I think many (myself included) kind of just wind up at college somehow with little thought in advance as to why we’re there in the first place. There’s elementary school, middle school, high school… college is just kind of the next step in the education process. An expectation for some; a requirement for others. The reason why college is so paramount to parents is because they equate four-year degrees with success and large figure salaries to come in the future. But now, a number of economists, academics, and policy analysts are challenging all this. And experts have some pretty convincing evidence as to why two-year or technical training schools could be a better option for some Americans.

The main argument is that there are just too many people going to college in the first place–many who are unqualified. There is also a large amount of overqualified degree-holders in today’s struggling job market. But there are other major issues dealing with the current state of the economy. Before deciding to imprison yourself in one of these four-year institution, there are factors to take into consideration like rising student debt, stagnant graduation rates and, of course, the high unemployment rate among college graduates.

However some (like concerned parents) argue undergraduate schools provide a wider variety of opportunities and eye-opening experiences that help you become a more worldly, well-rounded person than trade schools. I mean, I think we can all agree that a large part of what we learn in college does not happen in the classroom; it is our environment and our experiences – both that are unique to four-year universities – that teach us many of our life lessons. Others also bring the money factor into the equation, such that college graduates may have the chance at obtaining higher salaries.

But do they? With the economy in the dumps and unemployment rates the highest they’ve been in recent history, does a 4-year degree really mean a more successful future? Maybe not.

What do you think? Do you agree that trade schools might be a better option? Do you think you are getting more out of your traditional, four-year college program?

Sound rude? Yeah.
Are they right? Maybe.

But the real question is: does a university have the right to tell students that they have to lose weight?

As of now, Lincoln University is requiring all students with a BMI of 30 or more (which is considered obese) to enroll in a physical education course that meets three hours a week. Receiving a diploma will be contingent on them completing this course.

In other words, you may ace every course you take, but if you can’t walk up a flight of stairs to get to the classroom, you won’t be receiving a diploma come graduation time.

Some students find it unfair that they are being targeted because of their weight, claiming they came to college to get an education, which has absolutely nothing to do with their body mass index. On the flip side, the University claims that they are committed to aiding students in “achieving and maximizing students life goals” and that obesity is a factor that hinders this process.

On one hand the school is helping students adopt a healthy lifestyle (and who wouldn’t want to get credit for working out? Goodbye, gym membership!), but at the same time, is it the university’s job to force students to adopt a certain lifestyle or yank their degree?

What do you think?

Besides a few unsuccessful bounces of a beachball in the rows and our dorky Valedictorian giving a really boring speech, the graduation was rather uneventful. Until someone decided to streak up and down the aisles with their future school Sharpied onto their butt.

That was awesome.

Naturally, it caused quite a stir, but he got nothing more than an angry finger wave from the Principal and some congratulatory pats on the back from everyone else. Which is why I was a little shocked when I heard about one high school senior who was denied his diploma after blowing a kiss to his mom while walking to pick up his diploma.

Seriously. The kid, who spent 4 years working towards his high school diploma, was shot down for an air kiss to his mama. He passed all the classes, fulfilled all the requirements – now he can’t graduate for showing gratitude to his mother.

I understand not wanting people to make a mockery of graduation, but this is getting a little out of hand. What’s next? Tazing students for excited fist pumps? Arresting them for clapping?

I can only imagine the fate of my streaking classmate at this school. He’d probably be working on a chain gang somewhere right now.

Of course, having a Bachelors doesn’t really do anything anymore. I’ve heard about a ton about people who have their Bachelors and are working at a Domino’s or something. Getting a Masters seems like the next logical step, for students and apparently their parents. So is it such a bad thing that I really don’t want to go?

Being around a ton of people who are all talking about getting recommendations and narrowing down their grad school list makes me realize more and more that grad school really isn’t for me. My mom’s look of horror when I told her this one day this summer is the only thing I see when I talk about wanting to go into vet tech after I get out of school. Issue is, as an English major, I’m mildly suffering with what-do-I-do- with-this-diploma? syndrome. Publishing and editing are options, sure, but I don’t want to deal with that crap. It seems that some people assume that because a field has something to do with your major, you will inevitably want to be a part of that field.

And of course, there’s that inevitable money issue breathing down the necks of graduates. Do you stay in school for another two years so you don’t have to pay off loans just yet? Everyone seems to sort of just assume that jobs are lining up to grab college grads, but with the economy the way it is, I’m thinking that this is somehow far from the case. More and more of my senior class seems to be regretting their major because there’s nothing they can do with it to get money. What ever happened to going to college to just learn?

I’ve never been too good at thinking about my future, anyway. Most people need to schedule, but I just work on the fly, and that’s not the easiest thing to do when everyone is shoving grids and boxes with terrifying numbers like “2010” on them (weren’t the 90’s just like a year or two ago?) in your face. Though I should probably start looking into vet tech stuff now – so, if anything, I feel less out of place when people say, “So what are you going to do after you graduate?” – work wise, I’m not really gonna look into that until after I graduate.

Future aside, it kind of surprises me that I only have about five full weeks of class left. Didn’t the semester just f**king start? Why haven’t I gotten drunk yet? How have I slept through three of my morning classes so far? Why does that one freshman keep flirting with me when I’m pretty sure he’s still jailbait? I’m not sure how well I can handle the fact that most of the freshmen were born in 1990 or later. That was only about ten years ago, right? …right?

Damn, am I ever out of touch with time.

Well, I went to college, and I even did my parents one better and went to graduate school. Armed with both a BA and MFA, I was certain I could pretty much get any job I applied for, and would get paid 35K at the minimum.

Ha. Ha. Ha. And I’m not alone. Not only have most of my friends with MFAs scrambled to find anything to pay the bills post graduation (working at Borders, in a file room…with freaking MFAs!!), but it seems like degrees in general are losing the battle to inflation.

According to this really long and slightly boring article from the Wall Street Journal, college degrees no longer carry a promise that you’ll immediately grab a job and get paid in awesome wages.

“What employers want from workers nowadays is more narrow, more abstract and less easily learned in college.

To be sure, the average American with a college diploma still earns about 75% more than a worker with a high-school diploma and is less likely to be unemployed. Yet while that so-called college premium is up from 40% in 1979, it is little changed from 2001, according to data compiled by Jared Bernstein of the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal Washington think tank.”

So yes, going to college is better than not going to college, but your diploma just ain’t worth what it used to be worth — especially in today’s economy. What it comes down to in 2008 is a small group of skills that sets you apart from other applicants, not just the fact that you have 4 years of psychology classes under your belt.

The moral of the story? If you know what you want to do once you graduate, get real world experience now. Internships and extracurriculars have never been more important, and fostering relationships with people who might hire you in the future is a great way to be sure you won’t be working minimum wage with four years of a good, quality school under your belt.

[photo from farylrobin.blogspot.com]

Last week, I warned you that the grad school application process is quite a time consuming effort. Well guess what folks? You’re going to need to put ample time into choosing your prospective grad schools too! Sure, this might seem a bit obvious, but this columnist doesn’t always think things through.

For me, grad school was a roll of the dice, and six possible schools came up for me: Georgetown, Rutgers, Ohio State, North Carolina State, San Francisco State, and the school I eventually chose, hereafter refered to as X University.I chose these schools on a whim. Georgetown was my “reach,” and the closest I could get to Ivy League while maintaining a glimmer of hope for acceptance. Rutgers was relatively close to my hometown (by close I mean a 5 hour drive); Ohio State is a party school notorious for it’s tailgating parties (I swear, that’s why I applied- don’t judge); North Carolina State was an hour from my only other friend attending grad school; and San Francisco just seemed like a cool city to live in, as did the location of X University.

Rule number one in choosing grad school? Don’t be superficial when planning your future!

Take your time to research graduate programs across the country. If you want to focus on a particular location, check out as many schools in that region as you can. Take notes. Google the faculty. Check out some of the courses being offered, and find out what the plan of study entails. Many grad schools have student ambassadors that you can email to get a current students’ point of view on the program. Seriously, folks, exhaust the freaking websites. Scour them like you scour Perez Hilton.

In college, you have a lot of room to change your mind. Changed your major? No biggie. Transfer student? Piece of cake. On the five- or six-year plan? Join the club. Masters programs, on the other hand, are only two years long. Stretching out the plan of study can raise flags when you are applying for jobs or PhD programs, and not only is transferring schools relatively rare, you’re likely to lose the credits you’ve already earned. Having transferred schools and changed majors in undergrad, I can appreciate the trial-and-error aspect of college. In graduate school however, you’re in it for the long haul.

In the end, my final decision was between Georgetown and X University. Georgetown= awesome school. X University= tuition waiver. I reasoned that completing a M.A. in itself would be an accomplishment. Where I got the degree wasn’t that important right? Let’s just say I plan on framing my Georgetown acceptance letter and hanging it above my X University diploma. Oh, what could have been.

I realized I was at the wrong school during my first semester, when the homework for a required course consisted of blogging about our experience as graduate students each week. That’s what Myspace bulletins are for! Though my friends and I drank away our frustrations that fall, it wasn’t until the following semester that I realized I would give anything to transfer to Northeastern University, a school that hadn’t been picked up on my original radar, but that I thought was pretty much the perfect school for me. I was shit out of luck.

Make a list of you want to get out of your education. Trust me, you’re going to be working your butt off in grad school, so it might as well be worth it. Take your time looking at schools, my friends. A few extra hours of your time now is much more efficient than two years of your life at a school that isn’t right for you.

Andrea from NYU gives the lowdown on the fashion do’s and don’ts of Graduation. Check it out.