<p>I'm a junior in high school, and everyone seems so preoccupied with getting into college. They take certain classes and participate in certain extracurricular activities just because they look "look good" on a college application, meanwhile they constantly compare eachothers' grades and ranks. Society acts like college is the most important thing in the world. Ive always been told, if you don't go, your life will be miserable. I don't understand it all. I just want to live a simple, humble life. I don't see why you need a degree and a high paying job to be happy. I'd rather not go into debt, live simply within my means, and enjoy the things that really matter in life. I understand college for someone who really truly wants to have a career requires it like becoming a doctor. </p>
<p>I accident hit post before I finished…anyways I don’t see why people go just because it’s what everyone tells them they should do. All the stress, energy, and money that goes into applying and getting a degree seems pointless to me. </p>
<p>There are actually plenty of colleges where you don’t have to scheme and jump through crazy hoops to get in to. Some of them even offer good opportunities to further yourself.</p>
<p>So don’t do what all those other kids are doing if you don’t want to. March to the beat of your own drum.</p>
<p>I can see where you’re coming from, but at the same time think you may be a bit naive about the happiness of the “simple, humble” life. There are happy mediums between self-inflicted poverty and the rat race that is the competition to get into the Ivies and Wall Street.</p>
<p>You sound like a perfect candidate for a gap year after high school. Absolutely do your best in high school, there is nothing wrong with that for whatever you want to pursue, then take a gap year and go be an apprentice somewhere, like a cheesemaker in Vermont or maybe a cabinet or furniture maker in a small-town shop somewhere. Maybe you’ll love it, maybe you’ll hate it, but at least you’ll be making an informed decision and if you decide it’s not for you, you’ll definitely have a great essay to write should you decide that college is for you after all. Might even be the thing that gets you in those high-powered schools that you don’t understand everyone wanting right now.</p>
<p>Good luck in whatever it is you decide to do.</p>
<p>Agreed!</p>
<p>@Elise16: You can do precisely what you have proposed and (also) attend a reasonably reputable college, without “jumping through hoops” (as @PurpleTitan wisely indicates). However, you must now understand that there are potential consequences associated with this decision. They may be unimportant to you now, and perhaps they will be forever, but they are significant to some individuals AND your dreams just might change as you mature.</p>
<p>I am not going to lie, up until grade 10 I was the same person, joining clubs I didn’t like, taking classes I hated, just so I can have a better chance at university. But in junior year I realised that I should do what I love. Unfortunately I take the IB and had to make my class choices for the last two years of school in grade 10. Silly me, I choose the hardest classes, and don’t really have the best grades at all. However, I am now just waiting to receive some college decisions, so I can’t tell you how doing what you love really does, but I am sure everything is going to be ok!</p>
<p>I am taking a gap year after high school with my friend to do some traveling and charity work around the world, so something I love. I agree with MrMom 
And also: COLLEGE ISN’T FOR EVERYONE. Don’t get me wrong, give it a go for a year or so, and if you don’t like it, drop out. And yeah, undergraduate isn’t a huge deal, where you go is a name. Apply and aim for places that you think you’ll have fun in, it’s the next four years of you life (if you decide to do all four years) </p>
<p>Good luck, you’re smarter than a lot of people in high school right now haha </p>
<p>As long as you can find a career or occupation that works for you, you may not need to go to college. Best of luck at whatever you decide to do.</p>
@TopTier I understand that some people need college for their career and thus it’s significant for them, and there was a time, when it was important to me as well. You say that there are “potential consequences associated with this desicion”, but what about the potential consequences of going to college? There are so many college gradates that can not find jobs, and to make unemployment or under employment even worse is the debt that’s involved with college. I think the cost of college is being taken far too lightly. It’s the second most expensive investment people make in their life time. Going just for the experience or to potentially find better employment is a really irresponsible idea. You should have a set purpose for going with specific and realistic goals that you know you’ll be happy with. Maybe I’ll change my mind, but I’d rather change my mind, before I get myself into debt. Keep in mind that not everyone has parents who can pay their way through college. I’m 17 in high school, and I work 30 hours a week as a manager at a restaurant. I don’t know what I’d even want to study in college. Plus continuing to work this much and juggling school for another four years doesn’t sound appealing to me. Living off my parents is not an option, and going into student loan debt without a job is even less appealing. But, hey, maybe as I “mature” as you put it, I’ll see how college is a financially responsible decision for me. I do have plans to travel after high school, and I honestly feel I will gain more from that than college. I’m not trying to sound like I’m frowning upon college. I just think that there are more options than our narrow minded society looks at.
Elsie16 you have a good head on your shoulders and I agree with you! There are plenty of miserable people in college, and plenty of miserable college graduates. When/if you go, it will be for the right reasons! Good luck and keep us posted!
If you follow your passions, like all of the applicants CLAIM to do in their essays, you will excel and income will not be a problem.
Thanks! @redpoodles @JustOneDad
I agree with you; a Bachelor’s degree in neither a panacea nor a guarantee of success and happiness. You seem to be an intelligent individual, who is also blessed with common sense (both very important). Therefore, I’ll be particularly candid. EVERY germane quantitative analysis indicates that un/under-employment and inadequate compensation are FAR more common among high school than college graduates. Of course, this does NOT mean that these serious problems are nonexistent for university alumni, but their frequency is much greater among without degrees. Further, a college graduate (at, perhaps, age 30) can always decide “the hell with this ‘rat race,’ I’m going to manage a restaurant” (to use your current job). However, it is a LOT more difficult for a high school graduate, of the same age, to become an accountant, an attorney, a Registered Nurse, a teacher, and so forth.
MANY people lead very happy, productive, and financially satisfactory live without Bachelor’s (or advanced) degrees. You may well become one of these individuals. However, as I suggested in my initial post to this thread, “you must now understand that there are potential consequences associated with this decision.” That’s absolutely ALL that my two posts to this thread have emphasized. Please remember, however, that the major decisions you make in the next few years can easily have significant, lifelong implications.
For example, imagine that you’re 30, you have two children, you are (or you become) a single mother, and your former husband/kids’ father leaves you with little financial support (no life insurance if he dies, “deadbeat dad” after a separation/divorce). These things happen frequently, even to good people, just like you. Let’s presume (this, too, is not guaranteed) that – with a high school diploma, about 10 years work experience, and a fine performance record – you earn about $65K annually (over three times the minimum wage). That may seem like a good deal of money, but it isn’t: taxes of all types, housing, utilities, car payment, vehicle maintenance, gasoline, car taxes, life insurance (what happens to your kids if you’re “hit by a bus?”), medical/dental insurance and uninsured medical costs ($1000 monthly isn’t rare), food, clothing, savings for your children’s educations and for your own retirement (and possibly even to support your parents) . . . this list could go much further, but you certainly get the idea. Suddenly that $65K appears grossly inadequate – and factually it is. However, way back in 2015/2016/2017, you decided “college isn’t for me and traveling is a great education.” Well, it’s now 2030, and you’re in a DESPERATE situation. I do not suggest that a Bachelor’s degree – having majored in a financially viable area – would make these problems disappear, but it would both greatly reduce the magnitude of the problems and provide a reasonable path forward.
I offer the foregoing for your consideration, with my respect.
In what state can you earn over $60k/year with just a high school dioloma and 10 years experience? I want to go there.
@austinmshauri: In every state . . . plumbers, electricians, some union workers (for example, aerospace and defense), many cops, firefighters, EMTs, military NCOs/Petty Officers, non-degreed medical professionals, supply-chain/distribution/transportation personnel, lots of white collar “administrative assistants,” speciality welders, IT experts, top-level mechanics, and MUCH more. Now, I do not suggest this is the norm (even in these fields) – and that was precisely the point that I was making in #12 to @Elise16 – but to indicate (as you have) that no high school graduates make in excess of $60K annually is preposterous.