Benefits of a college education by Alexia

Benefits of a college education by Alexia - October 2024 Scholarship Essay

"A college education is worthless and a waste of time," we've probably heard this from one or two of our community members, but today I'm here to break down this statement and provide various reasons why it is untrue. A college education is invaluable in the development of one's personal, professional, and educational persona. Pursuing a collegiate degree provides you with various forms of networking, areas for personal growth, career preparation and outlooks, and University funded opportunities.

To begin with, college provides you with so many means of networking, be it with your professors, peers, and a college community. Networking provides you with various outlooks into different areas of knowledge as each person specializes in a different field. You may build a professional network of future Lawyers, Doctors, and Engineers and more that perhaps one day you can call upon. Also, when pursuing a college education there are many various types of speakers that come and give talks at the university. These speakers provide yet another way to broaden your network not only to a collegiate level but also to a professional level as you can get connections into a prospective future career or another event which will provide more connections. Connections, especially in today's society are essential to new job opportunities, more learning opportunities, and the creation of a network for one's emotional wellbeing.

Secondly, a college education provides you with infinite ways to personally grow. For instance, when you leave your house to live in a whole new environment you are building upon your independence. When there is a difficult class and you study every day to prepare, you are building upon your work ethic. When there is an opportunity to network, you allow yourself to step out of your comfort zone and build upon your communication skills. Finally, each class that you take offers you're the chance to develop your critical thinking skills through class conversations and outside learning experiences.

All these skills that I've described above lead me to my next point, that as you develop these skills you will be able to foster that personal professionalism to network with individuals at your university which in turn will see these strong soft skills and see you as a potential candidate. Many times, one may not even notice the soft skills that one is working on a daily basis in college, but once the time comes to apply to a career these soft skills will come to light. Especially as a University or College will offer various easy access opportunities such as job fairs, internship fairs, and shadowing opportunities where one can gain that professional as well as academic experience while pursuing their college degree. Coupled with these fairs, colleges provide various resources such as career centers, money management centers, and many other centers that focus exclusively on building a student up for the career ahead of their college journey.

Finally, a college degree is proven to offer more financial opportunities to individuals who have a degree than those who don't. So, besides all the other factors that one may gain, the living standards and money that one will gain after college is drastically higher than those who decide not to pursue a college education. Ultimately, one should take into account all the positive factors and opportunities that pursuing a college degree may have when making the choice of pursuing an education or not.