Senior year in high-school is one of the most influential times in a person's life. In senior year, students become mature young adults. After years of learning math, science, english, etc., they finally feel intelligent and ready enough to graduate. Senior year is also when the decisions about college are made. College determined one's future. It determines how successful the person will be when they’re older and what their occupation will actually be. The choosing process definitely takes weeks of thought. A handful of people in the world believe college is not the best option. These people think that there are better alternatives than having to go do additional schooling. Others disagree and believe that there is no better option than to go to college. The argument on whether or not college is the best choice after high-school has been frequently debated upon in recent days. College, with no doubt, is the best option on what to do after graduating high-school. First, college opens doors to jobs of better quality. Second, spending money to go to college is definitely worth it. Lastly, college can teach people life lessons.

To begin, college opens up doors to better paying and better quality jobs. To start with, college graduates earn more money per week than non-college graduates. A Time article says this, “According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2010, the median weekly earnings for someone with some college but no degree were $712, compared to $1038 for a college graduate,” (Rotherham). Based on this information, it is clearly more beneficial money wise to go to college. Additionally, earning degrees from well-known, high-ranked schools can help students get into a more prestigious university. This can especially happen for people with majors involving business and law. Taking classes at elite colleges can help a student better themselves in their profession, which will help them work superior jobs, thus allowing them to earn more money (Rotherham). To add on, having a college degree generally gives you a better chance to get the open spot in a job. When businesses or workplaces have an opening spot that they need to fill, they usually would hold some interviews on who would be the best person to fill the spot. When the businesses begin to consider their options, they look a lot at the person’s past experiences in jobs and the education that they have had. Because this is such a huge factor in the final decision, a person with a college degree has a better probability to get the job (Dalby). In other words, having a college degree can definitely be an advantage when finding an adequate job with a satisfactory check.

Furthermore, investing money into going to college is worth additional hard work. First, if a person were to go to college, they most likely would major in something that they enjoy. For the most part, people don’t go to college to learn about something they aren’t interested in. That doesn’t make any sense. The person would have no inspiration to actually get out of bed in the morning and they would dread having to learn every day. Since people are usually smarter than that, they would wake up happy to learn more about a subject that they have interest in. Because of this reason, the person would feel the money spent on going to college was an intelligent idea. Secondly, sometimes, it may not cost much to go to college. College can be cheap if a person were to earn a scholarship. Working hard in school, participation in extracurricular activities, and being a superlative student in general, could allow this to happen. Sure, a person would have to work harder for this to happen, but doing this would allow them to not pay as much for college (Gobel). Thirdly, the majority of college graduates don’t regret spending money to get into college. According to Time, “86% of college graduates still felt the investment was a good one for them,” (Rotherham). That’s almost 90%. If that many people believe that they made an intelligent decision to go to college despite the cost, then the cost should not be such a huge problem (Rotherham). Essentially, since the education and experience from college outweigh the cost, college is still the best decision on what to do after high-school.

Finally, a person can learn life lessons in college that better prepares them for the future. To start off, college can cause a person to become more responsible. There are usually no bells at universities that remind students that a class is starting or is starting soon. Because of this, students are forced to learn how to keep track of the time and to spend their time wisely because of other classes throughout the day. Also, a professor/teacher won’t remind a student to turn in homework or, again, show up on time. Whether or not the student does their homework and shows up is up to them. This is how students become more responsible. Also, a person can become a more independent learner if they attend college. Nearly all colleges have tons of people for each of the classes, so the teacher or professor won’t really be able to help or support a student if they are having trouble understanding something. Because of this, a student may have to do a lot of trials and errors. Help is not offered as much in college, so one must have to figure out problems and ideas by themselves. Finally, going to college could allow someone to be a better conversationalist. College requires loads of talking with professors and fellow classmates. If one is working on a group project, they need to know how to deliver their ideas in ways that other people will explain. Also, if one is really struggling with work and needs to get caught up, they may need to speak with their professor and be able to communicate their questions and how they are struggling. All of these practices in communicating with other people would help a college student become a better conversationalist in general. (Brooks) In conclusion, attending college teaches students life lessons that could help and support them in their future.

Granted, in some circumstances, college is not necessary. First of all, people like Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, and Steve jobs are very successful people, and they were college dropouts. Though this is true, not everyone can be as lucky as them. They may not have graduated college, but they are still extremely intelligent and they know what they are doing. I can’t say the same about some other people who haven’t gone to college. Mark, Bill, and Steve had knowledge of what made them successful, but usually, people who haven’t graduated college aren’t as intelligent in that matter. Second of all, there are dozens of acceptable careers or occupations that don’t require a college education. Correct, but college goes more into depth on the chosen occupation for a student. College graduates have an advantage by knowing exactly what they are supposed to do, so they are able to keep their jobs for longer. Non-graduates don’t have as much experience, so they may not do their job as well as they would hope, so they might not keep their jobs for that long. Non-graduates would have to find whole new jobs, and the cycle continues. Third of all, people can be in debt for awhile because of the money they had to spend to get into college. This can be prevented. Working hard in school can help one earn scholarships, so they won’t have to pay as much. Also, a person could save up money or work extra shifts to earn more money for college in order to pay for their tuition (Reich).

All in all, the benefits and advantages of going to college outweigh the disadvantages of going by a long shot. To begin, college opens doors and opportunities for more superior jobs. Furthermore, all of the tuition money for college is worth the education that comes with. Lastly, attending colleges teaches people life lessons. College, with no doubt, is the only suitable choice on what to do in life after high-school. With all of the benefits, experience, and lessons from college, a few extra years of school is certainly worth it.

Works Cited

Brooks, Ashley. “Rasmussen College.” Rasmussen College - Regionally Accredited College Online and on Campus, Rasmussen College, Inc., A Public Benefit Corporation, 16 May 2017.
Dalby, Holly. “How Does a College Degree Help Your Career? Centura College.” Centura College, Centura College, 26 Sept. 2013.                            
Gobel, Reyna. “5 Reasons Why College Is Still Worth It.” Forbes, Forbes, 28 Feb. 2015.                     
Reich, Robert. “Why College Isn't (And Shouldn't Have to Be) For Everyone.” The Huffington Post, TheHuffingtonPost, 22 Mar. 2015.
Rotherham, Andrew J. “Actually, College Is Very Much Worth It.” Time, Time Inc., 19 May 2011.