The millennial generation in America is being influenced by older generations, from parents and guidance counselors, climbing all the way up the ladder to politicians, pushing to further their education beyond high school toward a 4-year degree and beyond. The reward being to land a successful career and expanding on their level of intelligence. However, there isn’t a way to directly correlate the outcome of success and intelligence based solely on how extensive an individual’s education may be. What is being blurred is the core of what intelligence is and what success means. Intellect can be skills found within the trades and build on talents that can only be taught in those specific trades. Success is defined by what a person’s interests and goals are and applying themselves into a career that will make them wake up every day and do what they love. Our generation should be pushed to pursue what we believe would grant them success in their own terms, whether it’s getting a PhD in a STEM field or going straight to work out of high school, not just to chase a big paycheck. 

Role models 

Who we get our advice from is critical. Are we taking information from someone who has been through the ropes and knows how demanding college can be financially and emotionally, or are we seeking advice from someone that didn’t attend college, but just heard that it was essentially required by todays standards. Depending who we seek information from, the experience can be completely different. It can have an influence on where you go to college all the way to knowing the ins and outs of maximizing financial aid to the fullest. “What we can do is lay out several key dimensions that seem to significantly affect the return to a college degree. These include school type, school selectively level, school costs and financial aid, college major, later occupation, and perhaps most importantly, the probability of completing a degree.” (Owen) A rehearsed individual could influence a peer into a direction that has a steady, healthy outcome based on what is best suited for that particular individual. 

What are your strengths 

Knowing a person’s strengths and weaknesses is important to decide what track they are going down. “He is at the 70^th percentile in linguistic ability and logical mathematical ability—someone who shouldn’t go to college by my standards, but who can, in today’s world easily find a college that will give him a degree. He is exactly average in interpersonal and intrapersonal ability. He is at the 95^th percentile in the small-motors skills and spatial abilities that are helpful in being a good electrician.” (Murray) Odds are this specific individual already has prior experience with some sort of mechanical workings, or just has done lots of research and is interested in those sorts of “blue collar” occupation. 

The research we do can be misguiding on what is best suited for us and can lead us down the wrong path. “He begins by looking up the average income of electricians and managers on the Bureau of Labor Statistics website, and finds the mean annual income for electricians in 2005 was $45,630, only about half of the $88,450 mean for management occupations.” (Murray) What is not considered is where he is being placed on the scales. Just based on the data, its relatively safe to assume that he up be on the tops of the electrician ability which means he would be more sought after compared to other electricians. However, being a manager would place him in the middle grounds and would potentially place him in a grey area for job stability. Providing this is true, it’s harder to fire a top electrician vs a middle of the road electrician so he should be adjusting the salary statistics based on where their expertise level lands. 

Lets talk about education 

Being an electrician potentially would only require an apprenticeship or associate’s degree. But say this individual is still unsure of where he belongs in life and is having self-discovery issues. Community college may be a better option than a university to venture and seek out interests. “You will grow up a little bit with your first English class, a bit more with your first psychology class, a whole lot more with your first biology, physics, chemistry. That you may shoot through the roof with calculus, philosophy, or genetics.” (Addison) Community college offers these general courses to allow one to see where one’s-self excels and might brighten up the path for them at a much cheaper cost. In addition to community college still offers those nonacademic benefits. “Research suggests that additional education improves overall wellbeing by affecting things like job satisfaction, health, marriage, parenting, trust, and social interaction.” (Owen) 

We don’t calculate college to what economic costs are actually involved 

There is more in play than just the University’s website tells us about the cost of college. In the article, “Should Everyone Go to College?”, Stephanie Owen and Isabel Sawhill bring to attention not only the financial cost of college, but also factor in the significant amount of time that college occupies. “We have to factor in the opportunity cost of college, measured the foregone earnings a student gives up when or she leaves or delays entering the workforce in order to attend school.” (Owen) Time that is spent in college could possibly be hindering the kick off to a successful career. Not only does obtaining a higher education hold back the opportunity to work full time, it also is postpones establishing a relationship with employers.   

The way the value of education is rated is comparing salaries based on additional years of education. Unfortunately, this isn’t an accurate representation of earnings. “correlation is not causation, and getting at the true casual effect of education on earnings is not so easy. The main problem is one of selection: if the smartest, most motivated people are both more likely to go to college and more likely to be financially successful, then the observed difference in earnings by years of education doesn’t measure the true effect of college.” (Owen) A goal driven person is less likely to give up when things get tough. A focused individual will become a complete workaholic and do whatever it takes to reach their goals. There isn’t an accurate representation of years of schooling to match with an individual’s dedication. A less goal driven may be more hesitant on what path is best suited for them.   

I don’t know what I’m going for 

The common belief is that the time taken to seek out a B.A. degree is 4 years. However, according to Owen and Sawhill, “Fewer than 60 percent of students who enter four-year schools finish within six years, and for low-income students it’s even worse.” (Owen) This suggests that students are struggling to plan their future. Possible reasons being a switch in majors once, if not more, or suggesting that college schedules are too demanding to finish for an individuals lifestyle. 

Scholarships can help us more than just financially 

It is too easy to give up in college and drop out if we don’t get pushed. Most scholarships base their grants on previous accomplishments and the need for assistance. What is overlooked is if a student will persevere and dig themselves out of what they started. There is a way to motivate students to not give up when they are struggling. “Good research on programs like Georgia’s HOPE scholarships or West Virginia’s PROMISE scholarships suggest that attaching strings to grant aid can improve college persistence and completion.” (Owen) Imposing a pay back if not completed stipulation would give students a second thought about dropping the heavy workload.    

Lets talk Liberal Arts 

Is there a way to alleviate part of the workload? Charles Murray makes the claim that “More people should be getting the basics of a liberal education. But for most students, the places to provide those basics are elementary and middle school. Memorizing things is an indispensable part of education, too; and memorizing is something that children do much, much better than adults.” (Murray) If liberal education was the primary goal during a scholar’s earlier academic years, Universities would be directed towards major focused classes which would allow students to slim down on opportunity costs by allowing students to opt out of a few liberal arts classes. Additionally, by pushing the liberal arts education early, not only do children respond to memorization better, they develop useful study habits. Teaching liberal arts in college potentially poses a threat which is deterring students from what they dream of doing. “A large proportion of people who are theoretically able to absorb a liberal education have no interest in doing so.” (Murray)   

Challenging a student with a liberal arts education can lead to a loss of interest in furthering along in their academic career, which points to individuals straying away from the opportunity to chase that career they seek to live out. What Murray is stating is that by providing an advanced liberal arts curriculum will cut down on college level liberal arts curriculum to help push individuals to be more optimistic when it comes to their major’s core classes. In addition, it could change the standards of future employers. 

If the basis of a liberal arts education is carried out throughout earlier years, the stigma that beings a person doesn’t have a B.A. under their belt, they are uneducated. “Employers do not even interview applicants who do not hold a B.A. Even more brutal, the advantage conferred by the B.A. often has nothing to do with the context of the education.” (Murray) Employers are viewing a B.A. as a quality instead of a qualification and in return are missing out on opportunities on job seekers that could potentially tremendously benefit them. By including a heavier liberal arts education prior to college, employers can take some ease off future employees knowing that an induvial is being put through a higher standard of curriculum. 

Interest 

A big opportunity that is missed is the ability for a pupil to be taught in a way that lets them freely do projects on what they wish. “I can’t blame my schools for failing to make intellectual culture resemble the Super Bowl, but I do fault them for failing to learn anything from the sports and entertainment worlds about how to organize and represent intellectual culture, how to exploit its gamelike element and turn it into arresting public spectacle that might have competed more successfully for my youthful attention.” (Graff) By letting a pupil research in depth a topic they are interested in, the outcome would be a more fruitful assignment. From there, skills can be evolved on as long as they are learned in a academic mindset. 

Many benefits can come out of this. Literacy and memorization skills can be further developed and it will keep pupils more engaged into assignments. This can expand on skill of a basic liberal arts education. The stigma that beings a person doesn’t have a B.A. under their belt, they are uneducated, can be obsolete. “Employers do not even interview applicants who do not hold a B.A. Even more brutal, the advantage conferred by the B.A. often has nothing to do with the context of the education.” (Murray) If we hold a higher standard on academics as a whole, everyone from the top guys at corporate to the new person hired as an intern can benefit. 

Is it for you? 

College can be great or it can be a nightmare. It all comes down to what individual wants to seek in their lifetime. The push for guidance is needed and the cost vs benefits of a solid education needs to be expressed in a more in-depth way. If academics improve early on, we can be benefit from a higher society as a whole. As for on the individual level, we need to explore self discovery as see what is best fitted for our life. 

Work Cited: 

Owen, Stephanie, and Isabell Sawhill. “Should Everyone Go to College?” They Say / I Say: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing (Fourth Edition), edited by Gerald Graff, Cathy Birkenstein, and Russel Durst, W.W. Norton & Company, 2018, 318-335 

Murray, Charles. “Are Too Many People Going to College?” They Say / I Say: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing (Fourth Edition), edited by Gerald Graff, Cathy Birkenstein, and Russel Durst, W.W. Norton & Company, 2018, 344-364 

Addison, Liz. “Two Years Are Better Than Four.” “They Say / I Say”: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing (Fourth Edition), edited by Gerald Graff, Cathy Birkenstein, and Russel Durst, W.W. Norton & Company, 2018, 365-368 

Graff, Gerald. “Hidden Intellectualism.” “They Say / I Say”: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing (Fourth Edition), edited by Gerald Graff, Cathy Birkenstein, and Russel Durst, W.W. Norton & Company, 2018, 369-376 

Rose, Mike “Blue-Collar Brilliance” “They Say / I Say”: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing (Fourth Edition), edited by Gerald Graff, Cathy Birkenstein, and Russel Durst, W.W. Norton & Company, 2018, 377-389