i think that college should begin to be something that starts when we’re 24 or 25. there are a lot of reasons for this, but the most important is that we probably don’t get serious about what we’re doing until then.

so often i find that friends and acquaintances are studying blindly. for those who don’t know, I currently attend a junior college. i have friends who do, did, and those who attend four years. i’ve been told about how rewarding going to a four-year college is and how great the experience is. friends met, etc.

excuse me?

four year colleges (especially with an on-campus dormitory) seem to have a focus of fun and entertainment as oppose to education. the origin of a dormitory (root word from latin/french/spanish whatever: dormir meaning to sleep) was simply a place for employees or the military to stay. the idea of it is to create an efficient and very well focused learning experience. living close on campus allowed for colleges to “advertise” to an entire nation without people fearing of a lack of living quarters.

all that said and done– is this necessary now? students are finding that dorms are often full and have to resort to living in apartments or homes in the city. can this be done from the start? well, at an age of 18 or 19, one may argue that a college freshman does not have the experience to go out looking for a place. good argument. let’s move on.

colleges from some communities have sort of become a requirement. especially in mine, going to a junior college or not even attending college was looked at as disgraceful. what i have found is that very few people research the colleges they apply to or even know what they’re going to be doing. myself included (at the time). in relation, colleges have been seperated on a hierarchy of status and intelligence, not focus of study. therefore, students (and especially parents) push to get into a well recognized school. this can be extremely detrimental, especially for an aspiring culinary artist who goes to Cal Tech or MIT because he or she learned that they were prestigious.

to bring my point back into light and to reiterate, young adults don’t know much about what they want to do. their focus when they get out of high school is to get into a good college and to make money. as that is the case, potential students select classes and dive into fields they know will really bring home the bacon. truth be told, a large majority are not interested or passionate in the major. these are those who will probably not end up with the high paying job they thought was automatic with a college degree.

fact: college graduates are paid more than high school graduates

good job, but let’s look between the lines. these numbers are average. for instance, if we have a hundred high school graduates and a hundred college graduates, and they ALL made the EXACT same amount of money except one. except one college graduate. the result is that college graduates make more. under this theory, there are college graduates who make the same or even less than high school graduates. it has nothing to do with your education, but your own self motivation. if you are working in something you hate, but it has a reputation for money– you’re in for a surprise.

granted, i cannot know this all from experience. i have not attended four years of any sort. however, the advantage of attending a junior college is the people you meet. it contrasts greatly to those at a four year. people at the junior college are typically older than me. i have met many that already have degrees. a milestone to my decision comes from a young man in one of my classes. he has obtained a degree (in an engineering field) at a four-year and is unable to put it to use. he attends the class with me and is currently looking to figure out what he wants to do for a living.

so in closing, i will wrap this all up in a neat little bun hopefully tying everything together for everyone. a lot of 18 and 19 year olds are not ready for college. they are inexperienced and cannot properly find housing for themselves. they are ready for fun; they want to go out and have fun and that’s what college sounds like to them. people who tell 18 and 19 year olds about their great college experience are teachers, people who haven’t gone out to look for a job in the industry yet, etc– professionals and extreme success stories RARELY have an opportunity to get their opinion out to students. by the time they realize they have made a bad decision, they have already spent thousands going the wrong way only to realise they will spend thousands more just to make that u-turn.

as a reference, i can use myself as an example. i lacked passion in my major coming out of high school. i could have gone to a four year or a community college, understanding that i could transfer later, i chose the community college. i decided i didn’t want to end up stuck at a four-year with the wrong major. nearly two years later, i have decided on a major and realised that HAD I GONE to that four year, i would have been quite dissapointed. unfortunately for young mnds, we feel there is a need to do jump straight into the band wagon and go to the best schools (for us, it was the UCs). i’m not planning to attend a UC and i am actually very unimpressed with their schools (but that’s something i will get into another time).