“Is It Still Worth It to Go to College?”
I was recently invited to contribute to this Highya.com article, debating the pros and cons of attending college, given the potentially life-crushing debt load. I suppose my answer was a qualified “…kinda.”
College can be immensely rewarding and life-changing if the student commits to the process, to challenging herself, to stepping outside of her previous intellectual comfort zone, and discovering her passion, potential and intelligence. In that case, those four years will likely be the beginning of an amazing life-long journey. I graduated in 1996 a long damn time ago, and my degree continues to benefit me.
But if not, if the student is going to college simply because everyone else goes, and she takes an easy major, and never challenges herself, and just worries about fitting in, and doing what the cool people are doing, or thinks that great grades are all the matters…welp. These are the people who, ten years after college, sit in my office weeping, because their awards and high GPA seem so meaningless, and they don’t understand their life. I write that without judgement, just genuine concern. College is a very expensive gamble…but there are things students, and their parents, can do to stack the deck in their emotional and financial favor.
If college kids and/or their parents read this piece, and decide they want to talk further…absolutely my pleasure! Leave me a note in the comments, or feel free to email me: carlotazee@gmail.com.
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