What is college good for?

Every year more and more people question why they should attend college. They ask “Is it worth it?” As the price of college continues to increase people will continue to ask these questions. If I weren’t on scholarship I would certainly be doing the same thing. Seeing people $40,000 in debt is a bit of a “Debbie downer”. But what people should remember is that college educates the whole person, allows you to figure out what career path is right for you, and makes it easier to find a job.

            In an article by the New Yorker, Louis Menand said, “College exposes future citizens to material that enlightens and empowers them, whatever careers they end up choosing. He prefaced this quote by saying that when people enter college they choose a career path by how much success and financial rewards it will bring. I agree with his statements because people are only worried about how much money they will make and not becoming a more well rounded person. In college it is required to take general classes as a freshmen. These classes allow us, as students, to learn more and make us more literate and cultured beings. In an article by the Daily Beast it points out that “Being able to engage others intelligently about art, music, and politics may actually make you an enjoyable person to be around.” You never know when you’ll have to pull out some random knowledge to better your conversations had with others. The music and history classes may seem random at the time, but you may decide you like these classes and want to continue to study them.

            When students first enter college they think things like “I’d like to be a doctor because I would make a lot of money” or they automatically choose to major in Business because they think that degree will allow them to make lots of money. With the whole doctor scenario I personally don’t think that a lot of people realize how long they have to be in school or how much time it takes to actually become a doctor. In an article by the Huffington Post it says “Studies show that nationally, 60 percent of students graduate in majors different from those in which they began.” People really have no idea what they want to do when they first enter college. During the first year you have plenty of opportunities to go to Major and Minors fairs or talk to professors in different fields so you can learn more about what your interested in and really get a feel for what you’ll be learning in the coming years. Once you get the degree in what you chose it definitely helps you get a job in that field.

            Getting a job is hard in this economy but if you have a degree it makes the search much easier. On About.com it says “Having a college degree is becoming increasingly important in the job market. Consequently, having a degree now will open doors for the future, which will in turn open more doors and make you more marketable later ... and the cycle continues.” When it says it’ll make you more marketable it means that you would be a valuable asset to the company and that you’ve had training that’ll put you a leg up.

            All these points are important to remember when we ask ourselves all those questions about whether or not college is good. Not only will it help in finding a job, but it also educates the whole person, and helps us find the right career path.

Why College?

For blog post number two we are supposed to reflect on the question, “Why college?”  College is one thing that has never been up for debate. I always knew I would go to college. It has been hammered in my head that I would go since grade school, so I never considered any other option. I feel that having a college degree is essential for most people to thrive in our society today.  Yes, some people make it in life without one, like some of the millionaires of the world. But I felt like that would not be the right route for me personally. For me the question was not “Will I go to college?” but instead “What college will I attend?”

            Playing club volleyball (which is AAU teams that play after the high school season) had its pros and cons. Although I had almost no free weekends because of travel and missed lots of school it gave me tons of exposure to be recruited by colleges. I also got to visit some really great schools. In club volleyball depending on how good you are and what club you play for you start receiving letters of interest around the age of 14.  At that age it’s a bit overwhelming because as a freshmen in high school you haven’t put much thought into college. You have no idea what you want to study or how far you’re willing to go distance wise. At that point I knew I was going to college but I had no idea where.

           

            When you get into your sophomore and junior year that’s when you start going on visits and when coaches start narrowing down their list of recruits. It’s really exciting to go on these visits because you get to see many different campuses and it gives you an idea of what size school you’d like.  As a sophomore most of the visits are classified as unofficial visits. Which means that you have to pay on you transportation to get to the school, meals, etc. When you are a junior and senior you go on official visits, which are paid for by the school.

            My sophomore year I went on unofficial visits to Butler and Northwestern. At Butler it was a small school with close proximity to my hometown of Louisville, KY which is an hour and a half away. It had a very nice campus with neat landscaping. Location wise it was great because it is in Indianapolis, IN which is a big city with much to do. At Northwestern it was a much older campus. It is also considered a pretty prestigious university. It had a beach within walking distance of the campus. Which I found to be odd since it was in Illinois, but nonetheless that was a nice thing to have. Northwestern also had lots to do where it is located. Academically I couldn’t have gone wrong at either school.

Unfortunately as seasons progress the recruiting process can be very wishy-washy in the sense that one week your talking to a school and the next maybe one of their players got injured and they end up needing to recruit a different position that is not the one you play. It is very common for a school’s recruiting needs to change because things happen so fast and they find themselves scrambling to find that specific position for the next season. That’s what happened to me with these schools in particular. 

My junior year I visited Wake Forest, St.John’s, and JSU. Wake Forest was a nice school also. It is also prestigious academically. The campus was very nice.  It was a bit farther from home. It is located in North Carolina and is a smaller school. St.John’s was a really cool school. It is located right outside New York City, which would’ve been amazing! It had a nice campus that was relatively simple to navigate because it is a smaller school. One downfall was that it was so far from home. I had the same thing happen with these two schools like the above schools I mentioned.

            My senior year I finally visited JSU. I loved the small town feel; I also liked its close proximity to Atlanta because that’s one of my favorite cities. What made me choose JSU were the people, class sizes, and the volleyball team. Since I’m so far away from home (6 hours) I knew I was going to need to feel like I had a family down here and I definitely got that with the volleyball team. It made me not some home sick. The class sizes we perfect.  I knew I’d have a rough time in a large class setting because I have a hard time focusing. So the fact that my largest class would be around 30 people thrilled me! But one thing I can’t forget to touch down is the people. Southern hospitality is the perfect word to describe the people of Jacksonville, AL. Everyone here on my visit was so sweet and made me feel so welcome. That definitely was another thing that sold me on JSU.

Since arriving at JSU I have realized I made the right choice in the college decision-making process.  I couldn’t have asked for a better school that had everything I wanted. I hope I continue to feel this way the rest of my years here at JSU.