It depends by Shannen

It depends by Shannen - April 2020 Scholarship Essay

I can understand why the initial knee-jerk reaction to this question would be a “yes, of course!” After all, this is a scholarship contest. But, there’s more to this issue than what first meets the eye. Because where we sit today, we have a great deal of over-educated and under-utilized debt stricken workers, racked with student debt. And although I doubt most of them regret the education they received, I don’t think they would all say that college is as important as it is often made out to be.
Now, this is not to negate college’s benefits. It is objectively the best method we have today to educate our population on mass beyond the more cursory education we all get in high-school. More than that, I feel as though it is the only place where scientific research for research’s sake can and is conducted. The fact that someone can be testing things, not for a patent or for a company, but just to see what will happen (with a heaping dose of scientific knowledge in the mix as well, of course) has improved society in many ways. Furthermore, it is the only hope for many struggling families and students who just want to be able to get out of their situation.
However for many, it is simply not necessary. Think of the film industry, for example. For many, it is simply better to try and use their network to break into the industry rather than to go to film school, rack up a lot of debt, and have wasted time they could be using to learn the trade in the field. I’m not saying film school is necessarily a bad thing, after all it is an important way for people to build a network and provide credibility for employers. But it isn’t always the best route. Even in more STEM based fields, you have people dropping out of college to start tech companies and being very successful. In my own life, I had Navy recruiters trying to get me to avoid college and go to the Navy nuclear engineering training program, working on nuclear reactors without a bachelor’s degree. And this is not to mention the countless degrees that go unused just because the supply of college graduates outweighs the demand for highly-educated workers.
So for some people, college can be very important. It can lift families out of poverty, and allows for scientific discoveries that would not be possible otherwise. But for many, it doesn’t matter as much. They would have an easier time simply going straight into the workforce. So, I would say it depends on what the prospective student wants to do and the path they want to take to get there. Can it be important? Yes. But is it always important? Not really. And it certainly isn’t imperative for everyone to go to college.