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COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) -- In a town dominated by the University of Missouri's flagship campus and two smaller colleges, higher education is practically a birthright for high school seniors like Kate Hodges.
She has a 3.5 grade-point-average, a college savings account and a family tree teeming with advanced degrees. But in June, Hodges is headed to the Tulsa Welding School in Oklahoma, where she hopes to earn an associate's degree in welding technology in seven months.
College for all? Experts say not necessarily - Yahoo! Finance (http://finance.yahoo.com/news/College-for-all-Experts-say-apf-3621490094.html?x=0 - broken link)
Of course college is not for everyone, no one ever said it was. Not everyone can be middle-class and have a nice lifestyle, there will always be people at the bottom who can't afford higher education, that's the way it is.
It's not just about finances. What about people who can't get higher than a C in CP High school classes? How are they going to last in college? Will they be able to handle the work if they don't put effort into their high school classes?
Suspect a well-trained, competent craftsman or service tech (stuff like IT support or servicing new Mercedes or building high-end houses) is far more useful to a modern, tech/quant-driven economy (and often earns a higher income) than vast majority of lib arts grads of any college, including Stanford or Harvard
99% of US colleges have curricula from 100+yrs ago and lack competent engineering schools or undergrad finance/accounting majors....rest of majors are arguably for trust fund kids who don't need a job or for middle-income kids who will be underemployed post their overpriced "education" which yielded zero job skills
It's not just about finances. What about people who can't get higher than a C in CP High school classes? How are they going to last in college? Will they be able to handle the work if they don't put effort into their high school classes?
Nothing in high school prepared me for the style and type of learning that takes place in a college classroom, and I went to a preparatory high school. It is a completely different teaching and learning style. Many C students in high school go on to become B and A students in college.
A welding cert. can lead to a good paying job, but it really depends on the type of certification. Underwater welders can make up to $300 an hour....but they are not expected to have a very long life span. Depending on the region, you can expect to make between $15 and $20 an hour starting and in upwards of $35+ an hour depending on experience, type of welding, and for whom.
I learned to weld on the job. Since I was not certified, I was stuck at $15 an hour. Those who were certified made substantially more than I did and my employer offered to pay for a course or two at a local CC so I could get my certification. Incidentally, that was the catalyst for me going back to school....and majoring in science.
A friend of mine did a three year welding program and is certified in practically every thing you can think off including nuclear reactor and underwater. He put in about five years in the field before starting his own business. He does ornamental metalwork and makes good money. His last job was to build an ornamental fence for a client out-of-state. It was a $100,000 job, and he is his only employee (although he does bring in people as/if needed).
I always heard that people did worst in college; like if you had a 3.5 in HS, you'll have a 3.0 in college. If a student is putting no effort in HS and get's C's and D's, how are they going to get A's and B's in college? Are they going to care more in college or is college just going to be a lot easier than high school?
I always heard that people did worst in college; like if you had a 3.5 in HS, you'll have a 3.0 in college. If a student is putting no effort in HS and get's C's and D's, how are they going to get A's and B's in college? Are they going to care more in college or is college just going to be a lot easier than high school?
College is just different. High schools generally teach to the test, where as in college the goal is to teach for long-term retention. Typically, you don't know what is going to be on a test. I have heard numerous freshmen say, "If I would have known that we were only going to be tested on X, I would not have bothered to study Y."
High school students often feel like they are forced to be there, and not all students get Cs or Ds or Fs because they are dumb or can't comprehend the material. Some 'poor' students in high school feel confined, or not challenged so they don't bother. Or they are just not interested in the material. This tends to go away in college. Most students generally want to be there and feel like the belong for the most part. They get to choose courses that interest them, and more often than not, they get to choose a schedule that suits them, too.
Of course college is not for everyone, no one ever said it was. Not everyone can be middle-class and have a nice lifestyle, there will always be people at the bottom who can't afford higher education, that's the way it is.
I respectfully disagree. It is a reality that some people can't afford college, but it shouldn't be about money but about skills. Lots of people are happier and more successful doing other things, like having their own companies, etc.
I would say that EVERYONE needs some kind of post-secondary training be it a trade certification, community college, military or a 4 year school. One can not survive on just a high school diploma any longer.
What if someone doesn't want to do any of those four options? And don't we need people to do lower level jobs? They're not going to go away. No one who does post-high school learning is going to do them. And if everyone did those 4 options, the degrees would equal to a HS diploma and then you would really need your Master's and up to get a good paying job.
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