Should I Go to College?

Should you go to college?Definitely maybe. For me I don't think there was ever a time when I considered not going to college. Once I started working in higher education, I discovered that college is not the same experience for everyone. Different colleges offer different experiences for students. Students are not all fresh out of high school like I was. Most students today are over 25 years old often with full-time jobs and families. Even for students coming out of high school, increasingly they are the first in their families to go to college. Only about 60% of students who start college finish within 6 years. That rate varies by institution, but I think part of the problem are students who start college when they shouldn't or without a clear understanding of the purpose of college. No one plans to fail. In the last few years, there has been an explosion of books about why people should not go to college. Mostly written by people who did go to college, they claim that college is no longer worth the cost and that today anyone can learn anything worth learning online for free. Respectfully, I don't think that these writers have a full understanding of what college is and what it is not. I agree that for some people, learning online or through other non-college programs is the better path, but how do you know?College is expensive in terms of money but even more in terms of time and energy. My goal in writing this book is to help people make a more informed decision about whether they should go to college, and if so, how to decide where to go and what to study. This book draws on my experience as a professor and administrator at a variety of colleges and universities. I have consulted and talked to students, faculty, and staff at faith-based religious colleges, community colleges, state universities, and research universities. Based on the conversations I have had over the years, I answer the following questions in the book: Should I go to college?Where should I go?What should I study?How do I pay for college?How do I increase my chances of success?Should I go to grad school?What are the alternatives to going to college?If you are looking for a book that will tell you which Ivy league college is best or how to get into one, this book is not for you. If you are a non-traditional student over the age of 25, and/or the first in your family to consider going to college, and/or you have concerns about whether a college degree is worth the time and money, then this book will help you answer those questions. My goal is to help people make an informed decision about whether college is the right choice for them right now, and how to make smart choices if they do go to college. The choice to go to college, where to go, and what to study is a personal decision. There are no universal answers or advice that is true for everyone. What I do is give you enough information to make informed decisions for yourself