If college is the right path for everyone and part of the American dream, what reasons might a person have when deciding to go straight into the workforce instead?
I know that money is the deciding factor for most families when deciding to send their kids to college.
Is it wrong to penalize the people that are denied jobs because they lack a college/university level degree?
It isn’t fair that in order to get a degree people need to make money, but then they aren’t given a job without having a degree.
According to the New York Times, as of 2014, 65.9 percent of students who graduated from high school the previous spring had enrolled in college, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said.
This had been lower than the year before when it was at 66.2 percent. Unless a student is paying for school out of pocket and working a job on the side, going to college seems only possible with the help of parents or a scholarship.
To add from the same article, the bureau reported that 51 percent of students who decided not to go to college had jobs by October.
Even though some people may not go to college after school, many people go into a trade and still get an education to focus on a certain area.
If someone knows exactly what they want to do, whether it’s beauty school or engineering, I think that going straight into the trade is a great opportunity.
A big reason people choose not to go to college is that they don’t know what they want to study. I know for me I wasn’t sure exactly what I wanted to study and felt pressured to figure it out.
I knew I didn’t need to know right away what I wanted to study, but I wanted to have some idea so that I didn’t feel like I would be wasting money and time by going to college.
Another option for those who do not want to attend college may be to join a branch of the military.
RAND researchers surveyed 5,373 recruits in 2008 and 2009 from five basic training bases for the Army, according to rand.org. “Eighty-three percent of the recruits had a close family member who served in the military and almost half had a close family member who had retired from the military” said the RAND survey.
This is a great reason why some choose to join the military.
They have been influenced by their loved ones and it may be a family tradition to join instead of attending college.
My parents have always stressed the importance of college and that it is important when trying to get a job.
Life leads everyone in a different path and college was what was right for me.
Even if college isn’t the right choice straight out of high school, many people choose to go later in life when time and money is more accessible.
It’s not so much about when you decide what to do with your life, it’s more about what you decide to do.
According to college.usatoday.com, a report from Degrees of Opportunity showed that 38 percent of the 17.6 million undergraduates enrolled in higher education in 2011 were over 25 years old.
Even if commuting to college isn’t an option, online courses may be.
According to a University of Phoenix survey, 48 percent of Americans say they are currently enrolled or plan on taking an online class.
The survey showed that 58 percent of adults ages 35 to 44 plan to take an online course.
The fact that online education is offered is great especially for the people who want to continue their education, but can’t find the time to commute to a school.
Bill Gates never completed college and he’s getting along extremely well.
College may not be for everyone, but I do believe that it is important to be a hard worker and dedicated when going through life.
Money and experiences can’t always be handed over.
Heather O’Brien can be contacted at hobrien@kscequinox.com
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