The purpose of going to college is...

To develop critical DRinking skills.

...the honourable answers

*My* purpose was to get a good-paying job. I'm sure there are people out there who'd fall into lots of these other categories.

To have feminazis and environuts to indocrinate you.

I would say of these, developing critical thinking skills is the most important one. Also getting a good job, learning about a specific subject, learning things that will benefit all humanity (this one I would say is the rarest), and raising one's awareness are likely to be among the benefits of a college education. It's also an important stage in a person's socialization; it helps teach independence and responsibility, but in a safe environment..

All of these and more. I think some people may do it to avoid actually going out into the world, but I think it's a great way to actually edge out there slowly. Living away from home, but still going home for the vacations means that you get a taste of independence but your mum is never too far away! I think among some people there is a real sense of bettering yourself and improving your family. My brother and I are the first in my family to go to university, and I do believe it makes a big class difference. My children are now extremely likely to go to university whereas with my parents it just so happened to work out that at least 2 of their 3 children went.

Other. To learn about life issues first, then academic issues (undergraduate level).
Graduate level is a whole 'nother story.

I suspect it varies with the individual. Getting a piece of paper that allows you to make more money is a popular reason. I suspect that a lot of kids don't even make the decision as such. Their parents simply make like there isn't any other possibility.

All of the above plus a zillion other reasons.

I went because it's the only way to get the kind of jobs I want.

Is it really like that in Canada? I do associate it with America - anyone who isn't really working class seems to go to college there. I didn't think Canada would be the same. Here, you'd have to be very middle class before it was just assumed that you would go to university. Not that you can really get a good job without a degree - not something with a chance of advancement. Even traditional trades (like electricians or plumbers) are easier to get into if you have an appropriate degree. You could do well in the police force or the armed forces without a degree, but that's about it. Now anyway. When my parents left school having failed their exams they both walked into jobs that you now need a degree, if not a masters degree, to do.

To get the qualifications needed to get a better paid job.

to develop critical thinking skills - inside and outside of the classroom.

Knowledge and in some cases to get a job (maybe not super-well paid) that matches up your knowledge.

-drinking beer...nope, that's high school
-you can use a computer, but you can't really use to do anything but , not that I know anyway.
-the raise your awareness/and alter your consciousness thing makes me think of drugs more than university.
-not everybody's parents pay for college though most do.
-we don't really have fraternities/sororities. We have like Goliards, but it's not the same thing.

-the benefit for all humanity sounds good, but maybe it's a dream.

so basically you go to college so that you can finally study whatever you want, the way you want, and can finally put to use all those boring high school times. Or something.


Most courses are interesting, and it there's a *chance* that *maybe* you will find a job that matters to you, though probably only in certain faculties. Like most of the law school students don't become lawyers. Most arts/humanities students become teachers...

some people believe that the point of university is becoming a teacher at university.

You should know about life issues already at 18.
If you mean how to live by yourself etc...well most people here don't really leave home when they go to university.
A student can barely afford to pay for an apartment. So unless they really need it, because their parents live in another city or country, they will stay at home until they graduate. Some of them even longer, but that's another story.

There's some people that gets beds at the dormitory, but they are mostly foreign and you have to run to get a place, places are limited. Most people share an apartment with others, there are lots of ads, but they all are people whose parents don't live in the same city and so they couldn't do in another way. Some others can't do it even if they live in a different place, because they don't have enough money.

Education...education...education. There can never be enough of it.

Though you must agree some well paid positions require little formal education.

yes, but as I said it's not a matter of well-paid jobs, more of jobs you want to do,probably a trained factory-worker (if he's trained to do something specific) earns more than a book editor (or about the same), but if you go to college probably you will be more happy to work in a publishing company than in a factory.

So you can gain the knowledge. It's far much easier when they present it for you then when you have to do your own research.

I don't know, most of us develop those in High School.

to learn stuff, if you want.

PURPOSE OF:

GOING: $$ jobs, NETWORKING, beer, procrastination, hopefully avoiding the draft just in case, meeting a SO, freeload from parents, learn survival skills (especially those living in the dorms), buliding up your immune system (mostly for those living in the dorms), an opportunity to pretend to yourself that you are making a difference in the world, and to learn speciallzed knowledge about a specific field (tsp, yeah right, learn new *usefull* skills my ass).

EXISTING: Its mostly an exuse for the government to take more of peoples $$, but hey, at least they use it to research crap.

opps, forgot to mention, an opportunity to get the hell away from your parents.

My main reasons for going: Job, people's expectation of me, desire to learn, nothing better to do
What I actually got out of it: Job, good general understanding of my major, good friends, maturity, and a wife

Good-paying jobs and one-night stands, I believe.

Yeah, it's pretty much like that...

Drink beer, avoid the real world, one night stands, have parents support you longer. I think going straight into college after high school is a mistake. You're too young to really know why you're in college, what you want, etc.

If by 18 you don't know what you want you're a fool.

I think very few in the US know what they want or who they are by 18.

I only know a handful of people who knew what they wanted (as far as big life choices) by age 18.

Hmm.
Well maybe they don't know exactly what they want, but they should be aware of who they are and generally of what they want to do. If they don't I would think they're really immature.
You should know about general life choices as the career you would like to have when you leave school. Actually you should know that way before, since probably at school you already studied what you were interested in the most.

It's strange how from a certain point of view your youths seem to be more mature (leaving home early, economic independence etc.), and on another side they seem (on average) more childish than us.

I went to university to learn and to avoid the "real world." I guess that could also be why I'm still in Korea. If it's all temporary, it's all good.

Most 18 year olds haven't a clue.

Sitting exams apparently

That may be a product of the American education system. 18 year olds haven't specialised sufficiently to know what they love and what they hate. How on Earth can they then choose a major? I studied Biology, Chemistry, Politics, Sociology, Archaeology and General Studies between 16-18 - most people in the UK only do 3 or 4 subjects. We studied those subjects to a high level - probably the equivalent of the first couple of years at a US college. We knew what we wanted to do by the end of it. Well, most of us did. I wasn't certain where my degree would take me, but I knew that I wanted to take Biology and I knew I wanted to aim towards aid work or work for charities. I have a better idea now of what I want to do and it's not that dissimilar to what I wanted to do at 18. We can also study medicine, veterinary science, law, dentistry etc. straight from school - if you're going to take a vocational course, you have to know that's what you want to do. Not to mention that we all applied for our courses and universities when we were just 17. I had to have an interview and convince my interviewers that I really did want to do Biology before I ever turned 18. That's the way it works here. It seems strange that 18 year olds could be so aimless there.

I had no clue at the age of 18 really who I was or what I wanted. I don't think the majority of US kids do.

I know what you mean about having to choose a major so young, and the difficulties which accompany that decision. I know because I struggled, and compensated for my (not so great) decision by eventually earning a graduate degree several years after my undergraduate degree. I digress.

My comment was not directed at the decison of school majors and the ultimate professions which follow. My comment was more about life experience, learning about navigating through different professional environments, from corporate environments to factory/plant environments and everything inbetween. Learning about group and social dynamics, where one stands within the dynamic, how to retain one's sense of self with others, how to confront difficult personalities, how to not take the knocks the business world hands us personally, and how to choose your battles, and how it feels when you lose.

How can someone who hasn't any (or only a little) practical work experience begin to understand the coping and survival tactics required to stay sane in the world of making money (the business world)? Well, many interpersonal scenarios play out amongst the social groups at college. I know that I got my first big dosage of the gamut which personalities can manifest in college. I did a lot of trial and error (I didn't know it at the time) in terms of dealing with them, and I brought those personality experiences with me into the working world. My pursuit of graduate school was the result of my life experiences indicating to me that I will need more academic training to have the quality of life which I want. I was much more academically focused in graduate school.

So, anyway, that's what I meant.

That seems to have less to do with what you want and more to do with what you know. I don't think the two are the same.

I was modifying my message to you when someone walked into my office and interrupted my valuable SC time! The gall! What's there now is more than before, and that's why.
So there we go! We all strive to achieve our goals in life, and the late teens is where many of us start.

...to be fair, and clear as to my meaning, and that no slights were intended, please see my note to Biggles above.

Fair enough

Hmm....maybe we're just too cool for school

It took a few years of learning the hard way for me to figure it all out.

Were you kind of confused as a teenager?
I was really confused about who I was between 8 and 13, but after that it was pretty easy as far as self-identity goes.

U.S. kids aren't given enough guidance and direction as far as their future goes. Adults expect them to know exactly what they want to do before going to college, but don't help them try to develop a marketable interest in high school. There's no encouragement for their practical interests. Some kids are lucky enough to have parents who help in that area, but a lot aren't.

No I was just very rebelious

Most US kids would not take the help was it offered.

If it were offered by parents they probably would, because those particular parents would have raised them to care. If it was offered by the schools they wouldn't.

That's kind of normal and healthy at every age, especially when you're a teenager, unless of course your rebellion is completely out of control.

i'm not sure. i know alot of people who went to college and graduated w. a degree and make less $$ than me and i quit in 10th grade

I'm not sure I understand your reasoning. To a factory work who knows little about educational opportunities, this person can only be as content as his/her knowledge allows. But the publisher, who is aware of the endless sea of educational venues, how can he/she then be content to be a factory worker. Or a publisher, for that matter. Your scope of knowledge depends on your ability to process opportunity potential.
.

Everybody is only as content as his/her knowledge allows.

To hopefully get a good job/career that pays good $$$.