EDUCATION: Society tells high school students to take the “standard” path to college, but how can someone determine what their individual path consists of?
By Natalie Vargas, Staff Writer
There has always been a societal expectation for students to continue on to higher education. Therefore, some high schools present an unsaid stigma against those who do not choose to attend college after graduation. This leads to stress and anxiety over which school to choose and what qualifications it takes to get into those schools. Even though the standard path to college is going straight into a four-year university, not every student has the finances or grades necessary to attend that university. So why is the standard path seen as the only way to get into college when there are many possibilities that can result in the same undergraduate degree?
Some students choose to attend junior college before going straight to a four-year university. By going to a junior college, students receive an Associates Degree in a two-year time span. Additionally, some choose to go to a junior college because they do not have to take the SAT in order to attend. Students-athletes may choose to attend a junior college and then transfer to a university if they have not been scouted out of high school, which gives them a better chance to be scouted by a university after playing at their junior college. On the other hand, going straight to a university offers specific courses for one’s major and allows students to create relationships with professors and other students for a longer time. Likewise, it may be harder to get accepted into some four-year universities as a transfer from a junior college rather than out of high school. However, some junior colleges, such as Riverside City College (RCC), provide promise programs that guarantee students to graduate and transfer within two years without any debt.
In some families, parents do not give the option to go to a junior college unless it is necessary. However, some families may not have the means to pay for their student’s general education at a university, which leads to their child attending a junior college. There are counselors and college advisors with very opinionated views about students going to a junior college then transferring, saying that it is not the right path for everyone. If someone has the finances and grades to go straight into a university, then he or she should not limit themselves by going to a junior college. People should always go where they can fulfill their greatest potentials and not only settle because it is the “easy” option.
What most people must come to realize is that there is not just one path to college. Some go to a four-year, junior college, a junior college to a four-year, or some even come back to school years after they graduated high school. There is no standard path because it all is determined by the finances and grades of the student applying to colleges. Not every student will be in the same situation when deciding their college path.