Obtaining vs. Maintaining Higher Education

In a short-term sense, higher education is now more accessible than it ever has been before with the increasing accessibility of financial aid and opportunities to attend community colleges before transferring to more expensive and often more academically rigorous four-year schools.  But in a long-term sense, higher education may be becoming less accessible, because students’ loans and grants aren’t always enough to reasonably assist them in covering the rising tuition and supply costs they face.  Also, it often takes years to pay back student loans once one graduates and begins working full time.  A lot of people just don’t think that getting a higher education is worth it if they need to go this deeply into the financial hole to do so, especially in our present economy where many college graduates have a difficult time finding employment.  It seems like today, a higher education is more accessible to obtain but less accessible to maintain.

Years ago, the students who had a passion for learning were the ones who attended college (yes, they usually came from families of good means, but this also occurred during a time when achieving a higher education post- high school wasn’t expected of most.)  However, during this time, people could find decent, well-paying jobs that only required them to have a high school diploma.  But, we’ve gone through some drastic societal changes since then, and this is no longer the case.  But I’m starting to digress…    

Even there are many opportunities to enter into an institution of higher learning; many find themselves unable to complete their higher education, mostly either for monetary reasons or because they were unprepared to work at the level expected.  This is a big problem in our society where the majority of students feel as though they are expected to, or should go to college in order to find a job with a salary they can reasonably live and raise a family on.  I know that money is still a glaring issue, and there aren’t any cure-all solutions that I can think of to suggest.  However, to help fix this, our high schools need to challenge students more and the students need to rise to the challenge; maybe this would help to better prepare students to achieve long-term success in a higher education setting.  The primary point I wanted to make is even though we have ways of making a higher education more obtainable to students, we should be more concerned with making it more maintainable, and the best and fairest way I can think of to do this is by offering students the best education possible at the primary and secondary levels with the hope that they strive to succeed at these levels which prepare them for a future in higher education.

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.

Education for all!

As I may have mentioned before, my plan for my life is to become a teacher. I'm a firm believer in the idea that everyone has the capacity to try and at least somewhat succeed in school, and that regardless of career path, everyone should strive to be a life-long learner. That being said, my opinions on this week's topic may seem a bit predictable.

As Laura mentioned, Germany allows for (more or less) higher education paid for by the government/taxes. I think this is one of the best ideas that anyone has ever had. The biggest issue standing between people that want to contribute to society through some means that requires an education is the fact that most people can't afford to take four years to just take classes and focus on them. Most people that go to college in the US have to either a) get their financially well-off parents to foot the bill, b) take out a metric fuckton of student loans that they will likely never be able to fully pay off, c) somehow end up with scholarships to pay for everything, or d) work the entire time they're in school in a way that'll drastically slow down the pace that they can progress at.

Honestly, the fact that society expects everybody to have a degree before they can work any kind of job is more than a bit of a problem. But let's imagine for a second that we could eliminate that issue and provide government-paid higher education. The people that don't need to go on with their education to get into the field that they want to get into wouldn't bother with it if they didn't feel like it was necessary. Suddenly, that massive clog in the system is gone, and the people left at colleges are the people that really want to be there.

I think it would do our country a lot of good to allow people to continue their education without it being a financial concern. Just because it isn't necessary for their job, that doesn't mean that it can't be a contributing factor to being a well-rounded person. I might be veering into territory that's much too idealistic, but as everyone here knows, getting a college education is about more than career training. It's about being better prepared to interact with the real world. It's about absorbing as much new information as you can. It's about exposing yourself to different ideas that make you question the way you look at the world and really consider whether or not your way of thinking is right.

And isn't that what we all really want our society to be like?

Maybe too Accessible?

Since most of us contributing to this blog are students, it should not be surprising that the topic of education comes up again and again, because it is a topic we are deeply familiar. This week then, we're tackling the accessibility of higher education. I think this goes hand in hand with our earlier topic about education alternatives, because the accessibility affects how or why we might seek alternatives.

In my mind college is more accessible now than ever, in part because it feels like society has it as practically a requirement for succeeding in this world. And of course the easy nature in which one can acquire student loans, which can leave a person in debt for years after they graduate. And with the number of community colleges, online universities catering to the people who couldn't normally complete college, and schools worrying about funds and pushing to accept more students, it is hard for someone not to find a college that will accept them.

Now, its nice that anyway could theoretically go to college, but I do not think the increased accessibility is a good thing. It first and foremost puts a pressure on people to have to go to college, when (as I've stated before) I do not that that should be the case for all career paths. It puts people into more debt, makes them spend more money than they need to be trained in that field. And if everyone is going to college, and so many people are amassing student debt, I do see a crisis in our future for all those people that have trouble paying their student loans. After all, there was (I can't remember if there still is) a debate by Congress on whether or not to let the interest rates on student loans increase. Well, it felt less like a debate and more like a struggle for each side to get what they want, including the same interest rates.

College has become the norm. College has become the future everyone has seen themselves having, and I think in some part because everyone is going to college, a college degree isn't "worth" as much anyway. You have to do more to stand out and get that job than just a diploma. Part of it is of course the recession, but to some degree the ability of anyone to get a degree dilutes the value of all.

Of course, I'm not saying we shouldn't let people get a college education. The American Dream lives on in the college education. But this is of course when you start to enter the "alternatives" debate and that would be an entirely different post. Basically I think college is too expensive and too accessible, though of course making it less accessible would probably make it more expensive, so I do not think there's any chance of my perceived issue being solved in the near future.

Though, I do not think the accessibility of higher education is affecting the quality. We still (as the United States) have some of the highest ranked universities in the world, and still create new technologies and come up with new ideas. (its really the k - 12 education system that I am more worried about...)

And I suppose that sums up my opinions on the subject for this week. Yeah.

Money, Money, Money...

Okay, so to preface my post, I would like to note that I don't know much about the actual costs of education, higher or otherwise.  Sure, I am in college, but my dad pays for most of it and likes to keep the finances to himself.  So, I'm going to base this post on what I think is happening, and if any of it is fundamentally incorrect, please let me know.

So, I think that higher education has become much more difficult to get into then in past decades, based on what I have been told.  There are now test scores and extracurricular activities that determine whether the college will let you in, instead of just grades.  There are also more people finishing high school and competing for a spot at a college, because it is expected of them and will help them get a better job.  Our society today believes that you have to have a college degree to do well, so more people are being coerced into getting one, which also makes the rush to get jobs significantly harder to people without a college degree.  So, it's a vicious cycle that plays over and over again.

Now, paying for higher education is what most people who elect to go to college are worried about.  The tuition tends to be expensive, and it can be very difficult to pay the university that much money.  That is where financial aid and student loans come in, especially if someone is paying for their own college without the help of parents.  Now, financial aid seems to work well for students whose parents don't make much money, but what about if the parents make a lot of money but refuse to help?  Then student loans have to be taken out, which probably requires a lot of bothersome things I don't know about.  The money aspect of college is probably a factor that deters people from going and getting a college degree, as well, although I don't know that for certain.

Colleges here in the United States also have different policies than elsewhere.  I heard somewhere that Germany (I think) has free college options, and the only reason I can think of that this would be the case is that if you want to go to college then hopefully you will make something of yourself and help the society through your job.  This may not be true, but It makes sense to me.  However, I don't know if it could actually work like that, because then couldn't people get a college degree and then do absolutely nothing with it?  If people have to pay for their education they are more likely to appreciate it and do something productive with their lives.

Well, I think that just about wraps up my post.  I hope you enjoyed it, and I can'r wait to read other's opinions throughout the week.

Week of 8/26 - Accessibility of Higher Education in the U.S.

Hi everyone! This week we'll be discussing the accessibility of higher education in the United States.  In some ways, higher education in the U.S. has become more accessible, in that there are more opportunities for financial aid; but in other ways, higher education is less accessible that ever before, because the cost of a higher education is higher than ever before and continues to rise.  Money is just one factor that we'll be discussing this week that plays into the accessibility of higher education.  One the main questions is: How accessible is higher education, and what factors play into its accessibility?  How do people think the accessibility of higher education affects the environment in colleges and universities, the workplace, and our society in general.  It'll be interesting to see everyone's experiences of and viewpoints on this topic.  Tomorrow we'll be hearing from Laura and I'll be back on Friday to wrap up this week's topic.