Society Says Yes by Mia

Mia's entry into Varsity Tutor's April 2020 scholarship contest

  • Rank:
  • 2 Votes
Mia
Vote for my essay with a tweet!
Embed

Society Says Yes by Mia - April 2020 Scholarship Essay

Education has become increasingly more common, expected, and universal. Where now it is the norm to apply for colleges after your junior year in high school, it wasn't always that way. When the United States was founded it was more common that the public was uneducated, one of the main reasons the electoral college was created. All of a sudden, in present time, it's more common that most of the public is educated. With an increase in public education and higher education it can be hard to remember that our ancestors did alright without an education. Why does it seem that, not alone having a high school education, but also a higher education, is required to have a decent quality of life now? Well it is so important, because society says it is.

We are set up from a young age, especially if our parents have a higher education, to expect a journey into the collegiate life. We are walked through life with unconscious signs and signals from society that attending college is important, if not imperative. We are offered advanced courses in elementary school up to high school, and even introduced to college-level classes before we can even consider where we want to go. We are forced to take standardized tests to measure our level of college readiness, whether or not we plan to peruse a higher education. Through media, movies, books, social media, we are flooded with images of fast-food workers with multiple jobs, and no degree, struggling to put food on the table. All these things are forced on us by society. Not only does the school system and media send the message that college is essential, but so do employers. Many job applications do not even allow a submission of the application if you cannot select a higher education.

While there are many jobs that do require a certain set of specialized skills, or knowledge, such as a doctor, or lawyer, there are also many jobs where most of the learning is done on the job. The importance of college varies depending on the individual, and their dreams, wishes, and needs. To me, college is very important. All my life I have wanted to become a doctor. I have always had set in my head the long, treacherous, but rewarding path of my undergraduate and graduate education. For a very long time I had this same mindset of all my peers, that it is important for them, and everyone should go to college. It wasn't until I got a little older and found out many people in my life, many successful people in my life, had little to no higher education. This was when I started to think about the social constructs that surrounded higher education. The constant social pressure to continue your education after high school or you will be living on the streets, unhappy, or both. When you look back on our predecessors, and their lack of education, you wonder how the different societal standards have effected the way we view college. So, is attending college important? To me yes. To you? Your neighbor, or fellow student? That's up to them.

Votes