<p>I've been wondering this about myself since about junior year of high school, and I still can't answer it. Which is not a good position for a sophomore to be in.</p>
<p>I know it's not for increased earning power, because I don't believe in that. </p>
<p>I do enjoy learning and academia, but I'm also not learning anything groundbreakingly new, so I kinda feel like I'm wasting my time. Especially in my major, I'm taking grad courses and quickly losing all semblance of interest in the subject matter.</p>
<p>Nope, no party scene at my school, nor any Dead-Poets-Society experiences.</p>
<p>And I've lived on my own since 16 and I'm still alive, so I must have somehow learned that on my own dime. I'm not from an incestuous small town, so the diversity argument doesn't work for me. Studied abroad already.</p>
<p>Honestly, I’m at school to learn. As a CS major, classes are relevant, useful, and challenging, and it’s something I would love to do for the rest of my life. Having a degree also means better chances at finding a good job after graduation.</p>
<p>You mention you’ve got no interest in the subjects of your courses… are you bored of your major? Is there something else you wish you were doing instead?</p>
<p>I’m in college to learn as well, but not really mainly in the academic sense. I saw how college changed and developed my brother, and wanted the same thing from my experience. It’s all about getting to know yourself and learning to deal with other people. That being said learning about science/math/tech is a huge part of it, as is the career driven aspect of the whole thing.</p>
<p>Because, if I land the job I want, I feel like it would be a cool experience. Also, I’m sick of the small town I live in, so I’m trying to get away. Meet new people.</p>
<p>Plus, unemployment rate is higher for those without a college degree, usually.</p>
<p>Right now? So I can go to France next year.</p>
<p>Honestly, if I didn’t have plans to go to France next year, I don’t know why I would be in school. As terrible as it sounds, the only reason why I’m not sincerely contemplating dropping out is because of wanting to study abroad.</p>
<p>When I get back, I’ll stay in school full-time so that I can keep my parents military dependent benefits. (You get them until the age of 21, 23 if you’re a full-time student). I turn 21 in June before my senior year. That’ll have me on track to graduate with a BA.</p>
<p>High school senior here. Why am I going?
For the experience:
1.) Change of environment.
2.) New lifelong friends. (High School was filled with cliques and people kept to their groups threatening to resolve at any moment ending friendship) Hopefully college will provide me with better friends.
3.) To become an engineer.
4.) To challenge myself.
5.) Eating gourmet foods for 4 years xD
6.) More privacy, I’m sure my roommates won’t be checking my phones or nag or whatever.</p>
<p>I have a profound passion for the subjects I want to study. It’s my greatest motive, so college is like utopia to me in that respect - moreso than high school.</p>
<p>I want to develop the skills I need to compete in a tough academic job market so I can pursue my passion singularly for my whole life. Education helps me prepare for and ultimately obtain my dream job.</p>
<p>And college does increase your earning power. I don’t want to say “duh”, but…it’s one of those things called facts. I don’t care much about money as much as I do about having a certain kind of life, but still. Facts.</p>
<p>Also, college will be a great place to meet friends and find love.</p>
<p>Wow, someone thinks pretty highly of themselves to say that they’re too good for college. But any who, I’m majoring in psychology next fall, hoping to become a school psychologist so I can become an advocate for more kids like myself.</p>
College is the wrong place for you. Your amount of privacy spirals downward as soon as you hit college dorm-life. Oh. And eating the same food from the same place gets extremely old. I go to a school with 26 different restaurants on campus, and I became sick of the food within a year.</p>
<p>And it’s interesting comparing high school senior’s answers to current college students. I definitely think that high school students are sold onto the “It’s the best four years of your life” train, when in reality, it may not be. I watch movies and television shows about college life, and well, frankly, they’re just complete fiction. I really never realized it until this year. Everything was so magical freshman year, but I’ve definitely lost my steam as a sophomore as real-world problems are coming up. And my friendships aren’t nearly as deep as I would want them to be.</p>
<p>I made some really amazingly close friends last year, but we’ve already pretty much lost touch and that happened basically in only a couple of months. On the flip side, colleges have cliques just as much as high school does. Sure, it might not be the popular kids versus the geeks, but there are definite groups and it can be hard to move away from that.</p>
<p>College is a great experience. I’ve had a lot of fun over the past 6 semesters. But to be honest, I’m going to learn skills I need to work in my field. You can’t really go into advertising out of high school. If that would have been possible, I would have been out of here a long time ago.</p>
<p>Don’t get me wrong, I love reading and learning and having new experiences, but I don’t think college is the only way to get that. Plenty of people don’t go to college and they still learn and grow and transition into the working adult world just fine. I’m at school so I can hopefully get the types of jobs I want in the future. Plain and simple.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>There’s no way I would have gotten this kind of financial package as a student applying years after HS graduation. It would be crazy not to take advantage of the opportunity now.</p></li>
<li><p>The career field I want to enter is far more accessible with an appropriate college degree.</p></li>
<li><p>My family would probably have been disappointed had I not chosen to continue my education in some way.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Yesss, I’m loving the stratification of upperclassmen-freshmen-highschool seniors who think they know everything going on here. Am I right in thinking that for the former group, the kool-aid has run out, and we are left pondering the deep questions that we have tried to avoid initially by going to college?</p>
<p>Just saying, all of you guys who have 404 Really Good Reasons, they better actually be genuine, because if not, you’re gonna be really disoriented in the middle of your college career.</p>
<p>I’m in college to learn - about myself and about what I want to do for the rest of my life. I knew I wanted to study science, but my college courses have literally given me a new direction for my future (genetic diseases - took a course last year, fell in love and completely changed my plans). First and foremost, I am in college to learn foundational material so that when I actually am (hopefully) doing groundbreaking research later on, I know what I’m doing and where to start.</p>
<p>I understand some of the feeling that you lose steam. As a junior, I see cliques of people who aren’t as welcoming as they were freshman year, and generally the social scene isn’t as magical and open as it was freshman year. Parties/etc. aren’t as exciting to me and my workload has kicked waaaaaaay up; I spend a lot of weekends in the library. But at the same time, college has given me tons of new opportunities that I never would have experienced otherwise. I’ve always been a student-athlete, but although I also have always loved music I was never able to express that love until last year, when a friend overheard me singing in the shower and convinced me to try out for a capella. Although I actually ended up getting sick, that kind of encouragement made me start wondering if music was something I wanted to get involved in - and now I play regularly at school and in coffee shops on weekends. I’m also editor on a campus publication. I want to go into medicine; there won’t be room for me to be a reporter, musician, or varsity athlete when I’m in the real world. College has given me a medium to explore these passions before I have to commit myself to one path, and I’m eternally grateful for the experience.</p>
<p>This year has been up and down, and I’ve definitely had moments where I wished I was home or felt like I was over college, whether it be the workload or the social scene. But ultimately, I’m in college to learn and to take advantage of opportunities that I wouldn’t have elsewhere, and that is what I remember when I find myself wondering why I’m here.</p>
<p>Because it’s the only way to get a degree, a degree is necessary for employment in many positions, and planning to be employed by someone else is safer than planning on self-employment.</p>
<p>That’s pretty much the only justification for sitting in lectures on someone else’s schedule, doing homework someone else assigns, and studying information someone else deems important.</p>