Daniel Arroyo

Professor Sykora

ENGLI-0493-195

November 11, 2019

Purpose of College

When thinking of what people go to college for, I would suspect it would be to get

higher education in a certain career. Most people I would also say don’t have a certain career in

mind going and I do believe that college does try to get you to find one in the span of just 4

years. In the OP-ED by the collegian, titled College used to be about personal growth. Now it’s

just career prep, I would agree with the author in the notion that we all start off college now to

see what kinds of degrees and what kind of jobs we can pursue. We go to school today also in

order to satisfy our ideas of what it means to get the young adult lifestyle. The idea that we are

here only to get a higher level of education and eventually in pursuit of a higher paying career

sounds true for most people but the goal I would say is only to get a degree that sounds most

appealing without the idea of trying to expand your general knowledge. The author goes into

how the way we look at school as a stepping stone on the way to something else is a wrong view,

I would agree. Learning, in my opinion, is a lifelong thing and the school system can be just one

avenue to achieve a higher level of thinking. Overall it can be said that most people will only be

at the college for a short period of time in their life with the only goal of trying to move on to

something more sustainable. School can be a tool to enact more human interactions, it can help

you find people of similar interests or history, You can make friends and meet mentors who can

give you advice. You can try different activities and a multitude of different things that might
grab your attention. Yes, the pursuit of a job is important but having the opportunity to develop

yourself should also be a priority.