As Seniors get used to to their last year of high school, counselors begin inviting guest
speakers from different colleges to motivate students, but this seems inadequate in
guaranteeing a higher high school to college transition rate. Plenty of times, adults
tell students, “More education equals more money.” This concept doesn’t seem so hard to
grasp, so why are there still those who’d rather choose to get a job straight after high
school?
Due to the increase in tuition fees for college, those who are financially challenged
feel like they don’t have the choice of getting a higher education. College Board, a
website that helps high school students apply for college, shows that tuition and room
and board fees have gone up 2.6% each of the last ten years.
Sky Ly, a second-year student at Fresno City College, says she sees a trend among those
who drop out of school. “If you have a job, you’re just going to keep working, working,
and working, and then you’ll come to the point where you stop and wonder, ‘when am I gonna
go back to school?’”, commented Ly.
Counselor Ben Reynoso from Upward Bound says that about 97% of his students have gone on
to college and the other 3% don’t go to college right after high school. Upward Bound, a
program at Fresno State, helps first-generation and low-income, college-bound high school
students get into college. The program has several counselors that push their students to
continue on their education after high school. Reynoso states that students don’t go to
college because they have other plans. “I think a lot of students see college as this thing
that, you know, is going to take forever, they either find a job or their priorities are
different,” Reynoso said.
Along with the financial aspect, some individuals opt out of college because they think
they’d be able to get a head start saving money. Truth is, they will be less likely
considered in the selection process for jobs. Panyia Thao, a former college student and
current employee at the IRS shared that one of her friends who was hired was laid off
several days later because her “education wasn’t enough.” She compared a high school
graduate’s status with a four-year college student’s status when competing for a job
and it was clear that employers would rather hire the person with a higher educational
degree.
Thao said she believes in the importance of education and what it entails for the future
of individuals. According to Thao, college provides students the opportunity to acquire
the skills needed to obtain a career or a job in the future, but the decision to actually
attend mainly derives from the amount of motivation and drive within them. “Two or three
years out of college, you’re going to lose all the information you learned in high school…
you won’t remember a lot of the knowledge you learned,” says Thao, “and when you decide to
go back to college, you’ll start out really fresh and it’ll be hard.”
Inflation and increased tuition is a major problem, but students sometimes forget about
the essential aides available. “That’s what the counselors and financial advisors are for,”
says Ly, “that’s why you go talk and get more information.” Though she didn’t visit her
counselor as often as she could have, the times when she did, Ly said that her counselors
did give her helpful information that made her think of her college route.
In addition to the academic advisors available, Reynoso says that his students who did not
qualify for financial aid applied to many scholarships or took out loans if attending the
more expensive schools. This is an option that people can take advantage of if they feel
like they are unable to afford college.
For those who are afraid to take out loans because they don’t want to be in debt, Thao
offers that regardless of where someone goes to college, that person will eventually need
to take out a loan at one point or another to afford it unless they are wealthy. The point
is, no matter how long it takes in college, once finished the hard work and dedication will
pay off. The borrowed money will be slowly paid off once a person uses his/her degree to get
a job.
Because some students, as Reynoso mentioned earlier, don’t have their priorities straight,
they might be thinking about buying a car or something that will benefit them presently. He
says that what they need to think hard about is “when I’m 25 or 30, how is having a college
education going to help me? And if they really think about that they’re going to know it,
the older they get, the more a college education really makes sense.”
In the long run, individuals who recognize the importance of a college education and get a
head start on it will prevail over others who don’t realize which path brings a more
satisfying lifestyle until later. Thao sums it up by stating, “It’s going to be hard for
you to force yourself back into school unless you have the determination…education should
come first and you can always get a part time job or go to school part time and work full
time as long as you’re still in college and filling your mind with skills and knowledge.”
Denise has been a part of The kNOw since the summer of 2010. She is 16 years old and
currently attends Edison High School as a senior. Denise wants to get in to the medical
field at either UCLA, UC Davis, or University of The Pacific in Stockton. Her first article
with The kNOw is in Issue 7, and it is one of her biggest achievements since joining. She
loves to read, write and volunteer at hospitals. Denise usually likes to listen to rock
music, eat any type of food, and go shopping. She’s an awesome person.
