College, Going Away or Staying Home

736 Words2 Pages

College can be one of the most exciting and defining years in a persons’ life. Here students gain the knowledge and life skills necessary to transition effectively into the real world and into adulthood, with that, where you choose to spend this crucial four years of your life also determines how smooth that transition goes. As high school students your mind soars with ideas on where to go? What to major in? How close or how far away to go? This also includes the outside influences such as parents, friends, teachers, and colleges themselves, but how does a graduating senior make the right decision on where to go for maybe the most important four years of their life? Very often high school students are challenged with making decisions and plagued with outside influences that mostly say the same things “Go away!” however, is going away really the best option? All students can identify with the “What Now?” phase, after graduating, students begin to feel lost. (White) The security blanket is snatched away the moment they shook the principles hand and accepted the most anticipated piece of people in a college bound/ or work bound high school students academic career. Their diploma. That can be a lot for one student but even more when the student begins to weigh in on the costs, transition, and removal of boundaries that comes with going away to school. Sometimes staying home may be the best option after all. Going away for school means many things. It means packing all of your clothes and belongings into the family car, it means going to your local filler station and fueling up for the long ride, it means tears falling from moms eyes and dad bringing the tool kit to hang your belongings and put up your television stands, bu... ... middle of paper ... ...anges from $3,000-$21,000 more expensive than in- state tuition” (Gonzalez). The emotional burden of transitioning from the hotshot in high school to just another freshman in some cases are to blame for the rapid decline of their grades. “Over 21% of unprepared freshman fail or don’t return to the university or institution of their first semester based off of academic excusal.” (Christie) This is due in many cases to the unprepared but eager high school freshman turned college students request to go away to school and the inability to set boundaries and prioritize on their own in college. The decision is bigger than it seems. High school seniors should be careful of making decisions on colleges for the wrong reasons. College ultimately sets the bar for your future, you would hate to be plagued with regret, debt, and the worst of them all, without a degree.

Open Document