.
January 26, 2010
Jimmy Young
It’s been said that college education is the key to the door of success, but the journey comes at a price. Students are so caught up in schoolwork that they fail to see that college is an investment.
According to the College Board, attending UC Berkeley costs around $27,000 in 2009, which becomes $108,000 for four years. That means a student is investing $108,000 so that they will one day profit through a job.
Now, students graduate in five to six years because of lack of class vacancy and availability. The New York Times says UCLA has eliminated 165 courses, a full 10 percent reduction due to a $131 million budget shortfall. Although these financial issues have become a heavy weight, the more important issue is what college has become.
A philosophy major snickers as a plumber fixes his toilet only to be shocked by the outrageous bill. I’m not saying that all philosophy majors are jerks, but what makes the philosophy major feel superior over a plumber? His college degree.
A common misconception is that a job attained without a four-year college degree has little value. It’s been engrained into people’s minds that anything laborious is inefficient because working the brain is better than working the hands. It’s not like people sitting in their cubicles are much healthier.
In this age, high school students blindly jump into college. They believe that after acceptance, life can’t get any harder. College is the reward for those 17 years of work.
Everyone says “I can’t wait until I get into college!” but who will ever say “I can’t wait until after college!” College is just another brick wall. As professor Randy Pausch once said, “The brick walls in life are not there to stop you, they are there to show you how badly you want something.” Nowadays, people have been trying to smash these brick walls. It’s all because we all want to become “the one,” so we take various fields of AP classes to beef up our trimmed and glossed transcript. We all have family and friends who score high on standardized tests and excel in rigorous classes, which makes us wonder, “If they can do it, why can’t I?” However, students don’t realize that following a paved path doesn’t guarantee success—one has to find their individual talent.
“C’est la vie” means “this is life”. Drive your ambitions because life is short. Don’t force yourself into a hole where you can never crawl out. Trust me, because as of now, I’m a hypocrite.
This article originally appeared in print on Jan. 26, 2010. It has been modified to correct grammatical errors
Loading ...