Almost every teacher, counselor and parent probably wants their student to attend a college or a university.

In SHS, going to college is highly recommended. SHS has colleges coming to lunch so students are able to talk to them. During Spirit Week we even have a day to support the college or university we want to go to. Is college really preparing us for the real world and is it necessary for everyone to go to college to have a successful life?

I am a senior but I don’t really know what I want to do with my life after high school and many people are just like me, struggling to find their place in this world.  With this being said the only advice a lot of students are getting from the people around them are that college is the key. Nobody ever talks about alternatives to college.

Students don’t ever see a small business owner coming through the doors of SHS to sit during lunch so the students can go talk to them and learn more about real life experience and what it really takes to be an adult working in the real world.

Instead of students going out and learning real life experiences, they read it in a textbook in college. Many people hiring usually want people with experience or at least someone that knows what they are doing with the technology they have; and many college students might not have that experience because they only wrote essays or did group activities that only slightly mirror the real world.

The most important part of a college student’s experience is getting an internship somewhere that will hopefully hire them after their internship is over. These internships give the students real life experience. A lot of jobs don’t care what degree you graduated with, they care if you can do the things they need you to do.

With the economy being bad, unemployment is high. It is difficult for students that graduate from college to get a job quickly after graduating.

There are multiple jobs that pay very well and require no college diploma. According to Huffington post, half the jobs that college graduates get don’t really require a post secondary degree.

I feel like sometimes I am a student zombie just going through the process of going to college but not actually knowing if I even want to go to college myself. With all my friends talking about the colleges they have applied to, it makes me feel like I have to go to college to succeed. However, that is not true at all.

I’m not saying in any way that going to college is horrible but what I am saying is that going to college is not everything. Getting that acceptance letter to the college of your dream is not going to make life better all the time. Schools should encourage every single option each student has and not only pay attention to getting every student into college.