“With youth unemployment in America at around 20 percent…”
“America has long prided itself on being a fair society, where everyone has an equal chance of getting ahead, but the statistics suggest otherwise: the chances of a poor citizen, or even a middle-class citizen, making it to the top in America are smaller than in many countries of Europe. The cards are stacked against them.”
Joseph E. Stiglitz; Of The 1%, By The 1%, For The 1%, p. 126; Vanity Fair, May 2011
Porn Actress "Pinky" acquired scholarships to attend college and turned them down for a career in stripping. If she wasn't doing porn, where would she be?
What is the purpose of going to college? To just get an education? To find your career? To prepare yourself for the change of the world? To satisfy your parents? Some go to college because it is a family tradition. Others go because it is their only way out of poverty. And when someone is in college, what experiences are they learning? Is it to accept everyone for who they are because of the immense variety of cultures, religions, and outlooks that occupy the campus? Is it accepting who you are because you discover that you are not the only one who thinks and looks like you do? What about enlightening yourself on information that was withheld from you in high school so that now you can go out into the world and make things better? And finally when that degree is sitting on your wall and you have entered the corporate world making a modest entry pay of 36,000 or more, how relevant do you feel that the education you paid 80,000 or more aided you in acquiring this job or any other business venture you may enter? How relevant do you feel that it is to life’s lessons and bourgeoning as a contributing citizen? How did something that took four-six hard years to earn develop your talent or even expose it? The vantage point on college varies depending on one’s future profession, the profession they’re in, and their background. And as a person goes through college their mind state on how important it is to them changes; for some it intensifies, for others it wanes.
It is no doubt that college changes your life like surgery; the four-six years of painstaking tests are arduous but when the degree is placed in your hand you are undeniably a smarter and more durable individual than before. It is impossible to come out of college and have the same thinking about business and people than before. College shapes you into a think tank, and the more involved you are in its extracurricular activities than the more outgoing, outspoken, and outright. But with all its glory and respect that comes with possessing a college degree, does the obstacles of entering and enduring college outweigh its merit?
More people have EXCUSES (depending on how you look at it) to why they do or did not go to college than they have viable reasons to go. To the three main questions asked in the opening paragraph, a negative answer comes out of the mouths of many American citizens. What is the purpose of going to college? “To just get an education.” “To prove that you’re better than everybody else who can’t afford it.” “To waste thousands of dollars on a degree you don’t need.” “There is no purpose. You can do the same thing by just getting a good job and working your way to the top.” The first step to go to college is having the right grades. Private institutions have seen an influx of students trying to squeeze into their venerable classrooms over the past decade. To get into these elite schools it takes elite grades which cannot be achieved by class clowns, rabble-rousers, and athletes depending on their skills to grant them college access. From the first day of 9th grade many students minds are not on what college they want to attend, so when the last two years of “get your grades up comes,” for many it is a do or die situation. So when a young person starts to see the college they want to attend drift away because of their FAILURE to reach the college’s caliber, peers around them drop out or dismiss a higher education, and people in the community around them living a faux luxurious life from working at the local warehouse, their perspective on the significance of a degree begins to fade. Everything then becomes achievable from the mind state of getting a good paying job while the leisure that they enjoy now as a high school student can still be experienced if they lounge around and barely make ends meet. The next phase to enter the golden gates is acquiring the thousands of dollars that it will take for a student to hold a certificate that says Bachelor’s, Master’s or Doctorate’s on it. This is where most of the momentum burns out for aspiring students. Teenagers coming from wealthy families never have to worry bout fronting the $100,000 bill for their universities, they just have to choose one. Middle-class and lower-class citizens on the other end make their college choices around the financial aid that is available to them and how much they can pay back. When faced with this obstacle the first thing that runs through a person’s mind is “I can’t afford college.” This belief leads them to go into fields that they are unhappy with or taking up a job that they become stuck at. After years of eking at these workplaces, either the burden of confinement settles on them and they want to go back to school or they just give up and put all their hope into their kids.
Now that a person has been accepted and money is in the bank, all that is needed is that they keep their grades above water for the next four-six years (the same thing asked of them since elementary). People at this point come up with a myriad of reasons why they drop out after taking a seat in a coveted school that another deserving person should have received. “Sitting in a classroom while I can be working is not for me.” “I don’t understand why we have to take classes that we don’t use in our field.” “It conflicts with my job schedule.” “I’m not a good study person and the tests were too hard. Things are on the test that I didn’t study for.” College challenges your critical thinking, patience, dedication, and creativity. Many each year stop coming to class because these challenges are HARD. And after four years of P.E., algebra and geometry, and passing notes to your girlfriend who wants to spend the NEXT four years taking even harder tests that require longer study periods? Many do not and this is what breaks them. There are people who love challenges but in general, PEOPLE WANT THINGS THAT COME EASY TO THEM, and A DEGREE IS NOT ONE OF THOSE THINGS. Since college is not required for basic jobs that pay a modest income, why strain your brain to receive the best living when you can receive an OK living just by working 40 hours a week making $400-$500? This is what is going through the minds of students whose grades are too low, family is poor, or cannot take the pressure of a fifty question Psychology test.
No one with a college degree is going to tell you not to go to college because they know of the life changing experiences that it will bring you. On the other hand those who did not go to college will tell you not to go or find an alternative to college because they are oblivious to the opportunities that will open for you once you have that degree. Only a small few who did not go to college will encourage a person to go because they do not want that person to go down the same cul de sac that they marched into. But just like everything else in life, the outlook on college comes from the aspirations of the person. The difference between a self-made millionaire and a proletariat is that the millionaire WANTED to become wealthy, which means if a person wanted to become smarter, they would do what it takes to accomplish that. There are three types of people in the world, and two of them go to college.
The first type is the MAGNATE; these are the sole proprietors, CEO’s, members of the C-Class, generals of Wall Street, titans of Hollywood, digerati of Silicon Valley, and strivers of perfection. Through high school they maintained a respectable GPA which granted them access to a vaunted college and then took their degree into their field and dominated. These people care about their future, their children’s future, the safety of their neighborhoods, their investments, America’s economy, international trade, politics, and discovering the latest techniques to out-perform their opponent. These people are very active in the community, politics, and activities going on in the city. And through their hard work and dedication these people take random vacations, enjoy a comfortable living, and have the freedom to enjoy leisures that the normal 9-5 employee does not.
The second type of person is the EMPLOYEE. Now some of these people go to college and others do not. This person is not so much concentrated on starting their own business or running the company. They have high aspirations of themselves and can see themselves working at a respectable level but only a few actually strive for it. Those who do go to college look for any type of work that is respectable to them and pays a comfortable income for their lifestyle. These people do not wish to become the next Donald Trump or Michael Bloomberg but want to hold a challenging position where they are rewarded accordingly. Those who do not go to college try to elevate through seniority and experience at their company and are willing to take a comfortable pay as long as they have just a little extra to cover them for weekend leisure. The Employee are people who will most likely retire from a company and live off their social security or whatever savings they have accumulated, where the Magnate will retire and live off their wealth and investments.
The last type of person is the VASSAL. These people care nothing about living comfortably, getting a college education, politics, investments, the safety of their hamlets, or their future. These people do not care what type of job they work at and do not care about elevating at their company. These people rarely vote in politics and are the most likely to condone violence in the neighborhood and littering. No community service is carried out by these people and day in and day out is the same thing for them. Monday through Friday these people do the same job, receive the same pay, and see the same people. Vacation is a luxury that rarely comes and when it does is bounded by the time they have spent at the company and not by the amount of work gleaned. Also vacation for them is not extravagant as the Magnate who may travel to another country for a month or two. Whatever laws the government passes the Vassal has to abide by because they almost never go to the polls to voice their opinion and do not wish to know what is even going on in the political world. The Vassal rarely reads on the latest innovations and even when they do, only a few are able to afford them by dissipating their entire paycheck on the invention. The Vassal dreams big but does nothing to pursue their velleity. These people gawk at the wealth of the Magnate and wonder how could someone become so rich while the Magnate stares at them and wonders how could someone want to be so poor. The Vassal has no business etiquette, ethics, or no-how and money managing skills. The Vassal is complacent working at a job at the age of 42 where a 16 yr. old can apply for and is comfortable with having a younger, less experienced college graduate as their boss, obverse of a Magnate or Employee, who needs an equal or higher educated person as their overseer. The Vassal, other than a child, is the least educated person on the planet. They are obsolete in the business world and are unable to carry on an intellectual conversation due their absentee of a higher education.
“In 2008, the median of the earnings of young adults with a bachelor's degree was $46,000, while the median was $36,000 for those with an associate's degree, $30,000 for those with a high school diploma or its equivalent, and $23,500 for those who did not earn a high school diploma or its equivalent.”
U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. (2010)http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=77
So as we have identified, the hurdles of being accepted into college, paying tuition, and maintaining above a 3.0 GPA for four years is daunting to the aspiring Seminole, Gator, or Bruin. And if that person falls in the Employee or Vassal bracket then that person may not even give themselves a chance to see how far they can go and achieve. But through it all statistics have shown that people with Bachelor’s degrees make 53% more than high school graduates. People with Master’s degrees make 20% more than people with Bachelor’s degrees, and people with Doctorate’s degrees can make a million dollars more than everyone under them. So if a person is looking for wealth, STATISTICALLY, college is the only way to go.
