Studying at college is much like studying at high school, except for the fact that most college students leave on campus and have to search for a part time job to pay for the tuition. This begs the question what makes college education so important to suffer the lack of free time and the pressure of academic life, mainly grades. Despite the intense and often challenging academic life, college education is priceless in terms of the skills in self directed learning that it helps develop and train.
The ability to learn on one’s own and evolve as a professional starts not with learning a set of particular rules, but with changes in personality, and college education will help shape my personality greatly. In other words, studying at college will teach me how to be independent in my learning process and rather be wisely guided by my academic advisors than follow the instructions blindly. Education at college will teach me the reasons for boundaries, whether of academic or of any other type, to exist, and how to be creative within these boundaries.
More to the point, college education will help me develop and shape the qualities that are required for the so-called “lifelong education” (Barros 119). Understanding the algorithms of the learning process after conducting researches at college will help me explore new areas and remember new information easier.
Speaking of boundaries and the means to cross them, information seems to have become the major tool for achieving success in the XXI century. The people, who are capable of searching for data efficiently, acquiring and processing it fast, and use it for business purposes, have everything what is needed for economic and financial success in the information society that we live in nowadays.
For example, noticing a certain niche in a specific market and taking it before everyone else does is what may bring a leader of a third-rate company to the top of the world’s most influential entrepreneurships. Seeing how a college provides ample opportunities for learning the basics of information location, acquisition, processing and use by providing students with academic assignments, college education is unbelievably valuable for people who care about their future, me being one of these people.
The last, but definitely not the least, college education will teach me the art of communicating my ideas in a coherent and convincing manner. True, communication skills can be acquired not only in college, but also in daily conversations; however, the latter will not provide me with the skills that I strive for attaining, i.e., the ability to convey my ideas to a vis-à-vis flawlessly, convince the opponent about a particular issue, be a good listener by not simply keeping silence when someone else is talking, but also by showing that the speaker’s point of view has been understood and accepted as a viable and reasonable one, etc. (Prashini 46).
Though these qualities can also be developed and trained by interacting with peers, I assume that college lectures, presentations and other activities involving direct communication between a student and a teacher will help me acquire important communication skills faster and train them in a much more efficient manner.
College education is not the only path to one’s professional, academic and personal evolution. However, it doubtlessly provides the opportunities for acquiring the skills that will be used for becoming a successful leader and a lifelong learner. Thus, college education is an integral and essential part of my social life and future career.
Works Cited
Barros, Rosanna. “From Lifelong Education to Lifelong Learning: Discussion of Some Effects of Today’s Neoliberal Policies.” European Journal for Research on the Education and Learning of Adults 3.2 (2012): 119–134. Web.
Prashini, Naidoo. “Education: Communication Skills – Giving Effective Feedback.” GP 1.2 (2013): 46. Web.