NYTimes.com: Is college worth it? High school seniors anxiously awaiting admissions decisions might find that question bizarre, but recently some strenuous arguments have been leveled against the value of a college degree. For more insight into those arguments, we turned to Dale J. Stephens, 20, the founder of UnCollege, which urges students to “hack their education” by finding their own pathways to success. Mr. Stephens, 20, is a Thiel fellow who spent his middle and high school years “unschooling,” and then left college after a brief time there.
Wednesday, February 08, 2012
Why Go to College at All?
NYTimes.com: Is college worth it? High school seniors anxiously awaiting admissions decisions might find that question bizarre, but recently some strenuous arguments have been leveled against the value of a college degree. For more insight into those arguments, we turned to Dale J. Stephens, 20, the founder of UnCollege, which urges students to “hack their education” by finding their own pathways to success. Mr. Stephens, 20, is a Thiel fellow who spent his middle and high school years “unschooling,” and then left college after a brief time there.
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I had this very question when thinking about applying to college and that my friends is why I decided to go to a conservatory. A good conservatory is trying to teach you the direct skills you will use in the work force. Now, being here, there is some bureaucratic bull that you do have to go through because you are in school, but for the most part, everything I am learning I can directly apply to my future career, and that really is the point. The contacts I make here will really help me in the future, much more then social media. In addition because I go to Carnegie Mellon my peer group is generally not the typical college student, everyone is a little bit weird and really interesting in what they are learning. I think that trade schools and conservatories are the perfect place to learn. But I do know other people who have learned immense amounts from state schools and liberal arts colleges, I really think that college is what you make of it.
The reason I chose set design over anything, and a conservatory program rather than a liberal arts program, was because I wanted to learn. I didn't want to spend money discovering what I could be, I wanted to learn valuable things and in the process use that skill set to explore what I can do with it. Its hard to say but I must say it- I think I've learned more here in this program for a single semester than I had in four years of taking art in high school. I am so thankful for all of my classes, no matter how stressed out I might get with looming drafting assignments and intimidated by big metal machines in the carpentry shop, I'm learning so many new things everyday. And all that knowledge is worth the price of tuition, because I couldn't learn such things without being in such an intensive, immersed environment like his one.
I don't think college is the right choice for everyone, but I don't think unschooling is for everyone either.
In high school I had a friend named Jesse who almost failed most of his senior year classes because he skipped class and blew off his homework because he was busy reading literature, poetry, and philosophy. Obviously, a traditional university education probably wouldn't have been the best path for him to take post-graduation. I have another friend who's planning to go to a trade school to become a hairdresser. Another friend of mine originally went to college for art school but couldn't finish that program and is an extremely talented painter who is currently making a name for herself in the art world.
The point is, there are lots of different ways to be successful. Educators emphasize how there are different styles of learning (visual, auditory, and tactile). which are all equally valid. There are also different ways of obtaining an education.
Well that's broad. Sometimes college is super useful and great. Sometimes it's not. In most US communities it is an expectation of high school seniors to apply to college, regardless of their personal visions of their futures. I know a lot of people who have gone to college for no reason other than to please their family. While I value higher education, I recognize that college is not the place for everyone and that there are a variety of types of college programs. There is some stigma around not going to college which I find ridiculous. For me, going to college was the right decision but only because I am in a conservatory program. Otherwise, I would probably not feel that way. I just believe that there are a lot of equally valuable options after high school ends. Yes college is valuable. No, college is not valuable to everyone. Maybe this article could be useful to high schoolers.
This seems like a very narrow and subjective view of what college can do for a person. Each argument that Mr. Stephens proposes against the most common reasons for going to college is far from universally applicable. For example, his first argument proposes that college is more of the memorization and standardized test based learning that one receives in a traditional school environment. In my own experience, I have found this perspective to be entirely untrue. The philosophy class I am currently taking is not asking me to memorize endless dates and names, but is instead teaching me how to argue and think rationally which are skills any competent individual should have.
The fact is, in the society we currently live in choosing not to obtain a college degree is synonymous with choosing to limit one’s career and life opportunities. While I personally agree that the college system we have now is not for everyone, I also think that is the best option for most people until high school education becomes less of a joke, and trade schools become a more viable alternative. Also, no one is going to take opposition to the current educational system seriously unless it is coming from someone with a college degree.
I agree that college is not always the right path for everyone. Often because of one’s parents or background one just assumes that they will be going to college and that that will be the right place for them. I agree with the others before me that being in a conservatory program is different than being in a liberal arts university, what we learn here can be more directly related to what we will be doing out in the world. I feel that there are also some other professions that I believe benefit greatly from going to school such as Doctors. Yes people who want to be doctors can learn a lot by following and shadowing a doctor there is still a lot of unique cases that they would not see. I think the question of whether or not to go to college is an important one to consider and I think that there are many different possible answers.
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