You can have more degrees than a thermometer, but is college really enough?

      Let's be honest...How many of us spent most of our high school days contemplating what we're going to do after the long awaited graduation day? And, how many of us realized that just because high school was over, doesn't mean that we couldn't sit around the house and wait for mom to make us sandwiches the rest of our lives? AND, how many of us came to the conclusion that if we want to be something in this world, then sooner or later we would have to go to "Almighty" college to be successful? Go ahead. Raise your hand. It's ok to admit because we've all been there and we've all been told that college is the way to go! But, think about it...Is college really good enough? Is college actually all you need to be successful?....

         According to the College In America Info graphic, college isn’t all its cracked up to be. Why? Because of the rapidly decreasing job opportunities, poor graduation rates, and even some of the most absurd classes! Studies show that more high school students are aspiring to go to college than ever before. However, they don’t yet know that going to college alone, isn’t going to guarantee them success in the 21^st century. They can have more degrees than a thermometer, but that one piece of paper with their name and degree of study stamped on it means absolutely nothing unless they put it to use. Unfortunately, school systems today are teaching students everything except how to thrive after college graduation. In some cases, it seems like they’re teaching the exact opposite, implied in John Coleman’s article "The Bad Habits You Learn in School."

“It can be tough to help new college graduates adjust to the real world. Joey, a 22-year-old, Ivy League graduate who joined one of my consulting teams, was a great example. He was bright, hardworking, and motivated. But he had bad habits that were hard to break. Joey would become so focused on the perfect answer to a problem, he wouldn't consider implementation. He feared failure so much that he would hide his mistakes until they grew worse. He was only interested in getting his own work right — rarely helping the rest of the team proactively. And he saw the world in terms of hierarchy: I was his "boss," and no one else's opinion really mattered.”

     All throughout the twelve to twenty years that people attend school, they are taught about authority and that being the leader means being the boss. And who doesn’t want to be the boss!? We’re also taught to compete against others so that we can have a better rank than them, especially in college. Learning to work together to accomplish a goal is one skill that is most definitely being thrown out the window. Instead, it’s a race for dominance. Also, students are being taught that there can only be one right answer to a question and that thinking outside the box is not the way to go. Students have gotten so used to looking for the textbook answer. However, in the real world, textbook answers aren’t going to be as beneficial when you have to do a job that requires you to use common sense rather than book smarts.

The video Is College Enough gives a great explanation about college and outside skills that you need to acquire that some people don’t learn during their college journey. Adaptation is a big part of being successful in the 21^st century. Because of all the new technology and sudden requests, knowing how to adapt to certain situations is a MUST! But, most of the time, college only teaches you how to manage things when they are going how they’re supposed to. How are students supposed to know when and how to adapt with their environment?

In the article, The Case Against College Education, the dominating opinion is that college is not always enough to guarantee success now or in the future, nor does it always do the job in preparing an individual for their chosen career field.

“It is absurd that people have to get college degrees to be considered for good jobs in hotel management or accounting — or journalism. It is inefficient, both because it wastes a lot of money and because it locks people who would have done good work out of some jobs. The tight connection between college degrees and economic success may be a nearly unquestioned part of our social order. Future generations may look back and shudder at the cruelty of it.”

        So, to wrap it all, the answer to the BIG question is no. College is not enough. “Your education won’t guarantee success” (Hughes 2008) College teaches individuals how to compete against one another and how not to think outside the box. Without a person’s will power to go further after graduating from college, more than likely, they will not succeed in today’s economy. College graduates still need to learn certain skills that are not taught in college, they need to be able to adapt to their surroundings, and they need to know what behavior to use in certain situations that arise.