What’s Next?
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
- Robert Frost, The Road Not Taken
I started studying for the SAT when I was in 5th grade. I knew that I was going to go to college. By the end of elementary school, I already knew what my road ahead looked like. I was going to get good grades in high school, score high on the SAT, and then get into a good college.
For many of my peers and many students across the world, the path I just mentioned above is familiar. But this wasn’t a road that we necessarily got to choose to take. Rather, it felt more thrust upon us as our only option. And I’m not going to say that this is all bad. I can say that college contained some of the best memories I’ve had so far in my life and that I have made some of my best friends here. But not everyone can say that.
And not everyone can say that because college was not meant for every single student.
In a study done by the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, it is shown that each year from 2009 - 2017, over 20% of first-year college students do not continue their studies into a second year. This means that hundreds of thousands of students pay for schooling every year just to leave and not return. And that can be so detrimental. I know for me, even as an in-state college student, I still paid 12k a year in tuition alone. Add in housing and food and it’s closer to 20k or 25k for a whole year of schooling. Even just community college which may just cost 1k to 3k a year, that’s still a good amount of money. That’s several months of rent and food or money they could have invested.
And more so than that, there’s also a good amount of time wasted. In most people’s freshman year, they tend to take prerequisite or remedial courses. These are broader courses that don’t leave students with a marketable skill set, just a basic one if one at all.
And again, this happens because I believe that college isn’t meant for everyone. So what ends up happening is we send a bunch of students who aren’t the best fit for this system into it, let them waste their time and money, and let them drop out being none for the better.
I believe this happens because students end up feeling like this is their only option if they want to move forward in their life. College has done a spectacular job at marketing itself as being the key to success. And it’s true that many jobs these days require higher levels of education, but some jobs require more education not even college can give them. Trade or vocational schools are a great example of one. I for one have very little car or plumbing knowledge. If I have issues in either of those areas, you know I’m going to someone or calling someone who has much more knowledge and training. And these are not typical fields that you go to college for, yet they have stable jobs that pay well.
And the list is so much more than just plumbing and auto repair. Cooking, welding, carpentry, technicians are all other things you can go to trade or vocational school. These tend to be less than four years of education but give people a solid skillset and a chance at a higher paying job. And what’s more, we have seen people become quite successful through social media alone. Influencers and content creators have the potential to make so much money so why do we still discredit them as phases or child’s play?
And again, in the same way that college isn’t for everyone, these aren’t for everyone either. But for our current students, it’s about letting them know they have options. Life is not a one-path thing that every single person follows. They are allowed to have their own wants and understandings of what they want to be and what they want to do. And as future parents, guardians, caretakers, mentors, or educators, we have to work to help support these students.
