<p>I’m not sure if this is the right place to post this but I’m gonna go for it:</p>
<p>I’m currently a sophomore at a private school in the northeast and I’ve noticed that a LOT (not all, and not just the east coast) of people are only concerned about college as preparation for life after college. People only think about prestige, how many letters of recs they’ll be able to get, etc. instead of focusing on the actual experience of college. </p>
<p>I’m going through this right now because I personally want to transfer to a bigger school on par academically with my current school because I want to have more fun, go to the football games, all the things that people think about for a “traditional college experience”. I get that this is only my point of view, but I think that too many people are concerned with college as a stepping stone to life in the workforce instead of stepping back and realizing that each person only gets college once, so they should think about where they personally want to go instead of where they think other people want them to go. </p>
<p>So I thought it’d be interesting to see what other college kids (and other people too) think about what I’m saying. I could be totally off here, but that’s the feeling I’ve been getting since I was a senior in high school and I started the whole college process.</p>
<p>I agree, I have met some people that I cannot imagine doing well in the workforce after college just because they seem focused on the wrong thing. It’s like they are trying to be on top and make all kinds of connections without learning any of the actual material that should be known for the field.
I haven’t noticed it so much within my majors but I have met many people going for business that take this approach. Not saying it is strictly business majors obviously, that is just where I have seen it the most. I had a business major friend that graduated last year and she really didn’t like many of those in her classes because of this reason. But I suppose some majors are much more competitive than others.</p>
<p>Unless you go to a school that feeds most of its students into graduate (not professional) programs, you’ll find this attitude. The trick is to find a group of people at your school interested in the college experience you are.</p>
<p>AdviceKid, I agree completely. And I wasn’t trying to attack anyone if they do view it that way, or literally only want to go to college to make as much money as they can. I believe that everyone has the right to their own opinion, and you can’t judge them for that. I just wanted to start a discussion about how as a society higher education has largely come to a place where it is a stepping stone and has been deemed so by most people in our society. </p>
<p>This is also not an isolated incident. Through sociology and anthro classes I’ve learned about people that devote their whole lives to something that to me seems pointless, or at least not the best use of their time, such as how walkable a city is and the impact that cars have on our culture. In a lot of aspects we as a society go to far on some things, and as we become more robustly developed I think people are going to see that some value is lots and start to scale back, or reshape the way we approach meaningful events in our life such as college, or smaller things such as how a city is laid out with respect to parking and cars. But I digress. </p>
<p>Coming back to the issue, I personally think its something college students should think more about, but I also recognize that my point of view is a somewhat extreme one and I could probably use some more practicality in my education.</p>