Now that I am in my senior year of highschool I seem to be getting asked which post-secondary institute I will be attending quite a lot. This is normally a pretty casual conversation starter between students and faculty, but I can’t help but get a little timid when I tell them that I will be staying another year in high school, this got me thinking. Are students being too pressured to attend post-secondary? I think that there is a lot of pressure on high school students to pick a higher education, and it’s starting to make a lot of them stressed out. College tuition is already at such a high cost that it would be very detrimental if a student were to change their mind, often leaving them in insurmountable debt. And, there is often this stigma about students taking a year off before they head off to college or university, this again adds the the pressure to attend post-secondary. Finally, I feel that having a high school student pick a possible future occupation while they are still not sure what it is that they want in life. A side note, many teachers tell me that you don’t go to college to have job security later in life, but rather that you go to college to learn skills; the opposite is so ingrained in my student head that I feel that I have to go to school so I don’t fail in life. With all of this going on, colleges are getting ever harder to gain admission to. When it comes to picking a post-secondary option a lot of what students think about is whether or not it caters to what they want out of a school, but what look for in a school is whether or not it is affordable for me. I might be just an outlier when it comes to that, but it really makes me anxious about whether or not I will be in debt for all of my life. And accord... ... middle of paper ... ...el really pressured, and maybe even slightly defeated in the post-secondary race. Not only do the students of today have to deal with their teachers strongly encouraging them to attend college or university, and the stress of having to juggle high school exams, a summer job, and a college application all in a short time span. Alongside their mental health deteriorating, they have to deal with the rising cost of tuition and the higher cost of living standards. Additionally the colleges themselves are actually getting harder to become accepted into. All of these things can really put pressure on someone who is considered an adult, but is still required to ask someone if they can use the washroom. This is why I feel that the students of today are being a little too pressured to make a major life choice, while they are still not sure what they even want in life.
... a lot of pressure on high school graduates by parents and employers to get a degree if they want to make something of themselves. After being in the workforce over twenty-five years, I have experience well as qualifications that should make me more desirable than the twenty-two year old with little work experience. If he has a diploma, he will get the job before me almost every single time. That is why I am back in college after all these years. Attending college is a choice that anyone can make with their loved ones advice. Sit down with someone who knows you and write down your dreams and desires. Figure out what you would like to accomplish in life and investigate if you have a case for or against college.
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
Many high school students are unsure or do not want to attend a four year college. These students feel pressured into doing something they do not want to do because the expectations of high school students is to set off for college to become successful in life. Adults paint the picture that without college education young adults will be failures. Adults believe college will make you superior and an automatic success. But that is an incorrect statement. A hand full of students who attend college eventually drop out for many reasons. Some students do not like the campus they are on because it is too distant from home. Maybe they do not like the community or professors that are present at the university. They become homesick
Individuals are struggling nowadays to acquire an education higher than a high school diploma. One of the main reasons for this issue could be very well the price it is to attend college. The prices have skyrocketed throughout the years. A lot of the people who attend college have to take out a “student loan,” just so they can get by. I believe one should not need to be in serious debt before they even graduate, all because they want to go out and further their education, and become successful in their life. College is a popular topic for most and Sanford J. Ungar and Charles Murray has a unique way of explaining both their opinions.
Once a person graduates from high school they are left with a difficult decision, wither to go to college or not. Some families this is not an option, their kid will go no matter what, but many students do not want to go to school and have so much student debt by the time they finish that they will have to pay off that they decide that college is not worth it. According to Craig Smith in his article in Education Digest he says, “too many families cannot afford to send their children to college so the student is left with making the decision on wither to go to college and collect debt or just skip college altogether” (Smith 42). He has a good point. Too many students feel like they have to pay so much yet they are not really getting much out of it. Smith later on in his article states, “We must stop balancing our state and institutional budgets on the backs of students and families” (Smith 46). School should not be all about money, it should be about helping the students get the education that they need so they can make it out in the big world. If a student is so worried about how they are going to pay their school bill they are not going to be focusing on their class work and 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.
The main reason why people go to college is not because they want to but because they have to. Most high school seniors are pressured by their guidance counselors and parents to go to college because it is "the right thing to do." In the essay that Caroline Bird wrote "College is a Waste of Time and Money", she states that students go to college because " . . . Mother wanted them to go, or some other reason entirely irrelevant to the course of studies for which college is supposedly organized." (481) The student may have different ideas about what he or she wants to do in life, but because they think that these "mentors" know what is best for them, they probably end up doing something they do not want to do, resulting in being miserable and resentful.
Graduating High school is a milestone for many, it’s a step into the world full of opportunities and the next step to pursuing higher education. Many students begin the process of figuring out what college they would like to attend prior to even graduating, this is something that is instilled in students all throughout their years of schooling. Most high school students know what college they want to in their junior year of high school, while others conduct extensive research. Students want to attend a school that they can call their second home, especially because some students move away from home to pursue further education. Although Mark Edmundson has noted that higher education caters to consumerist tendencies of students, he has overlooked
As students near the end of the academic year, they are constantly faced with some of the same choices the generations before them have been presented with too. The biggest question a lot of seniors in high school have to answer is if they are going to be attending college or not. There are a lot of legitimate reasons as to why a person might not attend a college, but I personally feel like everybody should have a higher education if they have the opportunity to do so. One of the biggest reasons that people do not have the opportunity to pursue higher levels of school is the fact that they do not have enough money to pay for it. With the staggering amount of debt, the majority of students incur in college, it is becoming a
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
We all have to go to school as it is mandatory by law until we graduate from twelfth grade. However, after high school the options seem endless, and the choices are overwhelming. Young graduates can go to a community college to take advantage of the free tuition for two years and then move to a university after that. They also may forge ahead and go straight to a university to begin to pursue their future career. They may choose to go straight into the workforce. My father took this path, and he has been successful and supports our family well. There are many success stories of people who have chosen from these different paths indicating that there is really not a wrong choice. Some people think that going to college isn’t worth the
Whether that be our parents wanting his or her child to become a doctor because it’s a good paying job or the influences around us telling us to be an engineer or lawyer because they’re the jobs that make the most money. Even though those jobs are well payed, that doesn’t mean people will actually enjoy doing it. A recent survey suggests that when people are asked “What they plan on being when they're older”, they say either an engineer, lawyer or doctor but then they were asked “What would you be if you could choose any job in the world” and most of the people that were surveyed changed their mind and they said something different. The bottom line is to follow your dreams, and don’t let anything change that. If you let society choose your course, then chances are that you won’t be doing something that you’ll enjoy.
From stress to the biggest factor being money, a lot of variables point to college not being the answer after high school. One of my biggest takeaways was the book I used. For a former secretary of education to write an entire novel about why people should not go to college really resonated with me. Perhaps down the road the system will change for the better and a college degree will be more worth the economic investment and the stress. As well as creativity being put back into the minds of millions of teens who are killing theirs with all of the school work they do and lecture hall presentations they attend. The many issues within colleges across the country have many people asking the question “Is college still worth
To begin something new, you must sacrifice something old. To enter the real world, you must graduate your childhood.