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The formula for success in life is go to college, get a job, makes tons of dough and live happily ever after, right? Are you skeptical that it's so simple, but think the dream doesn't sound so bad? Well, join the club, sister. Most graduating high school students are just like you: a little confused, a little scared, but all in all a more than a little psyched for college. But who wants to commit the next four years of her young life to something without knowing just why she's doing it? Knowing the benefits of what you're signing up for before you ever set foot in the gym for your first college fair is the only way to make this decision with a clear conscience.
Everything your mom told you about college was…
…probably riddled with some pretty dated references, but still pretty dead-on in its logic. But let's get a couple of the really obvious things out of the way. College has changed quite a bit from the days your parents were working toward their degrees, or decided not to attend. So ingest their advice, but gluttonously supplement it with your own research. First, there has been a population explosion of college students, and since 1980 the numbers of high school students enrolled in college preparatory work has doubled. Take an even closer look and you'll find that the African American and Latino college student populations from both have nearly tripled in that same span of time. Why are so many more people going to college? There are way too many reasons to list them all, but a couple of the most important are that our economy is now information-based, requiring workers to have skills that they don't have the opportunity or the time to gain in high school, and that these days, in a given year, college grads earn an average of $14,000 more each year than high school graduates. That's an average. Sure, there are tons of exceptional people who don't finish or even go to college and still end up making scads of money, but those people are exceptions. If you're a genius, great. Go and start a billion-dollar company or keep writing your lyrics and laying down your beats. Most of us, though, are regular, reasonably smart people. And reasonably smart people need reasons to make decisions. College gives you an average of 14,000 of them.
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Next Steps |
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 Use Counselor-O-Matic to Find Your Good Match Schools |
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Find Out How You Can Let Your Dream School Contact You |
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Explore College Majors |
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Try a FREE Full-Length Practice SAT |
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See How the Colleges Stack Up: Best 351 College Rankings |
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But I Don't Know What I Want To Be When I Grow Up!
Who does, really? That's why one of the goals of any honest four year college is to expose students to lots of different ideas. (That's the implicit structure of a liberal arts curriculum, after all). In such a model, students are required to be just that: students. Taking many different courses in a range of subjects allows you to learn about ideas you might not have explored before, or let you dive in-depth into coursework you might have begun in high school. The result is that you start to see possibilities of what you might do with your life. While being exposed to all of these ideas, you'll also be gaining skills that will allow you to pursue any of those possibilities after you pick up your degree. And if a college degree gives you anything in terms of the "real world," it's a range of possible career paths. You won't be limited to cutting grass, washing cars and babysitting for the rest of your days, and you still won't have to decide what you want to be, even when you all are grown up.
Yeah, but how can a college degree really get all that for me?
As corny and unpractical as it sounds, being a college student has huge intellectual advantages. College students learn to think analytically, and they can apply that skill to anything, from political issues to a technical project. More importantly, they learn the tools needed to express and at many times challenge popular thought. But it doesn't stop there. Your confidence level will blossom when you take advantage of the sick internship and study abroad opportunities and the greatest social scene EVER! It'd be silly to go to college for the social perks alone, but don't sell short the friendships, significant-otherships and professional contacts you can pick up in college. Ask any college grad about their undergraduate years, and they'll probably be just as quick to tell you about late night conversations with new and quickly close friends, as they are to cite their quirkiest professors.
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Related Links |
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Specifics to Consider When Choosing A College |
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The Numbers Game |
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Picking A College: How Important Is Location? |
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Preparing for the Barrage: Junior Year |
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BUY THE BOOK: The Best 351 Colleges, 2004 Edition |
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Let's not cheapen the independence factor, either. Although college campuses might be a bit more of a controlled environment than, let's say, Baghdad, independence and freedom still reign king, with no pesky parents peeking in. For most, living at school is the first time they will be away from home for any extended time. And with that sweet freedom comes humbling responsibility, sometimes a sense of looming uncertainty, but waves of palpable excitement. All this readies you, whether you are aware of it or not, to forge your own way in the big, bad world.
But Will I Get a Job?
Colleges are plugged in. Companies flock to college campuses to recruit soon-to-be graduates. Want proof? Go to the career services center on College A's website, or better yet, visit the campus and ask to spend a couple of minutes in the career planning office. Consider yourself warned when we say, "Be prepared for an earful." Rightfully so, too. Career offices are one-stop shops to help students learn the nuts and bolts of writing a resume and acing interviews, but they serve a much broader base of undergrads from each class. From securing your first almightily internship to receiving a fair signing bonus, the options that a career planning office can give a student are a leg-up on those who may choose to navigate the system on their own.
Access - UNLIMITED
Whether you know it or not, your life as a networker begins with your junior year in high school. Making connections, learning where you fit in, and understanding how others got to where they are all factors in your research into finding what it is that you'd like to do with your life. Learning about college and deciding whether it's the right decision for you is just one more step in this process. We think it's a really good step for lots of people and feel confident that the access college students and graduates get to advanced schooling, career prospects and interpersonal relationships are so attractive, they're nearly priceless.
Luckily, it's never been easier to find out about college. Bushie or Clintonite, urban hipster or organic farmer: don't worry. There's a school for you. Once you decide that you want to go to college, for you and not for someone else, the rest gets easier, and certainly a lot more fun.
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