Going to college no longer has the same meaning it once did.

Presently, students are taught from a young age that you must go to college to get a degree and find a good paying job. Applying for college and preparing to enter has almost become a robotic process. You plan your entire life around the principle that you must pick a degree that will get you a well paying and highly desired job. Teachers and parents accentuate the idea that you will not succeed if you do not attend college. It seems like what we are hearing as students is that college is not for learning and discovering, its about getting a good job as soon as you can.

In grade school and on into high school, learning is mechanical. You are taught to trust your teacher and do what they say. They are wiser and are specialists in their profession; thus, they know more than you do. What you are learning is the basics of learning itself. You are learning simple instructions to prepare you for life outside of school. You are taught strictly what you need to function as normal human being and to be able to survive outside of school. They aren’t preparing you for continuing education, you are taught according to guidelines exactly what you need to get a diploma. Now does that not sound like what college has become? You enter college and learn the minimum you need for obtaining a degree and finding a job in your specific field. We seem to decide on a career before we even know the classes we have to take for it, because we are told what degree or field would be most desirable when looking for a job. Students start taking their classes and begin to fight with themselves. Should I choose a new major that I would love and run the risk of not finding a great paying job immediately, or stick with my chosen major that although I do not enjoy, will secure me a great job after graduation? Most pick the latter. It is sad that this is what our world of education has come to.

We have all lost sight of what college really is. College is for students with a passion to learn, to succeed, to educate their minds, to think for themselves, and to discover who we are as an individual. Yes we go to college to receive a degree and hopefully enter the job market as a better and more knowledgeable candidate than before, but its so much more than that. It is to prepare us for the world in which we live. It is to broaden our horizons and soak up the information we are learning to become better functioning human beings, not employees. The idea behind college is to enlighten ourselves with the wealth of information that is available to us, not to only learn as much as you need to get a job.

I blame this discrepancy on the colleges and universities themselves. They insist you must attend if you want to succeed in life, and yet demand that you pay ridiculously unaffordable fees to attend. Why would you push people to pay so much money, if it is a requirement for survival? My answer to that is simply, greed. Colleges and universities are training everyone to believe that attending college is so vital to survival that they can charge whatever they want, because they know people will pay. However, college is not a necessity. Food and shelter are necessities. They make us believe that money designated for nourishment and housing, is needed just as much as attending college. When in reality, I believe college is a choice, a luxury, and only for those with a desire to learn. In order for their ideals to make more sense, they must either keep college expensive and explain that is for only those who truly have a passion to learn, or make it affordable to all and keep the principle that it is a necessity for success.

Obviously, college used to be the place to discover yourself. The place you go to find out what you want to do with your life. A place for students to live, eat, and breathe learning. A place where after opening your mind to the thousands of possibilities, you could finally pick something that suited your desires, specialize in, and obtain a degree to secure a job that will make you happy upon graduation.

College was once for those with a passion to learn. College is now just a place for those who have a passion to get a job.