Pep Talk February 22, 2005 Lauren Someone remind me why my college education sould remain a top priority. No, really. Open thread.
I would like to say that knowledge is its own reward. But, fuck that for now. Formal education can increase income. And wouldn’t it be nice to stay in your cute little house for as long as you want without worrying?
Options, honey. It’s all about some hope of having options and calling your own shots. It’s about having a job that you love rather than one that you do because you have no choice. That’s why.
What they said. If you get enough degrees under your belt, you will end up getting (a) paid more for the same work and (b) it will open doors to more jobs (where you’ll do the same work, but you need advanced degrees to even be considered for the job.) I don’t know if the “job that you love” will happen with an advanced degree, but in a bad economy more pieces of documentation to wave makes you more visible to the people who are hiring.
Right out of college, it may not seem to have immediate job benefits, but it means that you will be put on a promotion track wherever you’re hired that isn’t available to others. Plus, it’s sexy.
Time is going to go by anyhow – and you might as well have something to show for it – my sister has 9 kids and is currently trying to finally finish her BA – which is much more difficult than if she had done it when she was 20 ——- BUT in the spiritual world – there is no sensation of time – it’s just something we invented down here …
I second the sexy comment. Smart grrls…*grrowl* Seriously, while I wouldn’t say it’s your top priority, (E & Pablo are your #1 priorities) it’s very close…1) you’re a role model, 2) you love to learn, 3) that piece of paper matters on the job market, 4) that piece of paper matters to get the next piece of paper, 5) you’re addicted to learning, 6) you can do it, 7) you want to do it.
Because things are pretty damned sucky right now and you can keep telling yourself “Once I’m done with school things will get better” and if you work half as hard outside of school as you are inside of school, they will. It took me 8 years to get my two bachelor’s degrees. If I could have gone to school fulltime and not worked fulltime it would have taken me 6. The last two years were hell and awful but I’m so glad that I went down to parttime instead of just giving up like I wanted to.
Would whatever it is that is frustrating you and making you feel like quitting be any better if you weren’t in school? Sometimes you do have to actually consider giving it all up. I didn’t do it till into my PhD when I finally wondered why the hell I had spent all this time & money and still not done… but once I considered actually chucking it all, I realized that the frustrations weren’t the college education, but me. And me I would be whether I was in school or out. So whatever it was bugging me, (no pay is always one) I had to figure out if that would get any better without college. And generally, the answer for me is no.
having a college education will open doors for you that will remain closed forever if you do not get the diploma. Plus you will add to your income.
It should be a priority if its what you want to do. If you find a better route through life, take the leap.
My friend and I are probably going to leave grad school to open up a Wahoo’s Fish Tacos in Santa Cruz, California. We could use some help, so if you give up on the school thing….
Because I don’t want to have to read a bunch of weblog posts on “where have all the female college graduates gone?” Plus, according to Fred Stoller in his guest appearance on Dr. Katz, you want to be able to say that you’re college graduate. Without actually graduating, it will come out sounding like “I’m a college ga-gaj-u-wit.”
Well, to each one’s own, Lauren. But you’re welcome to stop by the shop, even if you don’t want a taco.
Perhaps it is because you are a bright young woman with a lot to offer. You recognize that there is a lot wrong in the world and higher education gives you a better vantage point to affect change. Hmmmmm…. at least that’s what I tell myself everyday.
You need a college education to avoid living with your parents and working on a shipyard when you’re 25, and having a conversation with a man named Victor that goes along the lines of, “What the fuck are you doing here? If my son told me he wanted to work here, I’d tell him fuck no.”
A) Because if you don’t finish college, you can’t go on to grad school. And if you don’t go on to grad school, you can’t get an MA. And if you don’t get an MA, you can’t go on for a PhD. And if you don’t go on for a PhD, you’ll never have the experience of watching your student loans pile up, foreclosing any possibility of a stable future and forcing you into the mid-PhD crisis where you wonder why the hell you didn’t go to law school instead. And if you don’t weather that crisis, you won’t have the experience of adjuncting for peanuts at a community college or backwater state U while wondering how you’ll ever pay off those student loans. And if you don’t have that experience, then who will I point to and say “at least I’m not doing *that* anymore?” 2) College grads have better sex, more often. It’s a proven fact.
a) Because education is always a smart choice. b) Once you have it you won’t regret it. c) Because it’s in a feministic spirit to be a well-educated woman 😉