College, An Investment
By Mesrob Kochkarian
College is constantly depicted by the general public as the next phase after high school in adolescents’ lives. From receiving a degree to entering a profession that earns one a large sum of money, attending college has become the common expectation of our society. In fact, this expectation was engraved into the minds of about 75 percent of all Americans according to the Washington Post in 2010 (Strauss). Recently conducted polls in late 2014 suggest that only forty four percent of Americans believe in a college education (Strauss). Such a dramatic drop of thirty one percent is quite rapid considering that it occurred over a course of only four years. Some can argue, from an economical approach, that the underlying cause of such a decline in college demand is because people were not able to manage paying for college from the recession that occurred in the US economy starting 2012. Although this may be true, we are now living in the post-recession stage, and the statistics are still exceedingly lower than they once were. More people are able to pay for college than before. People have simply begun to question the true value of college. Danielle Paquette, the author of “Why college isn’t worth it,” believes students should consider attending a school with plenty of resources, graduating from college with a degree, and spending only a planned amount of time in college (Paquette). She argues in her article that most students do not follow these three ideas and that is why college is not worth the investment for most people (Paquette). Yet, after taking into account opinions backed by facts from an array of sources, including my own experience as a college student, I believe college truly is worth the venture. Though at times, college may appear to favor those with an intellectual advantage over others or it may lose its validity because there are many people with college degrees still searching for jobs. However true this may be, people must account for the skills, resources, and motivation for success colleges provide for their students and recognize the benefits of having a college educated community. College provides individuals with skills beneficial for their future. These skills range from general to specific. The first two to three years that all students spend in college are filled with General Education classes. The attitude that most students have towards these GE classes is of dismay and annoyance. They believe that college is only about receiving the degree that is inclined towards their planned future occupation. Professional educators that are integrated into the college education system have a different perspective of the college education that should occur systematically. In the CSUN Sundial Newspaper, “William Watkins, vice president of student affairs and dean of students at California State University of Northridge, said going to college broadens student’s horizon because they can acquire a broader range of knowledge” (Chan). The dean is referring to the general education classes that give students an opportunity to learn about a range of different subjects. He alludes that one does not know their interest until they have taken a good amount of courses provided by educators in order to embrace the major subjects, such as English, Math, and Science. This is why GE classes allow students to truly determine their interests and the career path of their choice. Matt Eickhoff, program coordinator of training and development at the CSUN University Student Union, expands on the dean’s idea by recognizing that students become more “well-rounded” (Kwok). This idea conveys to college students that there are different general skills, such as proper calculations and communication skills, which are essential in everyday life and these classes ensure that such studies make students “well-rounded,” instead of intelligent in only one subject and ignorant in other subjects. After retaining general information from the GE classes and becoming firm in the decision of one’s major, the college education system provides students with specific classes that target topics within each student’s major. Consequentially, the student receives relevant skills, such as laboratory experience, to the major, in this case Chemistry, which will help the individual with their future career, a professional in the science field. Such vigorous subjects for a major can only be provided by a college or university. Some people do not believe in a uniformly college educated society because they argue that such studies are not necessary in certain cases. Charles Murray is an author and political scientist. In his article, What is Wrong With Vocational School, he argues that a large portion of college students need vocation school instead of college. Charles Murray tells his readers that “people attend college because ‘vocation school’ [and other forms of education] [are] considered second class in our society whereas ‘college’ is considered first class” (Murray). He later argues that “combine those who are unqualified to study”, people with low IQs, “with those who are qualified but not interested, and some large proportion of today’s college campuses are look for something that the four-year college was not designed to provide” (Murray). His idea of college is to prepare each individual with a trade or skill, which I argue college does accomplish. Yet, he argues that college does not accomplish this for people who are trying to achieve a simple skillset. His interpretation of college is to provide individuals with prestigious careers in the future, which is the generic idea most individuals have of college. The concept he fails to note is the idea of broadening the range of knowledge for individuals. The individual would never know what they are potentially good at if they attend a school or other methods of education that strictly focus on learning one specific skill. Being exposed to a variety of subjects though the college experience before actually studying one particular one is more effective method of providing skills to individuals than simply teaching a student only one specific skill. Hence, college provides individuals with skill crucial for their future as a professional. College provides individuals with valuable resource for their success. This includes tangible resources. Some example of such tangle resources includes financial aid, clubs, gyms, libraries, computer labs, counseling departments, child care departments for students with children, and much more. This list is minuscule compared to the entire list of all resources that all colleges provide for their students. The question that arises from such a topic is of what significance are these commodities to students. Originally, college campuses strictly provided services for education to students. In today’s society, such simple services are irrelevant without providing an environment with available resources for healthy education to take place. Cindy Fisher is a first-year experience librarian at the University of Texas—Austin who says “professors and librarians at many schools work together to create course content or inform each other's work and research and by working in such a library environment “you can get a sense of the relationship and bond between these two major parts of campus life, you can get a nice picture of how smoothly you can research class topics and projects” (Greer). This can reveal to be important because research is one of the core practices of college. This is example in which the individuals need research, such as the library, to succeed in college and eventually in life. Timothy Lee is currently a freshman as CSUN who is majoring in Business. His was not entirely sure whether business was right for his career path so he sought advice from a Business department counselor. Timothy states that the counselor was helpful in it clear to him understand what the Business Major encompassed. Timothy plans on changing majors because he realized that Business was not truly his “calling” (Lee). Without the counselor, Timothy would be working on a major he would eventually realize was not his of interest to him. Intangible resources are also a vital part of life that college provides individuals a chance to acquire. Such resources include friendships and connections. Shant Pezikian, a student in medical school, discusses the importance of friendship and relationships in his path towards medical school (Pezikian). In his interview, he admits that his parents did not always see his friendships with others as a beneficial endeavor (Pezikian). He states that his friends were a crucial part in his success because he was able to work with them to properly prepare for the MCAT and enter medical school (Pezikian). Shant is now in his third year of medical school and plans on opening a medical clinic with the help of some of the friends he made in college; proving that part of his future success, opening a clinic, will be a direct result of the connections he made in the college environment (Kochkarian). Another example of networking comes from a closer source to me. Agop Kochkarian is a Civil Engineer and Contractor who graduated from CSUN with an engineering degree in 1980. He is my father and I currently experience the fruit of his success because of his college friends that helped him early in his career as a structural engineer. He recalls being recruited by several of his friends to work in different engineering firms in his early career (Kochkarian). In response, he also recruited several other friends and classmates into the firms that he worked (Kochkarian). He is currently the owner and operator of his own engineering company and continues to keep in contact with his friends in college who also maintain their own companies (Kochkarian). Connections is exceedingly valuable in the professional field. Some of these engineers, including my father, got there first chance to prove themselves to others with the help of their friends recruiting them into engineering firms. After gaining the field experience, these professional decided to open their own engineering companies but my father can always recalls that it began from those firms he was able to get into with the help of his friends. Therefore, college proves students with valuable resources to succeed in life. College instills a motivation for success to earn at least twice as much as those who do not obtain a college education. In Jennie Le’s article, “What Does it Mean to Be a College Grad?,” she makes it quite clear that most students who attend college are also interested in succeeding in the future. She states that “although holding a degree isn’t as powerful as it was in previous decades, stats still show that those who earn bachelor’s degrees are likely to earn twice as much as those who don’t” (36). This is one reason why “holding a college degree seems like the norm,” most people realized that “having a college degree will likely mean a comfortable living and the opportunity to move up at work and in life” (36). This kind of mentality, which is brought about by hard work, is healthy for the individual because it engages them in productive activities leaning towards improving their current status in life instead of allowing them to waste time on foolish and harmful behavior. In Alex Ferreyra’s article, “Lee Zeidman: From CSUN Promoter to Staples Center President,” Lee Zeidman is described as the president of Staples Center in Los Angeles, a location that currently includes 23 restaurants, a 14-theater movieplex, corporate office buildings, the 7,100-seat Nokia Theater, the Grammy Museum, and the famous sports arena for hockey and basketball (Ferreyra). Reading this, one can suppose that earing the position as president of such a large organization center must not have come at an easy price. This is true because Mr. Zeidman’s path began at CSUN (Ferreyra). He is one of several celebrities who graduated from California State University of Northridge and received both a bachelor’s degree, Experimental Psychology, and a master’s degree, Recreation (Ferreyra). He originally wanted to make a recreational and entertainment centers for CSUN students to visit after class (Ferreyra). After working and improving the Pub on campus, he moved towards building a recreation center (Ferreyra). Following his graduation, he receive his job as the first program director at CSUN’s student center and progressively moved on to larger schools like University of California, Los Angeles and University of California Santa Barbara (Ferreyra). His final stop was as president of Staples Center, which he currently is now (Ferreyra). Through college, he was able to see opportunities to succeed and gradually built a successful career for himself from just the college experience. Thus, college stimulates an inspiration for success. Students attending college benefits the entirety of our society. In Rodney K. Smith’s article, Yes, A College Education is worth the Costs, he argues that “education adds richness” to worldly wealth (30). Students become interested in gaining essential skills, resources, and are motivated to succeed in life because of college. A society with most members possessing all these three traits presented in this article is destined for more success than before. The newest scientific discoveries have been brought by people who first endeavored in a college education or exist in the college field for acquiring more information to teach people. Paul Knoepfler is “an Associate Professor in Cell Biology and Human Anatomy at the UC Davis School of Medicine, and a faculty member of the UC Davis Genome Center, Cancer Center (where he is the leader of the Cancer Stem Cell Initiative) and the Institute for Regenerative Cures” (N/A). Stem cell research scientists, like Paul Knoepfler, have taken steps towards improved our experience of life. With his influence, scientists are coming closer to discovering the cure to cancer with new method such as stem cells. Hence, college contribute to improving society as a whole by bettering people than they once were. Attending college is the fixed image most people in our society have for young adults. Though over the years, this idea seems to have diminished, because people wonder if attending college is truly worth their time and effort. In order to understand colleges’ true value, one must take into consideration what it provides for the individual as well as the whole community. In this article, it is argues that college provides the individual with traits, such as skills, resources, and a motivation to succeed. It also argues that these traits make people better and spontaneously make society better than before and now. With these two thoughts in mind, it is quite evident that college no doubt is worth the investment after all.