college for an education, and I couldn’t care less if you major in Sumerian Folk Dancing or International Cake Decoration so long as you take a wide variety of courses and have a good time while getting your work done. Learn, grow, experiment.
Go to grad school for a degree- something transportable that you can always find a job that will afford you a middle class lifestyle or better. While I have never been as bored as I was as a grad student in Library Science, you wouldn’t believe how great it feels to know that I could find a job in any of fifty states or several countries if need be.
But don’t go to the ball games. They’re noisy, irritating, and you’ll find much better pot in the gay clubs.
Wow. This is the first time I’ve gotten coherent replies other than “because”. But I still don’t understand what I get from college (which is madly expensive) that I don’t get from just going into the ‘real world’.
ElJeffe said:
I DON’T get this in high school? Public school. Sixteen hundred students. Teachers who are tired of working for relatively low pay teaching students who don’t want to be there. The IB program, in which you truly loose points for not doing your calcuations in the pitifully-tiny box lablled “Working”. IMO, having run for student council (NEVER again!), helping to get a Gay-Straight Alliance started at a VERY homophobic school, working on the school paper for three years now, and even just dealing with IB has given me enough experience here.
Keweenaw:
Was that sarcasm? Because I’m trying not to sound arrogant, but writing has always been a natural talent of mine. I thought it was relevant to the OP. I’ve been told (and after LONG battles w/ self-confidence issues, accepted) that I have a way with words.
Insecta:
I’m taking English, History of the Americas, and I will take Bio next year HL. My SL’s are art (research), chem, Spanish, and Math. Right now, the bohemian lifestyle sounds REALLY tempting, actually. Disappearing into Asia sounds tempting…But seriously, I don’t want to make money. I want to go into politics or diplomacy or law or something where I can work for the greater good. I know I sound hopelessly idealistic and naive, but…can’t really help it.
Another question: What if I were to JUST go to community college? Would that be worth the time and increase my chances of finding employment, or be a waste? Money is a concern - not a HUGE one, but my family is NOT wealthy by any means. Would an associates degree (which I could probably manage to obtain while working to earn money to pay for it, thus rendering me independent from my parents) help?
You should look into the biographies of your favorite politicians, diplomats, and lawyers, then. Odds are they’re chock full of advanced degrees. Once you’re in school there are all kinds of clerkships, internships, societies, and whatnot that you can use to get your foot in the door for when you graduate.
An associates degree is for the most part a waste of time, IMHO, depending on what you want to do. My recommendation would be to skip community college. Money will not be much of a problem at all if you do things right. Fill out your FAFSA as early as possible and apply to schools with both merit and need-based scholarships. And at the worst, take out some loans. I’m 20k in debt right now from student loans, and it isn’t much of a hardship to pay them back.
As for you thinking you have dealt with bureaucracy problems in high school, I can only laugh. That is nothing compared to dealing with hostile financial aid or registrar’s offices. Trust me - I thought I had the whole game figured out because of what I had to deal with in high school (even as high as district level), but college was a whole different game.
Anyway, you are only a junior. I would recommend taking a few weeks off this summer and touring some campuses - go around NYC, Boston and DC and see. If you can, head out to Chicago, Berkely or UCLA and USC. That will help you decide.
Oh yes, I didn’t see where you said you wanted to go into diplomacy, law or politics.
Sorry, but you need at least a Bachelor’s to even get looked at in these fields - ie, get into the foreign service, a law school or a political office.
It’s not the same in high school as it is in college and the world beyond.
So in your large high school you have to deal with incompetent people, and you’ve bitten off a lot of work, but it all relates to school.
In college you’ll deal with over-demanding professors who offer no sympathy, and depending on the size of the college possibly for the first time in your life deal with the idea that your own professor wouldn’t know your name by looking at you. You’ll deal with dividing your time between fun and studying in a way that doesn’t happen in high school, and on top of it you’re managing your life in a way you don’t when you live at home.
College is much more like having a job as an adult than high school is, because generally Mum and Dad are not there to clean up any messes, do any laundry, bring soup when you’re sick, go grocery shopping etc.
It’s also the one time in your life where there’s a certain amount of opportunity to screw up any or all of the above and still repair things. College is about the education, the experience of the education, and learning to put all of that into an independent life away from parents. Not only would I suggest going, I’d suggest not living with your parents while you do.
Why go to college?
Because you will make friends there that will be the best you’ll ever know.
And sex (whatever form is appropriate for you). It will be the last and best opportunity without having to marry or pay for it. Whoops! Did I say that? Just kiddin’ around, folks!
(But it’s the friends and sex that you’ll remember most – do it! Go go go! The chances of meeting Ms. or Mr. Wonderful while working at Burger King are MUCH less than at college, I promise you!)
A: It doesn’t all relate to school. On top of schoolwork, I’m dealing with a minimum commitment of 3 nights a week at my Tae Kwon Do school (assistant instructor), weekly violin lessons plus an after school group, which totals at LEAST half an hour of practice every night, tutoring my 13-year-old neighbor once a week, and tutoring another neighbor in English (she just moved here from Honduras) once a week. I know it doesn’t sound like that much, but I just wanted to establish it’s not all school work.
B: If college isn’t like the real world, why not just jump into where it counts? I’m truly skeptical of this when I hear it - if high school is so ‘not real life’, why not just plunge in? I learn best under stress (ex: I learned more Spanish in a one-week immersion trip to Costa Rica than I think I did in my then-three years of classes).
FranticMad: Okay, the friends point might have value. However, at least at this point in my life, I can’t imagine getting into a physical relationship, which is part of why I will NOT go to a ‘party school’ where there’s lots of drinking/drugs/sex all over, and it’s part of my apprehension about college. I realize it happens at all colleges, but I’ve got this Thing, which I take VERY seriously. No drugs, no alchohol. At all. Ever. No sex, at least not unless I’m married, and then if I want kids and for some reason have decided to have children of my own and not adopt. I know that college is the place to experiment and such, but these are two issues that aren’t negotiable with me, and I don’t like being labelled as an old-fashioned type or a wuss. Just another issue…
Compare what you knew right before entering the ninth grade to what you know now. Consider not just the book knowledge, but the intangible stuff like political savvy, self-confidence, articulateness, and maturity.
Could you have acquired these things without going to high school? Sure! But would it have come a lot harder? You bet.
Going to college does not ensure anything. I teach undergrads; some of them simply aren’t college material and it shows. But for those who do have the “brains”, college does to their mind what high school does to an adolescent’s. You may find that you continue to learn outside of school, but college helps that learning experience considerably. In the real world, you only have the public library and your PC. In college, you have access to those things times a thousand.
Plus (and I promise, this is my last post!), pulling an all-nighter is a million times more fun when you’re not under your parents’ roof, with baby brother or sister sleeping in the room next door.
For some people. Sure, you get a little more freedom. But if you go in expecting people to be fundamentally different from people in high school, odds are you’ll be in for an unpleasant surprise. If you didn’t mind people in high school, you’ll probably have a blast.
Don’t be a fool. Go to college. You will have a great time, you will learn an increadible amount (hard as it is to imagine, there is more out there to learn) you will grow in ways you don’t even see now. College is as much about the classes you take as it is about the people you meet, and what you learn from them.
I suggest you go ahead and file your applications next year. Do it while it is easy, while you have all your records in one place etc… and then defer for a year. Go travel, see the world, teach english in S. America, whatever. Go live a little if that is what you feel you need to do. But, by having gotten in and having a start date to be back for you will not end up spending three years wandering around, only to discover when you hit 22 that wandering around isn’t all that it is cracked up to be.
Secondly, take all the AP tests you can, you will be able to pass out of alot of the BS classes, and you will get right into smaller, more interesting classes from the begining. Plus, with AP credit, you can easily graduate in 3 years, (maybe taking classes one summer) and not fall behind other people your age.
College is what you make of it, but most importantly it is a key that unlocks doors for the rest of your life. You talk about wanting to be in the legal field, diplomacy etc. You CANNOT do this without a degree. College will fly by, trust me, and you won’t recognize yourself at the end of it. I would hate for you to be 45 years old, stuck in a dead end job, wishing you had taken the oppertunity when you had the chance.
Oh, and just to freak you out a little, the stress of high school can’t hold a candle to the real world. Just wait.
Hey, I didn’t drink, party, or sex-up ANYONE during college and I don’t feel like I gyped myself out of the True College Experience[sup]TM[/sup], despite what the drunken masses may think. College is exactly what you make it out to be. If you were born to be an uber-nerd (as I was), you can be an uber-nerd. If you were born to be a political activist, there’s no better place to be one than in college, where most people still aren’t sure what they believe in yet.
FWIW, my mother is a social activitist. She takes on interns sometimes, and one thing they all have in common is that they’re in school or have been in school (meaning college).
I just thought of this, so forgive me if it doesn’t sound too coherent: the best reason that someone should go to college is that going (and graduating) will put that person on somewhat equal footing with everyone else. No matter what you end up doing in life, if you plan on being independent, you will have to compete with people. Employers, grant reviewers, potential collaborators…they will all be comparing your credentials with other people. A college degree is but one credential, true, but it’s a major credential nonetheless. It’s hard to be considered a professional anything nowadays without a degree. Otherwise, people will end up calling up an amatuer whateveritisyouwanttobe.
I’m sure you weren’t trying to sound arrogant. You seem very intelligent and I’m sure you’re a good writer. You seem to have a lot going for you and I’m sure you’ll be successful whatever your decision.
I reacted with sarcasm mostly because of my own perspective. My wife was the first one from her family to attend college, and for her growing up it was more of a dream than a goal. Her family didn’t place high value on a college education for their kids, and my wife really had to scrape and struggle finish. I’ve never been more proud of anyone in my life than I was of her during her graduation.
So when I saw someone who has things in her favor ‘top of the college search’ etc. and resume of great stuffs, who wants to drop out, or not attend college at all, i got a little rude. Sorry
Real life is hard at least some of the time for most people. College is a very precious privilege, and a grand opportunity. Don’t miss out
NinjaChick: It sounds like you may have already made the decision not to go. Just keep in mind that if you turn down the opportunity to go to college, you’re making a conscious decision to limit your choices in life. You are opting to make less money, have fewer job opportunities, and have less societal influence. Just don’t forget that you carved your place in life…not the evil system, or the man, or bad luck. We don’t want to see you back here in 5 years touting communism.
Given the possibility that you may get an IB diploma (roughly equivalent to the first two years of college, course-wise, and roughly equivalent to an AA), I would advice you to skip community college, unless there is a specific study for a career path that the community college offers that you want to take (Example: Paralegal, EMT).
Look, grade school isn’t the real world either, but we don’t send 6 year olds out to the factory. College is an extension of your education, it continues to prepare you for the RW. Why is that hard to understand? If you must ‘plunge’ in, you will find that with only a HS diploma, the pool will be very shallow. Go to college, and you get to play in the deep end of life. (That is so cheesy, I can’t believe I wrote it, but I’ll leave it for everyone to mock)
College does not have to be your own personal porn movie. Now, I was not exactly the poster child of good behavior in college (though I didn’t do the drug scene), but there were many people who were, and we got along fine. College is not, despite what some will tell you, just like HS all over. If you choose your school properly, you will find that it is easy to meet people with similar interests etc. There are things, and people to do them with, other than boozing.
I agree that an AA is a waste of time, but I wouldn’t necessarily write off the option of spending a year or so at a community college, especially if funds may be hard to come by. Community colleges are super cheap, and a good way to get a lot of basic, everyone-has-to-take-them, cookie cutter classes out of the way. Also, the classes tend to be pretty easy, so you can take a heavy load and get a lot out of the way in a little time. I spent one year at a community college, and coupled with a few AP classes I had from HS, entered a university as a junior. I still ended up taking an additional 3 years to graduate, but that was mostly because I took a ton of classes I didn’t need, just because I love to learn (I graduated with 220 units, when only 180 are needed). Moral of the story: Community colleges are generally crappy in and of themselves, but they can be a useful tool to getting a head start on a Real College.
Of course, if you’re already disillusioned with HS, a community college may not be for you, because it feels pretty much like HS all over again. At least mine did. Easy classes, still lived at home… Great money saver, though.
Jeff
Bottom line…if you want to do anything other than cleaning stuff, assembling stuff, or driving stuff around you generally need some kind of college degree.
Hmm…Once again, the better the school you go to, the more opportunity you’ll have in life. Besides, if you are halfway intelligent (and it sounds like you are) you will feel like community college is a waste of time.
I suggest taking a year off and figure out what you want to do in life. Then go to college. I don’t really buy into this whole idea that college is a place to “find yourself” and “study what interests you” unless that interest will land you a job after graduation.
Not really on topic, but you might want to try an occasional drink or roll in the sack. It sounds like you might be wound a little tight for college.
Because with few exceptions companies, NPO’s and the government don’t care how much you know or think you know; all they want is proof. Why should they bother going to great lengths testing you when they can get a certificate that prooved you already know your shi*. For many jobs you want there is going to be people better than you, people smarter than you, people with more experience, people more fluent in spanish, and people that are more charming, and they will all have degrees. Its not about can you do the job; its about how you can beat the other guys to it. If you want a job in international affairs ( You might not but thats what you seem to be interested) I can guarantee you will be competing with thousands of very bright and very talented people for three or four position.
Community college is basically 13th Grade, BUT so is freshman year anywhere really. It’s an inexpensive way to get your core curriculum out of the way (your English and History 1100s) and get a taste of college before going away. I have a good friend who went from a community college in Arkansas and managed to get into Princeton, so it’s really not going to hurt you and could save your parents thousands of dollars. However, fill out that FAFSA and check for scholarships first.
