When you’re a student in high school, people constantly push the narrative that you can do anything and be anybody you want and that you have your whole life ahead of you. That is, until you finally come to the topic of future paths during advisory, and it seems like the only option is college.
All of this talk about Naviance and who’s going to what college makes the opportunity sound exciting, but what the counselors and teachers neglect to tell you is the fact that, according to the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE), only around 63 percent of Massachusetts high schoolers end up in college.
Even at the high school, which is generally considered an exceptional public school academically, the percentage of students sent to college is only slightly higher than the state average, at around 78 percent of kids heading off to various universities, according to DESE. That’s still a large percentage of kids who don’t go to college. So why isn’t there more talk about post-high school options for people who either can’t go to college or don’t want to?
The reason I led off with my uncertainty about my excitement for college is that frankly, I don’t know what else I would do. The entirety of my education here at Brookline has been geared towards getting my GPA and test scores to the highest possible number that they can be, in order for me to have good enough statistics to get into college. This should not be the sole focus of school. High school should be about growth and learning, finding who you are and discovering your true identity.
When I come to school, I feel like I don’t come to learn about interesting topics, but instead I drone through the school day in order to keep my grades up so I can go and take four more years of school. It feels exhausting, and to a certain extent, not genuine. Students should be free to explore alternative options, such as trade schools or working right away. But with the current high school environment, it feels like they most certainly are not.
There are two main reasons for people not going to college after high school: those who choose not to, but more commonly, those who don’t have the option to. For many of the top universities around the country, parents would have to shell out thousands upon thousands of dollars for these kids to even attend, which is not possible for many families.
While financial aid does help, through student loans, it is not appealing to be in thousands of dollars of debt as you’re just beginning your adult life. Because of this, college simply isn’t a viable option for a large portion of high schoolers. Plus, there are hundreds of career paths where you can make a respectable living with a high school diploma, allowing students to make money right out of high school. For example, certain HVAC jobs offer upwards of $60,000 per year, which to many people is more enticing to some than paying the modern college tuition.
There’s also the grades aspect. Many students either don’t apply themselves or struggle academically to get into lots of universities, once again eliminating college as an option post- high school. Both financially and intellectually struggling students need more support for what to do when they graduate high school, instead of feeling sad or worthless due to the constant pressures from other classmates, but it feels like there just isn’t enough talk about what to do in Brookline if you can’t get into any colleges.
I remember back in freshman year, during an advisory class about midway through the year, when the junior keepers first introduced us to Naviance. Naviance is a resource used by high schoolers all across the country to help with the college process and to determine where they want to go. I didn’t think about it then, but now it seems to me as though the teachers and counselors are trying to funnel all kids into the college path, rather than exploring and embracing other options as well.
I think opening students’ eyes to the opportunities that college provides is obviously a good thing and should definitely be structured into the high school experience, but so should the various non-college opportunities as well. Just a day of advisory dedicated to presenting college opportunities side by side with alternatives would be useful. There is no detriment to displaying other options, only the benefit of gaining knowledge on all types of career paths.
From reading all of my points up to this point, one might come to the conclusion that I’m anti-college. This couldn’t be further from the truth. The National Center for Education Statistics said that people who have a master’s degree or higher make an average of $80,200, people with a bachelor’s degree make $66,600, and people with solely a high school diploma make $41,800. The trend here isn’t hard to grasp. Going to college, on average, will show promise for a better future and a wealthier lifestyle.
The point of my argument is not to bash college and say that it’s not reasonable to go to university when you could skip it and get straight to work. The point is that college simply isn’t on the table for all high schoolers, and it doesn’t seem like there’s enough support for those who don’t attend college. We need more awareness for non-college options post high school, and until this happens, students will continue to suffer from the social and intellectual pressures of feeling like higher education is the only option. If the high school truly values student growth, then it must recognize that success after high school does not come in only one form.
