From the Outside

College is the school after school, the school where you learn about what you are going to do with the rest of your life. When I say college I really mean post-secondary schooling, because college isn’t for everyone, like me, I don’t want to live on a campus for 2-4 years, going to classes 3-4 times a week and having to do “core” classes on top of the classes I am doing for the career I am going into. Personally, I am going to a trade school-type setting, I say that because it’s not a trade school, it’s a place called MTEC (MEMA Technical Education Center), they offer a 3-month course that covers all aspects of HVAC-R that’s class times run from 8am-4pm, 5 days a week, kind of like a job. It’s less expensive than going to a college and has more information dedicated to the trade I am going into, without doing extra classes and staying on a campus, in a super condensed course, but that’s not for everyone either. As I watch friends who are trying to get into college and based on the help that I’ve received, granted I never asked for it, that they could have started having us look at post-secondary schooling sooner. I think kids should’ve had the same resources to look at colleges in freshman year that they have when they are in senior year, they should start pushing students to look into colleges earlier. I based this on seeing friends frantically writing scholarship essays and touring campuses trying to figure out life after high school.

I know that our school didn’t really start pushing us as students, nor did they give us the resources to look for colleges until junior year, which only gives us as students 1 1/2-2 years to look for a proper post-secondary school. That’s only 2 years to figure out your career, how much your school is going to cost to go to, and how you’re going to pay for that schooling. That’s a lot to have to figure out when you go in-depth into each of those things I just listed, never mind the fact that you have to pick the right school for you in that time, that includes its location, campus, classes, costs, living, and transportation. I am not saying that we should start looking into this stuff in middle school, much less elementary school, when you’re that young your brain isn’t quite developed enough, you’re still a kid, and you shouldn’t be worrying about what you are going to do with the rest of your life. Once you hit high school though, freshmen year they should start pushing students to pick their post-secondary school, not any earlier or later, so that way you aren’t a senior in high school, not knowing what you want to do for a career. This way you have a plan by senior year of what you are going to do after graduation, and there is no guesswork that way, you’ll know what you’re doing, where you’re going, how you are going to pay for post-secondary school, and also that way you know how to orient yourself when it comes to choosing classes in high school and after high school.

Freshmen year was when I started working for my grandfather, which is how I got into plumbing and heating. Because I got into that career early I was able to figure out that, that’s what I want to do with the rest of my life, and I’ve had the rest of high school to orient myself toward that trade, to figure out where I am going to go to learn about that trade, how I’m going to pay for the that schooling, and how I am going to spend the rest of my life. If I didn’t have that much time and experience in that trade early on, as I did, I would be doing something else entirely, and I also probably wouldn’t be nearly as prepared for life after high school as I am now. I would probably still be figuring out what I wanted to do for a career, and figuring out schooling and everything else with that, but because I started early those are problems that I don’t have to deal with as much because I already have them figured out. Starting career searching in freshmen year will give you the time you need to figure out a career and to see if you actually like that career, as well as it gives you the time to figure out how you are going to achieve that goal.

“University College” by Lawrence OP is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.