The most common questions that come into everyone’s mind after completing the high school diploma are-
- Should I go to college?
- Why go to college?
- What should I go to college for
- What should I study in college
- Why is college important
- What are the benefits of going to college
- What are the reasons to go to college
- Where should I go to college, etc?
Most students get confused by such questions. Parents, counselors, teachers, friends, and blogs can help.
The answer to these questions is Yes. There are hundreds of benefits of going to college for higher education. A significant benefit is getting a job, as most companies select college graduates.
People around you may be discussing college as a waste of time and money. Ignore them! There are ample reasons to go to college, which justifies graduation from college as important.
Reasons to Go to College
Earn Money
Earning money is the reason why college is important. College graduates earn more money than people with a high school diploma. In 2020, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported that college graduates get a weekly wage of $1,473 compared to people with a high school certificate, who get a weekly payment of just $858. A high-paying job can be secured only by going to college, which rewards high financial strength. The more money you have, the fewer problems in your life.
Job Security
There are many reasons to go to college, and job security is one of them. A job makes you feel secure for the future. Get a high-paying job after graduation to fulfill your expenses by paying bills on time and enjoying good food without any worries about a shortage of money. The unemployment rate for graduate students in America stands at 2.0%, while 3.8% for high school people, as the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports. It has also been noticed that during a recession period, college graduates secure their positions without fear of losing their jobs.
Lower Unemployment Rates
People with a graduation degree are highly secure in terms of job concerns, lowering the unemployment rate, which helps in the country’s economic growth. In a report by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) in Sep 2019, the unemployment rate of college grads stands at a mere 2.2% while their counterparts, the high school diploma people, marked 4.1%. Hence, a college degree may protect you from unemployment.
Industrial Exposure
Industrial exposure is the top reason to go to college. Many colleges provide internships, apprentices, and vocational training during break time. Interested students may complete their internships at prestigious companies across the globe for better growth.
Not Much Expensive
Leave behind imagining that colleges charge high fees. Colleges advertise their achievements to attract students and charge minimum fees per government rules to enroll more students in their colleges. Knowing that you may recover the course fee after getting a good job after graduation, the course fee does not seem very expensive either.
Scholarships
Many colleges reward scholarships to students who excel in studies or various contests. So, study more to earn those scholarships—an important achievement in managing your finances. You were wondering, ” Why go to college?” The answer is to earn scholarships. They may reduce your expenses for completing college.
Better Career Opportunities
Colleges offer a wide range of courses to students in different fields to help them build careers in those fields. People with a high school diploma have limited opportunities. Making a bright career is every person’s objective, which can only be possible after attending college.
Expand Knowledge
Colleges provide advanced knowledge in your choice of subjects, which will help you in the future. That knowledge would increase your critical thinking ability and exercise in your desired field. A person with less knowledge stands at last in a queue during the placement process in a company. More knowledge means more chances of getting a high-paying job.
Analytical Ability
You need to be well organized in your thoughts. College improves your thinking skills. You need to use your analytical thinking to overcome tasks.
Colleges allow you to enroll in a course without any restrictions and get a graduation degree from college. These courses enrich your analytical thinking to complex problems.
It makes companies select you for a particular post. College graduates stand at these benefits over high school diploma holders.
That’s why do people go to college. Many students know this but waste their time thinking, should I go to college?
Professional Skills
Colleges encourage you to develop new professional skills, which makes you feel confident when entering the corporate world or any other sector. Colleges provide various skill development classes, which you may attend without feeling shy, and enrich those skills in your life, either professionally or personally. People with high school diplomas don’t get these opportunities.
Communication Skills
Attending lectures, asking your professor about doubts, completing assessments and group projects, and giving presentations all help you improve your communication skills on a large scale. Communication is the most important factor in the workplace. In college, you can sharpen your communication skills for better prospects. High school diploma holders lack excellent communication skills compared with college graduates.
Life Skills
When attending college, you have many responsibilities to manage together, from completing the course on time, spending time with your parents and friends, working in a company, and spending time on your hobbies. You get to learn these life skills, and college is the starting line for you to learn life skills.
Public Speaking
In college, you will get several opportunities to speak at various events, conferences, and many more. You will get an opportunity to improve your speaking and communication skills. Another essential skill to inculcate while growing up. Speaking skills would last an entire life. You may need to give presentations in the office or attend meetings/conferences with professionals where strong speaking skills will boost your confidence.
Debates
In college, you will learn skills to debate over topics after knowing the in-depth facts. You may question the authorities over your issues and break down the problems with logical thinking. You may also collect facts and data which were unknown to you earlier.
Group Work
Working on a project requires a few people to form a group and work on specific tasks. It has been analyzed that working in collaboration with other people leads to higher work completion. Group work may be projects, any curricular activity, or any sports organized in college. In the real world, group work is also highly important. Still thinking, should I go to college?
Project Completion
You may be required to complete assessments, create reports, and write a thesis. During these college years, you may be handed over more projects other than these, like organizing contests and events, hosting farewell parties, and many more. Effectively completing your projects on time is highly appreciable. These skills can be developed only when you attend college.
Research Work
During graduation, you get a chance to research some topics. Put in your best efforts in researching and create a research report that may get published or national acknowledgment. For people who want to know “What should I go to college for,” for them, the answer is research work. The proper research work can be learned in college.
Find A Mentor
During graduation, you are suggested to find a mentor who may guide you in the right direction and help you to excel. They will support you in any aspect and may provide a better solution for your issues, aiming for your bright future.
Learn from Experts
A college is a great place to meet expert professors in a particular field. You gain knowledge from their broad experiences and advanced knowledge gained during their lives in that field. They clear your doubts regarding any topic of the course. Get connected to them and know their experiences. Professors always share their experiences with the students. Spend some time with them; they are the passionate humans on Earth. Take advantage of college and gain advanced knowledge from them.
Healthy Competition
With more education, competition among aspirants to secure high-paying jobs is increasing drastically. Experience and education make people more favorable to any employer, creating a competitive edge.
Discipline
The college also teaches you to be disciplined. With discipline, you can complete your course and excel in examinations, facing various obstacles.
Meeting Diverse People
When somebody asks me, “Should I go to college or why go to college?” I answer that meeting diverse people is important for collecting diverse ideas from diverse cultures.
Socializing is very important in the real world. In college, you meet new people and socialize with them, developing personal development skills in your portfolio. These people may become friends for life and help you grow in life.
Meeting new people belonging to different communities embarks you on a journey to gather new knowledge. They differ in their economic background and have different hobbies. Few may have different tastes in food and music, which you may learn from them. You get a chance to experience diversity in college, which is fantastic. This experience will help you in the future while you meet people from across the globe.
Also, the advanced teaching materials provided in the college provide you with different ideas on different goals. These ideas will help you in achieving heights in the professional field.
Build A Professional Network
Building a professional network is important when working or starting a business. In college, maintain relationships with faculty members and students. You may require these connections in future work references. Such professional networks are beneficial when you advance in your career. You can’t ignore this if you are finding reasons to go to college.
You join alumni programs that help you grow during and after graduation. Stay connected to the other college alumni and professors, which will help you grow. Stay connected and help other students who have joined college recently by sharing your experiences and solutions to the problems you faced during college to help them survive better and excel in graduation.
Sometimes, alumni associations may be a more costly affair than social media. Create a college network on social media platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.
Healthy and Happy Life
With a good education comes a good, high-paying job leading to a healthy lifestyle. Such people visit doctors less due to their healthy diet, which can only be affordable for such people. No worries about finances lead to living a happy life. According to the research report by the Brookings Institution, adding education after high school increases the mortality rate by 15 to 19% in deaths caused by cancer and heart ailments. Another report by the Pew Research Centre Studies states graduate students are satisfied in their professional lives, down to 40% of high school diploma students.
High Standard of Living
An increase in the cost of college courses is not an issue for most people. They know that higher education is essential for an excellent job. Despite the course, the fee is increasing, but it is slower than the income of high school students is decreasing drastically. People understand the importance of a degree in sustaining themselves in life.
Getting a high-paying job improves your lifestyle. Graduates live a better life than high school diploma holders. It is one of the obvious reasons due to their more exposure and experiences in the real and corporate world.
Homeowners
An excellent job with good pay enables you to be a homeowner. Owning a home is the dream of everyone who has dreamed of owning a house since college. Most homeowners are college graduates. A report by Zillow, a real estate company, states that over 75% of house owners in the United States have at least completed their college graduation.
Buy A Car
With a high-paying job, you get financially secure in buying a car or two cars. Life is not just about earning a little to pay the necessary bills. Study hard, complete your graduation, and get a job to buy things you like. It may vary from cars to the latest electronic gadgets and many more things you dreamt of buying during college.
We all want a high standard of living, which is a prominent reason to go to college.
Be A Better Citizen
You can improve many lives around you just by completing college studies. Lumia Foundation released a report stating that 40% of college grads volunteered in a community in the past year while making the lowest of 17% by the high school diploma people. A good education makes you a better citizen.
Independent Life
You may be required to stay away from home. You may manage your finances independently, living an independent life by staying on campus. You have to make your own decisions, acting like a mature person at that time. Attending college may enrich these skills in your life. It is the first step towards achieving independence before entering professional life and then future family responsibilities.
Time Management
Time management is one of the good reasons to go to college. Not all people with high school diplomas are great at time management skills. Attending college enriches you with time-management skills. At college, you learn how to manage time by attending classes and completing assessments before the deadline while participating in extracurricular activities organized on campus. Excellent time management skills are beneficial for your entire life.
Become An Expert
The course structure allows you to cover many topics and become an expert on any subject. You can take that topic as a major and attend various classes to gather advanced knowledge on it. After completing the course, you may present those topics loud and clear.
Meet Your Life Partner (Maybe)
Not every student joins college to find their soul mate. But, in a study by Facebook, over 28% of married couples met at college for the first time. I got tired of reading about the academic benefits. College can be a source of a dating place along with studies.
Make New Friends
Friends are an important factor in your life other than your parents. These friendships last throughout your life. They may help you solve your problems. When you talk about close ones, friends do take their position in that category. At later ages, college reunions are being organized to meet up with good old college friends and recall those memories collected during college days.
College Library
In college, you can access the library within the college boundary, where you can explore study materials. The quiet atmosphere in the library allows you to concentrate on your studies, and you may spend several hours getting involved in topics.
Computer Resource Center
Many colleges have computer labs that grant students access to computers pre-installed with advanced software. If you don’t have a laptop, no need to worry—just visit computer labs and complete your desired work on college computers, and that’s for free.
Set An Example
Gain a good education from college and set an example to your children of the importance of attending college. To encourage your children, first, you must attend college, secure a high-paying job, and encourage them to follow your path.
Start A Tradition
Start a family tradition for attending college if your parents or ancestors went to college. Leave behind the old tradition of just completing high school and volunteer yourself to start a new tradition after knowing the many benefits of college. Create an original path for your coming generations so that they may get admission to colleges, too. If you are thinking about your family’s bright future, a college degree is a must.
Learn New Languages
The scope of learning is invariable. You can study new languages in colleges while completing your education. College provides you with limitless opportunities to get a good job. Do you know the best way to learn a language?
Self Study
Due to the vast range of subjects, no private tutors are available for graduating students. You need to study on your own. You must be taking private tuition while in high school. But college teaches you to engage in self-study and pass and excel in exams.
Test Your Commitment
Competing for graduation is not an easy task. College students get more respect due to their commitment and perseverance in completing various tasks.
Understanding Rules
For each course, there are a set of rules to follow. You need to follow those rules while completing your course, knowing the consequences to face while violating those rules. College teaches you to strictly follow the rules without having a faceoff with the results. Following rules and regulations is an essential aspect of life that college teaches you.
Double Major
If you are not satisfied with one major, the college offers you to add another parallel major. It will add more credits to your resume to help you find a better job.
Discover Your Passion
With so many activities organized within the college campus, people have the option to follow their passions. People may be interested in singing, playing certain sports, dancing, horse riding, acting, and many more. Still, due to various circumstances, they don’t get the opportunity to follow their passion outside college. College is a great place to follow their passions along with their studies.
Become A Writer
Graduating from college requires writing assessments and projects that improve your writing skills. It can lead you to become a writer. You need to create engaging content that may attract your professor to give good grades. Such good writers are invaluable.
Accommodation Arrangement
Planning to move outside the campus for accommodation, search for new accommodations close to the college campus. You may prefer walking to college or riding a step-through e-bike. Fancy enough!
Start Fresh
It may sound cheesy, but there is nothing wrong with starting fresh in your life. Start in a new direction in which you want to be, leaving behind the older version of yourself that you were not meant to be.
Volunteering Work
You can volunteer in social work across the country. Many American colleges are engaged in social work, where you can learn and even earn your work. Sounds interesting!
Breakout of Your Shell
Moving from childhood to adulthood- this transition portrays your personality, what you were in school, and what changes you made in yourself during your college days. Enjoy your outgoing adventures in college if you were a backbencher in school. Study hard in college if you wish to study hard in school.
Travel
Colleges provide various programs for abroad studies, which you must benefit from. Travel to different countries and surround yourself with new opportunities. Develop excellent communication skills with the citizens of that country, gather knowledge about their culture, and sustain yourself in that environment. Most employers in the United States prefer candidates with international experience over others.
Attend Sports & Events
You may attend football matches and other sports events at discount rates for students. As a student, you end up saving money at season football matches, where you pay less for student tickets as compared to general tickets and watch a complete game like other visitors.
Join Some Teams
You can join some teams in college to stay active even if you don’t play any sports. You can start playing from your college days.
Switch Fields
You have opportunities to switch in the fields of your work. People cannot stick to one job for their entire lifetime. It was a past phenomenon of doing one job over work life. With vast knowledge and exposure, you may easily switch to another field of interest.
Consumer Discounts
Colleges collaborate with many restaurants, theatres, and local attraction places, providing benefits through discounts when they visit those places, showing their college identity cards. Many online stores and retailers like Amazon and Apple store give discounts to college students.
Higher Expectations
Every parent expects their child to succeed in life. After graduating from college, you may meet their expectations by achieving a place in any organization. This expectation forces a student to think—should I go to college?
Leisure Times
Throwing parties or attending parties is not a bad idea. Moving from restrictions in childhood to an independent life in college, you have many options to enjoy your leisure time and collect memories you will cherish forever. After graduation, you may start a job where you will not have much time for yourself. College life is considered the best to enjoy your leisure time.
Make A Memory
Why should people go to college? Of course, to make some memories. Memories collected during college are the best memories to cherish throughout life, as memories last forever. During farewell, most students get emotional, knowing that they will miss their college days and those fun times.
Visit Museums
Many colleges have museums on campus, allowing students to visit the museum and broaden their historical knowledge. Learn to appreciate what our ancestors have done and their experiences over their lifetime before you. As you know, history repeats itself.
Gym
Are you a fitness freak, an athlete, or have you ever wanted to go to the gym? Many colleges have in-campus gyms where you may do workouts for free. Exercises make you stay fit and healthy.
Scheduling
You can make your schedule by choosing morning or evening classes, depending upon your choice.
We will provide more reasons to go to college soon. If you have suggestions, the comment box is open for you.