The Online Newspaper of Lakewood High School

Lakewood Times

Lakewood Times

Lakewood Times

    Opinion – Students feel pressured to go to college

    Opinion - Students feel pressured to go to college

    With the school year quickly coming to an end, it’s time to start deciding what our futures are going to somewhat look like after high school. As students, we have always been told that after high school, the next step is college. But the reality is that in 2016 alone, only about 69.7 percent of high school graduates went onto college the following school year.

    There’s plenty of reasons why these students may have decided to attend college, but here’s what I think.

    I feel that a lot of students who pursue college feel pressured. From day one, we have prepared for this process. Filling out endless college applications, applying for more scholarship than we can count, and traveling to different colleges to determine a good fit. Our whole educational careers have led up to our final decisions on where to go. But the truth is, a lot of us feel like we NEED to go in order to fulfill some kind of expectation. An expectation where college is the definite next step.

    But often times, these students that do decide to attend college often go to community colleges and don’t end up finishing. Other times, they attend a university but do so poorly that they end up failing their classes and dropping out.

    Without the actual desire to go to college, it’s hard to have the motivation to actually try to participate and put forth an effort.

    In my opinion, I think that furthering your education is important, and it’s definitely going to be a good experience. But if college is not what you see in your future, then don’t waste your time AND money on something you’re not going to put 100 percent into.

     

     

     

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