Lent Post: College

Salvete.

I was given the prompt to end the fragment "Because college tuition is so high" with an assertion. Whereas the stereotypical answer would have been raising (more correctly lowering) scholarships, government aid, and like arguments, I came up with the assertion, in a jumbled, improvised manner, that there should be a societal movement that does not fanatically promote college. As always, my liberal colleague was right there alongside me to tell me I was wrong. Once again, in response, I make my case here.

What is the purpose of college? To learn things? We practically have all of the most advanced knowledge ever discovered in the palm of our hand. We simply need to know where to look, which either we ourselves or our job will point us to. Anything that we don't have in the palm of our hand is too advanced to be applicable and thus impractical. So yes, if you are interested in wasting thousands of dollars on useless information that you may never apply, spend your own money, but don't ask for government aid. Speaking of money, college is insanely expensive. How many college alumni break free of their monetary bonds, even with a diploma? If you have plenty of money to spare, then spend that money. If not, you shouldn't have to bother. What about the college experience? You mean the part of college that is the least about education and more about gossip, the social scene, and fun times off of your dollar? I could spend a hundred dollars and have the same amount of fun as I would spending thousands of dollars to goof off in the "college experience." What about connections? If you're looking for connections, you could literally have thousands of them almost instantaneously. College is an incredibly expensive alternative to, say, Facebook. What about the innovation that comes from colleges? That can just as easily come from an educated business workforce, who could get the building blocks for their research from, you guessed it, the Internet.

What about the jobs? Businesses will be looking for the diplomas and the educations, you get from colleges, right?

Right.

We now spend thousands of dollars primarily for the prestige of being a college graduate. Employers currently desire diplomas as either requirements or recommendations for occupations. This is a reasonable tradition; after all, knowledge was not suddenly at the palm of one's hand until the third millennium AD. However, the times have changed; people can now expand their learning and their network without sitting directly next to each other. This is why I want there to be a social movement eliminating the necessity of college.

Granted, I have taken college courses and am glad for them, but I wouldn't have needed to go if my family couldn't afford them. No one needs college to become legend.