With the time being so close to the end of the year, many juniors and seniors either are, or have just finished, applying for college. This is a time when more than 40 percent of high school graduates are applying for college and 46 percent feel that college is important. Clearly college is considered important enough that people are paying extraordinary amounts – average tuition costs are around $19,000 per year for four years.
This means that the age-old question should once more be examined, what is university for? Is the purpose to train one in how to work and perform in one’s career? Or is it rather to open one up to diverse viewpoints, and act as an expensive extension to one’s academic career? These questions matter significantly, both when allocating funding and when choosing which school to attend.
According to the first argument, which is the most commonly held in the United States, the purpose of attending any form of higher education should be to help get a stable career. This holds merit in the fact that, because 13 percent of Americans have student loans, it is vital to have a good job to be able to pay off these loans. Also, although it may seem alright, for those who can afford it, to pay for college simply to gain an education, 43 percent of college goers are from low-income families. In this situation, the justification for college is likely to be so that the person attending will be able to earn enough money to support themselves and their families. First-generation college graduates may find it beneficial to attend college for the purpose of seeking better employment opportunities such as law school, medical school, or even trade schools.
The second position, that college is useful simply to gain an education, is far more widely held in many European countries, where the cost of college is much lower. It is felt by those who seek college simply to further education that one cannot possibly know what one wants to do with their life at the age of 18, thus university provides an opportunity to learn not only how to be good at a job, but about the world around them. It is a common feeling that they are paying enough money to learn what they could never have done in primary schooling. This is also taking into account the other purpose of university, which is not only to teach but to accumulate new information. Most professors spend only part of their time teaching, while the rest is spent doing research and writing papers. Thus, if the purpose of a university is not to explore and learn, why would the faculty of the university themselves constantly be learning?
Both points have validity, and should certainly be considered when making one’s decision. Is attending university a choice that should be made for the experience you gain and knowledge you learn, or a gateway to allow you access to better economic opportunities?
