Different Degrees

Higher education used to be something that was expected of you, if you wanted to do anything meaningful in life and be a contributing member of society.  But I think that mindset has changed somewhat recently - I believe that fewer people are rushing to attend college straight out of high school, based on several different factors.

First, as previously stated, there's the money issue.  The basic truth at the core of higher education is that college is expensive as hell.  Most people can't simply say "I want to go to college", and then do so, without some sort of preparations.  Over the last several decade, there's been a notable increase in the number of people over the age of 21 who are enrolling in college.  I almost feel like it's become "normal" for people to work for a bit after graduating high school, in order to save up enough money so as to be able to (almost) afford college.

Next, there's the question of the necessity of a college degree for some people.  I'm going to use myself as an example for this, because I think I make a pretty damn good example.  I started working in retail immediately after I graduated high school, and that's about all I did for the next ten years.  I did start attending college briefly in 2006, but I didn't continue with it after I got a promotion at work.  I only recently stepped down from my position and resumed taking classes because I've grown tired of doing what I've been doing for the last ten years.  Had I wanted to, I'm sure I could have (fairly easily) continued to climb the corporate ladder of GameStop, and I honestly don't doubt that I could have been a district manager within the next year or so.  The notable thing about this is how far I've gotten (and how far I could've gone) without any sort of degree or anything.  For some fields, a degree of some kind is almost necessary - but if you're talented in what you do (and you enjoy doing it), it's not always a necessity.  I question, sometimes, why certain people are attending college - not because of any deficiencies on their part, or anything of the sort, but because they don't seem to need to do so.

Finally, my take on the environment of various places - truthfully, I don't see any change whatsoever in the environment of... well, anywhere.  I've been in college classes that include high school students, as well as older people.  Hell, when I took my ballroom dancing class, most of the "students" were over 30 years old.  It didn't really change anything.  People were there to learn, and that was all that I really cared about.  It was a nice change from high school, when people were there just because they had to be.