College is supposed to prepare you for the real world. So how come I don't feel prepared?
With the education and training we receive at a fine institution of higher learning, we will be qualified for the job market and whatever life throws our way. At least that's how the myth goes.
As my junior year was ending in high school, I applied frantically to many colleges. Like most students, there was tremendous pressure on me at that time. I had to get a good score on my SATs; I had to raise that class rank; I had to get into a great college because that would ensure my future. It was pretty much an assumption that I would attend college. No one had to tell me -- it was just the logical next step after high school.
As the end of my junior year at ASU draws near, and graduation looms ever closer, I have become a bit more reflective and mindful of my future.
We all attend ASU for different reasons, but for the majority of people, it is probably to gain an education in the hope of being a qualified worker in the job market -- to secure a stable future.
As that future is quickly bearing down upon me, it appears to me that I may actually have devolved in these last few years in school.
Relative to high school, college life has essentially untrained me to enter this world.
For one thing, high school life was a lot more structured than life these days. Today I can look back and marvel at the high school kid who would spend every day at school from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Now, instead, my pathetic attempt at taking a 7:40 class resulted in miserable failure, and I seem to be unable to do anything before 9 or 10 a.m.
I'm sure it is not an exaggeration that many of you readers have also caught this college affliction.
For many, moving on from ASU to a real job will also involve a huge change in the dress code. Guys and girls on campus bare their skin in tight-fitting clothing, basking in the Arizona sun. In high school, there were certain expectations as to what kind of garments would be allowed. But once again, I've been spoiled by my college freedoms, as I now resist having to wear the formal clothing required in the workplace.
Ironically, the normal practices of high school are much more similar to the expectations in a full-time job setting than the carefree pace of college. In this respect, the lifestyle of college has been a regression.
These observations are not meant to imply college isn't the right step before working. To be sure, a university education will pay monetary dividends in the future. A College Board study notes, "the [lifetime] gap in earnings between those with a high school diploma and those with a B.A. or higher is over $1 million."
But many people have the attitude -- as I did after high school -- that college is the avenue to success. More and more people are attending college now; enrollment trends have been increasing for more than a decade. But college can only prepare you to a limited degree. An intellectual skill-set is important, but just as important are skills not found in class. It is a telling fact that education takes up a very small place on your resume relative to experience.
I'm not saying college will not prepare you for the real world; just don't expect that it necessarily will. It's too easy to coast through a bachelor's degree and then be woefully unprepared for the harsh reality of life after school.
So, as I ponder impending graduation, I worry about new pressures: Can I raise that GPA, buy that new car and get that great job? Yet the biggest thing I've learned after three years of college is not really anything related to my studies, but that maturity and life experience will be the tools I will rely on the most.
Now I understand what Mark Twain meant when he said, "I never let my schooling interfere with my education."
I guess I should be thankful for the freedom I've experienced while at ASU. Education does not always occur in the classroom.
Ishtiaque Masud is an economics junior. Reach him at ishtiaque.masud@asu.edu.
