Brushfire of Freedom
Voice of Adams
by Babe in the Woods
It’s been rather quiet around here, I noticed. I’ve watched as friends trickled away one by one to their new colleges, new opportunities, new lives. ‘Tis the season of saying goodbye to all of our college-bound students. If there’s one thing I absolutely hate doing, it’s saying goodbye, and the only reason I contain this selfishness is because I know that a) I’ll be doing the same soon anyways, and b) they’re off to get educations that will enable them to do great things with their lives.
That being said, there’s more and more kids now making the decision not to go to college. In 2004, 40% of low-income kids went on to a four year college, a number reduced from 54% in 1992. Personally, I think the decision to not go to college is a great one as well. Pop culture has fueled a mentality that everybody has to go to a four year college after high school to make good lives for themselves. In reality, this is far from accurate. Too many people end up buried in student loans and only begin to realize while in their Economics 101 class that there was a cost-benefit analysis that should have been considered before entering college. Is all this debt really worth a degree? And don’t get me wrong; a lot of the time the answer is yes, and plenty other times the debt is reduced with scholarships and other financial aid. But there are plenty of jobs for which a college degree would be completely unnecessary, and we’ll always need people to work those jobs too.
With the recent recession, people have been more and more considerate of how they spend their money, and the same has held true for the big ticket items like college. One of my friends was accepted to a state college but recently started considering other options, like joining the military. I have to say, I was quite proud of her for really thinking things through. “I’m just not sure what I want to do yet,” she explained. I think there’s a good point to be made with this statement; college is a very expensive time-killer if you’re really unsure about your future.
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