Should Everyone Go to College? The answer is, of course NO. But the no answer may be for a different reason than you think. It is about matching what you do with who you are, not how much money you will make. If you can earn a degree that earns a healthy income and matches what you want to do with your life then do it. If that’s not possible, pick what fits you. Actually it is nearly as easily done as said.
There is a huge debate raging about the advice to go to college. Like so many things in our society today, this conversation has become politicized around national political agendas and public policy. The politics is about other people. What we are talking about here is you and your future.
Source: Inside Higher Ed. Free for All Over “College for All” “Should Everyone Go to College?” is the title of the research brief co-written by Sawhill and Stephanie Owen, a senior research assistant at Brookings. The paper — essentially a review of existing literature on the topic — is facing sharp criticism, both philosophically and methodologically, from ideological friends and foes alike. Averages mask enormous variation that means that many individuals do not fare so well, and the authors spend the rest of the paper documenting the ways in which students’ return from their higher education may fall short based on the colleges, majors and careers they choose.
Some in the media and many on the Internet are passionate about the political implications of the policy debates. But I want to return to what it all means to the individual prospective student like yourself. In the end, what law makers and policy wonks think about your personal decision is not critical to your future. What is most critical to your future is starting with “who you are”.
I want to take a few lines to talk about “who you are”. In Your Future is Calling, I point the reader to several instruments that will help you answer this important question. The answers are the starting point for you to lay the road-map out to your future. These are scientific instruments that have been proven with hundreds of thousands of users. What these instruments do is take your answers to a number of questions and provide information back to you about what it all means.
What these instruments tell you is “who you are” based on the science of the instruments and your personal inputs. They paint a picture for you that lays a foundation for the rest of the decisions you need to make. In Your Future is Calling, I help you take that information and map it to careers, majors and colleges. This approach focuses on you and not the politicians and policy makers in Washington. In the end we are talking about your future, not theirs.
