College can wait

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ^ | Sunday, May 12, 2002 | John Ellerbach

[Willie Green]

I have advised my daughter not to go to college. I hope she takes that advice. After all, I am a college professor, and I think she trusts my judgment.

It's not that I don't want her to go at all, I just want her to be ready. Too many students are forced to enroll right out of high school. Parents fear that if the kids don't go to college immediately, they will never go to college. That's one old beast of a tale that needs to die.

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

I did 6 years in the military before I went to college. I'm really glad I did, but the administration probably wasn't. I wasn't intimidated by them and I didn't let them get away with the kind of crap that they did with the 18 year olds that didn't know any better. College administrations prefer tender 18 year olds that they can push around and mold into good little liberals.

[Lokibob]

During my 20 year in the military, I had lots of young men and women working for me that were direct out of High School. My guess would be that 50% of them got out of the military and went on to college, much more mature, and with a drive to succeed.

[BingoNutZ]

I agree. Except for the occasional acception, I believe students should not attend college until they are 25. I work at a college and enroll students in internet classes. I find myself wanted to tell those under 25 to not take the classes because they require discipline and time management skills. Something we do not learn till our early 20's. My drop out rate for students under 25 is about 40 % and over 25 is about 10%.

[stiga bey]

I made the mistake of going to engineering school right out of college. No drive, no discipline. Dropped out after four semesters of straight C's. Worked for a couple of years and grew up a lot. Went back and completed 52 credit hours in fifteen months, while working at night, and maintained an A-/A average, which just barely allowed me to graduate above 3.0. I agree with everyone above--I shouldn't have even started until I was 22 or so...

[Pining_4_TX]

Thanks so much for this post! My daughter doesn't want to go to college, and you would not believe the pressure she is getting from relatives, especially my dad. I'm going to send this to him. My daughter has a great job that she loves and is extremely talented when it comes to home repair and improvement projects. Why should she go to college?

[AM2000]

i really think this depends on the student.. there are plenty of kids coming out of high school who are prepared for college.. if they weren't, they'd all be dropping out or resorting to cheesy liberal arts majors, wouldn't they? but there are plenty of kids out there who go to college straight outta HS, and graduate in 4 years with EE or Math degrees with high GPAs.. so this article is just a generalization, it depends on the student.

[SamAdams76]

Excellent article. And I'm saving it for my wife for when our kids approach "college" age a few years from now.

Way too many parents push their kids into college and more often than not, flush $60,000 (or more) down the toilet for what is essentially four years worth of keg parties.

A few years in the workforce between the 12 years of basic schooling and the four to six years of college is a good idea.

Most students at the age of 18 or so are still fundamentally too immature for the rigors of a college education. Furthermore, they have little or no "real life" experience to draw upon in their studies. I think this is a major reason why so many young people are drawn to socialism and in danger of adopting other bad liberal ideas. Until you've gotten out on your own and paid some dues, it's easy to be out of touch with reality.

As well, there is some merit in telling your child that if he/she wants a college education, that he/she should be willing to pay for it, or at least a major portion of it. Parents are doing their children no favors by subsidizing college 100%.

Lastly, not everybody is meant for college. Perhaps your child would be better suited by getting a few years experience in the workforce, deciding what he/she wants to do for a career, and then getting "certification" in that field, such as nursing, computer networking, plumbing or some other trade. There is no shame in not having a college degree and a very decent living can still be obtained if one is willing to work hard and stay current in their chosen field of work.

[AM2000]

not everybody is meant for college

True, but given how $hitty high school education is these days, I hardly think you can definitively determine that based on a students HS performance.

[sweetliberty]

I have mixed feelings about this. When I went to college right after high school, I was not able to take it very seriously. I was in for a quarter and out for a quarter. In for 2 and out for 3. I finally decided I wasn't ready for it because I really had no idea what I wanted to do. It was some 9 years later before I actually got serious about my college education and I stuck to it and graduated Magna Cum Laude. I now find myself with a 23 year old daughter whose future am concerned about because of her apparent lack of interest in higher education. At 23 she has already married, had a child, divorced and she has been working all the time and while she occasionally mentions college, she never seems to be very serious about it. I should know from my own experience that preparedness can come at different ages and stages and be okay with that, but I also know that my daughter does not have the same tenacity I did and she just isn't much of a thinker although she does have the ability. I realize that not everybody has to go college to succeed and success can be measured in several ways and even that there is a lack of real education taking place in colleges these days anyway, but still, it is an ever present concern of which am unsure of the answer.

[MarkL]

Thanks so much for this post! My daughter doesn't want to go to college, and you would not believe the pressure she is getting from relatives, especially my dad. I'm going to send this to him. My daughter has a great job that she loves and is extremely talented when it comes to home repair and improvement projects. Why should she go to college?

If she's good at home repair and improvement projects, she might want to move to a "high tech" area. It seems that in those areas, a computer programmer is a dime a dozen, but finding a good contractor, havc repair, electrician or plumber is like hen's teeth! They can have terrific incomes and careers!

Mark

[Corin Stormhands]

Good article. I won't have a bit of a problem if my boys delay college. Especially if they do a turn in the military. I graduated from high school in 1976. Back then, the attitude in my school was you went into the military if you didn't have another choice. By the time I realized how beneficial the military would've been, I was too old and overweight.

'Til the day I die, I will regret not serving in the armed forces.

[patton]

Like northern VA. Plumbers around here make more than I do, and I am a rocket scientist!

[firebrand]

I'm going to take what seems to be the unpopular side here, and say that this trend could be subversive. Anything that undermines our traditional ways of doing things--especially something that interferes with the education of our young--is immediately suspect. The truth is that many kids who postpone college never go.

The same holds true of the insidious new trend of taking a semester off, or a year, or a couple of years. The "cool" kids do it and then rave about the "cool" things they are doing, and of course it sounds better than working hard at school and doing what's expected of you. The deans at liberal colleges encourage it, which just makes me take all that harder a look.

[Capitalist Eric]

Nice article.

I did six years in the US Navy (nuclear power on SSNs), eight years in Silicon Valley as a manufacturers' rep, and realized the bubble was going to burst sooner rather than later...

Started doing the night-school thing at the local JC (Mission College, Santa Clara), got two AS degrees, and eventually transferred to UC Davis, where I have ten months to go before I finish with a degree in Managerial Economics, a Business Admin degree with all the fluff removed, and both applied calculus and stats in place of the fluff...

They don't like me much, there. For wearing a T-shirt that said "Kill Arafat" during a free-Palestine rally, I was labelled a Nazi (though I think they miss the irony that I'm supposed to be a Nazi by defending Jews and calling for the death of a leading terrorist...?). For pulling out a pocket knife and etching on the gold leaf on my binder (I was half-asleep and bored with the Teaching Assistant), I was turned in to the police, the school administration and made a pariah (the police didn't bother to take a report since I'd done nothing illegal).

Yeah, it's better to wait a while, so that there'll be a little more wisdom, and a little more skepticism of what's passed off today as "popular opinion."

Be well,

[CWRWinger]

I have advised my daughter not to go to college.

Money plays a crucial role in motivating Americans,

I do subscribe to the theory that -- at least to a point -- if you are compelled to make a major investment you are more likely to appreciate the returns.

May be this guy is broke and is not ready to send his daughter to college. Maybe it's him not her.

[RedBloodedAmerican]

Ever wonder what kickbacks schools get from colleges or their administration for getting kids into college (even prematurely)?

[Willie Green]

May be this guy is broke and is not ready to send his daughter to college. Maybe it's him not her.

He's on the faculty of a university.
I certainly don't know the specifics of his situation, but it is not uncommon for colleges and universities offer tuition discounts to families of faculty and staff.