Higher Education IS Worth the Price
When most people are handed their
high school diploma, they usually have two choices; enter the workforce and
begin making a living for themselves or go into higher education. It’s a choice
between begin making money now or pay money for a few years and possible make
more money afterwards. Although the first choice may seem logical at times, it
might not always be the best choice to make. There are many reasons why higher education is worth the price, such as
the knowledge gained, a chance to get a better job with a better pay, and
gaining an experience that people can get nowhere else.
Furthering one’s education is always
a way to gain more knowledge and broaden one’s mind. This is the reason for
higher education having general classes that everyone must complete, such as
speech, mathematics, and physical sciences. These classes may have nothing to
do with one’s major and career path but they do broaden their minds. Sanford J.
Ungar said in his essay The New Liberal
Arts, “It promotes the idea of listening to all points of view and not
relying on a single ideology, and examining all approaches to solving a problem
rather than assuming one technique or perspective has all the answers.” (194)
Broadening one’s mind is important
for any career. It helps to make a person an individual rather than just
another person. Having different people in a career can bring different ideas
and then a better outcome in whatever people are working on in their career.
Becoming an individual can also set one apart from others when applying for a
job, thus, having them get the job for being different.
Furthering one’s education can open up
new career opportunities for them. This is one of the main reasons for having
higher education; to prepare one’s self for a future career. My degree in
higher education is preparing me to teach music to children of all ages. This
is something I wouldn’t be able to do if I wasn’t going to school; this is a
career where I must be prepared properly before I go and do it.
Although degrees for higher education
are usually specific to one’s future career, they can do more with their degree
than just what it is specifically for. There are some careers where all one
needs is a bachelor’s degree. Charles Murray said in his essay Are Too Many People Going to College?,
“Employers value the B.A. because it is a no-cost (for them) screening device
for academic ability and perseverance.” (233)
Here is an example from my life: I am
majoring in music education and hope to teach a high school band someday. I
realize, though, there are not always positions open for that so I should look into
other career possibilities just in case I can’t find a job when I graduate from
college. One of my other interests sparked an idea for a back-up career. The
Boy Scouts of America needs people to work for them and there are usually
positions open. One of their requirements is to have graduated from college
with a bachelor’s degree. The employers don’t care about the specific degree one
has earned, they just want people who have graduated from college.
Anyone who has gone to college, even if
it was for only a semester or two, can say it was an experience they couldn’t
have had anywhere else. It’s a place of learning but on more levels than people
think. It can be a real eye opener for some people when they get there. College
life is a completely new lifestyle than what it was when they were in high
school and while they were living with their parents.
College changes young adults by making
them take care of themselves. As Dave Berry said in his article The First-Year College Experience, “You'll
also be on your own, your own boss (more or less) 24 hours a day.” They will
need to be responsible enough to do many things at college such as get to
class, get their work done on time, eat healthy, make good choices, etc. their
lives are suddenly very different from what it was in high school and they will
need to adjust. The sudden transition can be very beneficial but can also turn
out to be bad.
College can also be a place where people
decide to act really immature because they are away from their parents. Because
of the lack of parents there tends to be more “rebellious’ behavior from the
young adults, such as over-consumption of alcohol, drug use, and multiple sex
partners. My first experience with a drunk person was in the evening after the second
day of classes of my freshman year. It was a very strange experience for me,
and I was not looking forward to another one. I knew I was going to dread
weekends after football games and especially Hobo Day, my college’s homecoming.
Even a crappy moment like that opened my
eyes to the real world. I knew I was going to meet people like that my whole
life and that I was going to have to deal with them. College does that to
people. It makes them realize more and more that life is going to be hard.
People will not always be nice; there will be times where money is short and
nothing seems to be going their way. The thing to remember is that they have to
push through and keep going. Life is going to be like writing a ten page paper
the night before it is due; it’s going to be long and hard but worth it in the
end when they get that”A.”
The college experience has its ups and
downs but it is worth it in the long run. It costs a lot of money in the
short-term, but the long-term benefits of a better job and further knowledge out-weigh
the money any day. I can’t wait to leave college to get away from some of the
problems, but I also know I will miss these years when they are gone.
Work Cited
Berry, Dave. "The First-Year College
Experience." College Confidential.
Dave Berry, 2011. Web. September
24, 2013.
Graff, Gerald, Cathy Birkenstein, and Russel Durst, eds. "They
Say/ I Say": The Moves That Matter
in Academic Writing: With Readings.
2nd ed. New York: Norton, 2012. Print.
Murray, Charles. "Are Too Many People Going to
College?" Graff, Birkenstein, and Durst. 222-42. Print.
Ungar, Sanford J. "The New Liberal Arts." Graff,
Birkenstein, and Durst. 190-97. Print.
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