Higher Ed Utah

This post is something that’s been rattling around in my head for a while. My path to college was pretty traditional by most standards; I graduated from high school, moved from a small town in central Utah up to Salt Lake City, enrolled in college, and was a full time college student until I graduated with my Bachelor’s degree. So many people I know did not share the same privileges and path as me, and I want to take a few minutes to think about the value of being personally prepared for college.

When I was eighteen, I was definitely ready for college. I had already earned an Associate’s degree through concurrent enrollment with the College of Eastern Utah. Armed with scholarships and a history of high academic achievement, I was very eager to gain more education. I’ve always been the type of person who likes school; it suits me well.

When my mother was eighteen, she was also ready for college. She went to the University of Utah for a while, then transferred to UCLA. In California, she met my father, and then I came into the picture. My mom left college to raise me, thinking that she would go back to school in two years when I was a little older. Then my three siblings were born, and the two years stretched out into 21 years. During those years, my mother worked several different jobs, even running her own catering company, and she realized that the education she had been pursuing at UCLA wasn’t what she really wanted to do. When I was 21, my mom enrolled in a nursing program through a Vocational Rehabilitation program designed to help people update their skills. She’s now an RN working on a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN), and she still thinks it’s funny to tease my little brothers, “If you miss your curfew, I’ll start an IV on you!” Despite the joking, the depth of experience which my mother brought to her education made her a dedicated, serious student who realized the importance of the field she was about to enter.

I work with two colleagues who also took different paths to college. One of them started college right after high school, but lacked the motivation to study, which resulted in poor grades. He left college and entered the workforce for a few years, but after getting fed up with doing unfulfilling jobs, returned to school. The new perspective and maturity he gained by waiting to pursue higher education made a difference for him; he was on the Dean’s List every semester until he earned his Bachelor’s degree.

Another colleague is a single mother with two kids who is going back to school. “I felt like I didn’t know enough about it [college], but I think what really made me go back were my divorce and kids.” She says that when she was in high school, she was barely scraping by because of family difficulties, but now that she has her own family to provide for, she takes her studies more seriously, and she’s more interested and willing to learn. Having this perspective is also an asset to her effectiveness at work. Since she has experienced the disadvantages that come from lacking a higher education, she is easily able to explain to high school students the benefits of pursuing that education.

There are myriad other ways to end up in higher education, and just as many reasons. This education feature in USA Today tells the stories of five such people. Regardless of how you end up getting to college, the crucial part is that you are ready.

My point is this: higher education is for those who are prepared for it. If you are ready to learn a trade and join the workforce, go for it. If you are ready to get a four-year college degree, go for it. But if you’re being pushed towards pursuing a higher education for the wrong reasons, you might wind up wasting a lot of time and money, as well as depriving yourself of the opportunity to grow and develop in meaningful ways as a human being. Higher education can teach you many things beyond the academic subjects you choose to study, but if you’re not prepared to commit to it, you will ultimately lose out.