RE: No, I'm not a college student. And here's why.
As you said the real issue here is the reason behind people going to college, not so much college education itself.
The main thing is for people to have some idea about what they want to do with their life.
By that I mean that they need to have a grasp about what keeps them interested and motivated in life. A job and money should be put on the back burner for a time while making this kind of decision.
Now college can be a fantastic way to get to learn the subjects that are of interest to us.
For example there are many students of physics who dream of understanding the mathematical laws of nature and maybe one day work for prestigious organisations like CERN or ESA. These jobs usually don't pay that well but that's not why many study this subject.
The other thing about college is that you get to meet other people with similar interests which can be really enriching.
But of course college is not for everybody and many people prefer to acquire less academic, more practical skills which is is as valuable in society as honorary degrees.
Maybe the issue lies more with 2nd level education and the failure to guide students in the direction that suits them best?
Of course it's never too late to go to college if one wants it but it is often the case that the opportunity lies at a young age because after that family life makes this endeavor much much harder.
Exactly. For example, here in Romania, everyone's going to Med school. If you ask any high school kid (or most of them,anyway), that's where they're going to go and it's not so much that they want to be of help, to be healers, but because of peer pressure. And because it's a job their parents can be proud of, which really is a silly reason, isn't it?
I see this in two of my friends, both at med school, one who actually wanted to go there and the other who just sot of went along with what everyone else was doing. The first one is doing well, succeeding, happy and so on and the other is getting more lost by the day and it's heartbreaking to see this confusion, to see her not knowing what she'd like to do with her life..
I agree there are benefits to going to college. To tell you the truth, one of the only reasons I thought of going was meeting people, but then I decided against it.
thank you!