The graduation rate for high school in the United States of America was 75 percent in 2009, meaning that 1 in 4 students fail to earn a diploma in four years, researchers found (nydailynews, np). Numerous students across the United States are striving to complete high school within 3 years or less. Some students are academically gifted or excited to graduate high school (Chen, np.) The student’s are more prepared mentally, have greater opportunities with scholarships and college applications and obtain a head start in their college careers, but only if more high schools adopted the early graduation format.
Throughout high school, many students are in AP (Advance Placement) classes or even in honors classes since they identity as potentially
…show more content…
Those students prepare to take a heavier work load while taking AP and honors classes. Several students just want to complete their education expeditiously in order to save money. The students who are 16 or 17 years old are sometimes even more mentally prepared than high school seniors because they already know what they want in life. Those students are proactive and take the necessary initiative to meet their individual goals. According to Rubenstone, it’s most important “…for those who have already exhausted the high school curriculum and have few challenges available”(n.p.). Usually, school principals think that it’s wiser for students to stay there all four years to prepare for college. Originally, high school had been designed to teach the basics over a four year period, even though many need all four years; not everyone does. According to the article “Early Graduation”, students who complete high school ahead of their peers are often seen as being advanced in both academics and social maturity in comparison to their peers …show more content…
Graduating early can grant scholarships that can pay college without having to take the government’s money. Scholarships are available in certain states to students that graduate early. In several states, students have been granted up to $5,000 when graduated early (Shellenbarger, np). In Arizona, a student is given a scholarship ranging between $1,000 and $1,200 for graduating high school early (CollegeToolKit n.p.). It’s possible to combine nearly all scholarships to make it easier for the student to cover the costs of college. Often, scholarships are available and rewarded to students who graduate high school early. Some people may not feel earning a scholarship is important, however, it is beneficial for the student because the government offers funding that could potentially cover a college semester tuition fee (Free Application for Federal Student Aid). Unfortunately, the cost of college can be more that the amount the government will provide. At Arizona State University, the annual tuition is approximately $5,000 per semester or $10,000 per year without taking summer courses (ASU Tuition Calculator). Still, Universities continue to be extremely expensive, even with the use of scholarships. Not only does graduating early help on scholarships, but even college applications (Liz Funk, np). Although people may assume being accepted into your choice university, it is not. However, the chances
As the economy evolves and the job market continues to get more competitive, it’s becoming harder to have a successful career without some kind of college degree. This creates a belief in many young students that college actually is a commodity, something they must have in order to have a good life. There’s many different factors that influence this mindset, high schools must push the importance of the student’s willingness and drive to further their education. College isn’t just a gateway to jobs, but it is an opportunity to increase knowledge and stretch and challenge the student which in return makes them a more rounded adult and provides them with skills they might lack prior to
From the beginning of high school, students strap on their seatbelts and prepare for one of the most vigorous races of their lives – becoming successful. With the rare occurrence of a break, kids are expected to keep on driving as fast and as powerfully as they can in order to get into a “great” college, which would be followed by graduate school and then an actual job that would make a lot of money. In American society, common values include working hard, determination, and being so productive that free time is not even a question. However, this philosophy is taking a major toll on American college and high school students. For at least 40 years, America’s future has been steadily growing unmotivated, tired, and hopeless due to the overemphasis on performing well in school. This phenomenon is appropriately expounded in William Zinsser’s “College Pressures”, which takes a look at the top four sources of tension that cause these feelings of dejection and agitation. After reading this article, I came up with a few solutions to this national problem. It is time to switch the harsh, over-encouraging green light of education to a comfortable yellow one. In order to make this ideal transition, directors of education across the country need to primarily reduce the amount of out-of-class assignments, lighten the grading system, and incorporate days in the school year that allow students to express their thoughts about school and provide useful feedback.
Graduating early is when you graduate before you are suppose to. It was never common because no one ever seemed to think about it or want to put in the work to do it. For a long time high school was defined as the best time of your life. Everyone who spoke to you always said when you left you would miss it. No one really wanted to graduate early for that reason. People wanted to cherish the time they had in high school because they knew they only got to go through it once. It was a big idea to live up to. Senior year has this belief attached to it. It means a lot to people because it is their last year of high school and it was upsetting to know that you’d be leaving the people you have spent the last four years with. People thought you had to have as much fun as possible in high school and do all kinds of crazy things before you turned 18: when you would be considered and punished as an adult. Now those times have changed. High school is not looked upon as the best times of your life anymore. It is looked upon in almost a negative way. High school has changed a lot and it is not very enjoyable now. There are lots of reasons why someone would want to graduate early. For instance, maybe the student was bullied, maybe the student decided they wanted to move on and go to college, maybe the student got sick of their home life and wanted to move forward, or like me, maybe the student has their future waiting for them and all they need is to graduate high school so they could begin it.
Society pushes today's youth towards higher education. The goal of grade school is to prepare the students for middle school. The goal of middle school is to prepare the students for high school. And finally the goal of high school is to prepare the students for college. The entire structure of education is to prepare youth for the next level of education. The problem with this system is that not all students are college material, as seen in the essay The Case Against College by Caroline Bird.
Society puts too much pressure on high school students to attend a 4-year college right after graduation. Though this is an attainable goal for some, a great majority of students are not fully prepared for the demands of college. 4-year schools require an incredible amount of maturity and preparation, leaving very little room for mistakes. Schools often overlook this aspect because their main goal is to get as many students into 4-year college as possible. This is a great goal to have however they send students off to college who aren’t ready to be handle the difficult of their courses while being away from home. My senior year of high school, my family and I came to the conclusion that we were not going to be able to afford four-year college tuition. This upset me at first because I felt like all my hard work and good grades went to waste. I dreaded the thought of going to community college because my who...
After years of education from K-12 there is still the question if a high school senior is academically prepared for college. Furthermore, it may be understandable for a concerned parent to pose this question but what about the student? In a survey of W.VA seniors, MMM MMM points out that “12.4 percent of survey respondents said they felt ‘very prepared’ for college, while . . . 10.7 percent felt they were ‘not prepared at all” (8). In these long years of education we expect students to be ready, but what does it mean to be ready for college? Needless to say, there is an issue with high school students being prepared for college. But in order to classify someone as being ready for college or not we have to come to a common understanding of what it means. A student that needs to take additional education to have the knowledge to be prosperous is not considered college ready (What Does College and Career Readiness Mean). When a High school senior leaves home and goes off to college he/she should have the potential to make all A’s throughout college. A student is college ready when he/she has acquired characteristics and skills from K-12, which include time management, perseverance, a drive to become successful, and a working knowledge of basic subjects: these can be reflected through, but not limited to, standardized test and the individuals GPA.
First of all, many high school graduates cannot handle college. Isabel V. Sawhill and Stephanie Owen describe college as a place, “one can obtain a traditional four-year bachelor’s degree”. The work load outside of the classroom could be compared to working a full time job. For example, if a student is enrolled in four college courses and is in class a minimum of four hours the student should spend at least four to six hours of studying. This may be extremely agitating and stressful to a student that is not good at studying. The new college student may realize that the schoolwork is too much for him to handle and instead drop out. In Pharinet’s blog post, Is College for Everyone? He states that “…it is estimated that in the U.S., approximately 50% of students who begin college never graduate. There exist students who are not yet ready for the academic and financial challenges of college. There exist students who do not have the desire for college or learning.” This statement is important because if 50% of students that begin college never gradua...
However, the question that does stand is if a college education is right for every high school student. From early education to secondary education, the belief that one can go anywhere from here and achieve whatever they set their minds to have been pounded into students heads. With these statements, there is always that underlying idea that these goals can only be achieved with the help of a college education, but this isn’t always the case. Counselors and teachers have been scouring the halls and classrooms in high schools encouraging the prospect of college while neglecting to offer other paths and choices that could fit a student better. Almost every person in this country can agree that school is a remarkable honor and something that is definitely not frowned upon, but the pressures to only look towards and pursue college could get in the way of what is best for a certain individual. By telling all students that they should attend college no matter the circumstances is potentially doing some of them a disservice
After high school majority of parents want their children to go to college, graduate, have a promising career and start a family and this is the American dream. Of course going to college will earn you a career and make you financial stable with certain jobs. To earn all those things you need to work even harder to achieve them. Going through four to eight years of college is exhausting and time consuming. There are a lot of stages you go through during college starting from high school. For me I can say that it has been a long journey but it is a well worth journey because of the reward I will receive in the end. In college financial aid, teachers, assignments, and classrooms are different from high school in a major way.
College preparation is not the only area in which schools are failing students. According to Achieve, Inc. (2005), 39% of high school graduates in the workforce say that they have deficiencies. When asked about being prepared for future jobs, forty-six percent say that they are deficient in the skills needed. These shortcomings in the education system will escalate when in the next 10 years, 80% of job openings will require education or training past the high school level (Achieve, 2010). One third of jobs will require a bachelor’s degree. Lower educational attainment is a national problem. Competing countries now boast more workers with associates degree...
to about 83 percent of high school graduates enroll in some form of postsecondary education, but only about 52 percent of students complete their degrees. Further, a very small proportion of students complete a degree in four years—“among students starting at ‘four-year’ institutions, only 34 percent finish a B.A. in four years, 64 percent within six years, and 69 percent within eight and a half years.” Colleges always want students to graduate and support their alma mater. However this begins with deciding what student are mentally readiness and determination for the task that lies ahead, college. In today’s society we struggle trying to find a proper definition for college readiness. This is the main reason statistics and graduation rates suffer in the way that they do. Just because a high school student reaches the age of 18, obtains a high school diploma, and has functional literacy, does that really make students college ready?
The purpose of a high school education is to prepare one for college and ultimately, the workforce. By the end of freshman year, in high school, the average student has learned a sufficient amount of material in enough subjects that he or she can be considered "well-rounded" in his or her studies. This is because the rate at which material is covered in schools, across the nation, has increased dramatically compared to the past. Students now learn more advanced curriculum at a younger age, and this continues to become more evident year after year. High school has now become more focused on teaching students a small amount of information on several essential subjects, rather than having them focus deeply on the subjects they seek to pursue in their career.
Many students take their high school years for granted and do not always pull off the best grades. But then when they get to college, or a higher degree of education than high school they start to straighten up. The reason being is because after high school everyone can choose what it is they want to spend the rest of their life doing. The classes they take, are of interest to them rather than all of the required ones in high school. For this reason I feel that students are more likely to take college seriously and not just because of the money.
American daily life is always changing. In the 1970s men dropping out of high school were still able to support their families and make a decent living. These days, dropping out of high school is practically economic suicide. In 2008 54% of high school dropouts were declared unemployed; this compared to only 13% of those with a degree (Dillon, P.1). In 2009 the average income for high school dropouts was less than half the wages earned by one with a four year college degree (Simmons P.1). In order to lower the high school drop out rates, that are negatively effecting America, the education system must consider alternative schooling methods and easier access to after school activities.
School plays an important role in our lives. Many people will spend more than fifteen years at school in order to get the qualifications that are required to work in a specific field. Those years are broken down into several levels, some of them being more enjoyable than others. Two very important levels that people go through are high school and college. Even though some think that these levels are almost the same, there are significant differences between them. The cost of high school is not the same as the cost of college. Also, some differences apply from an academic point of view. Typically, the social environment also differs from high school to college, which can be related to the question of freedom versus responsibility.