Many people associate high education with success. However, such well-known companies as Facebook, Dell, Apple and Microsoft that earn billions of dollars are founded by college-dropout billionaires.
Did Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg prove that post-secondary education is negligible? Is there any reason for the uprising trend of dropouts?
These questions are very relevant today. Actually, there are many reasons for why students drop college, but the main are financial difficulty, academic failure and no direction in life.
“With Their Whole Lives Ahead of Them” report claims that students drop college because they can’t afford expensive tuition fee. 7 out of 10 dropouts are the students, who have no loan or scholarship.
In addition, 6 out of 10 dropouts do not receive help from their parents (Lewin, 2012). However, the number of those who do not finish high education is increasing not only due to the students inability to pay, but to the constant cost rise for the tuition over the years.
During the last century the cost for high education has increased by 2 to 3% annually, which is even more than the increase in the inflations rate (Ehrenberg). The universities introduce different approaches how to study, even if it is very expensive.
For example, those who have financial hardship through getting education might help one to find a secure job. Therefore, the reality shows that many graduates are unemployed either. The student can spend much money on education, but will never get the guarantee that he or she will be rewarded.
In 2011 the unemployment rate among those who under 25 was 9.4%. Meanwhile, the number of unemployed grandaunts was 19% (Mirabella, 2012). Those grandaunts who were lucky enough to find a job, as a rule, have low salaries and unskilled positions.
The interesting fact is that 760 000 out of 2 million grandaunts or 38 % got a job that did not relate their bachelor degree and qualifications (Mirabella, 2012).
This is why, the question appears: Why should the student bother to study and to pay money, if there is no guarantee to find good job?
The other reason is the students unsatisfactory academic results. Especially it concerns the first-year students. Not everyone can adapt to the new system of education, the books, the teachers, and even the group mates after the school so quickly.
Many freshmen become very discouraged when they get unsatisfactory marks. For example, 35% of those who enter the university drop it during the first year of studying (Whitebourne, 2002). Even if the student shows the perfect results in the high school, he or she might fail in the university.
Jonathan Whitehouse (2002) described this situation on the example of the A-level pupil, who entered the university, and chose to drop it out, because he failed some courses. The freshman said that the reason for such action was his poor understanding about the university system.
Indeed, the university education absolutely differs from school education, as 80% of the learning process in university is devoted to self-education. The students may fail because they are not very good with books.
The ability to work with books is crucial in the university. The other thing why students get unsatisfactory results is very difficult courses.
Even if the student wills to study, and devotes much time to learning process, he or she might choose to drop out. The difficult program and lack of time leads to the night studying.
The survey, carried out by Army Research Laboratory Field Element, showed that 43% of those students who failed, slept from 3 to 4 hours per night; 17% said about the problem staying awake during the class(Roldens).
As a result, all these influence on the general GPA, which discourages students from staying in the university after several attempts.
Finally, it cannot be omitted that, many students have no direction in life. On the one hand, someone enters college just to try him or her in the particular field. In case of dissatisfaction, he or she may simply switch to some other activity.
It is very common when the student has not decided his or her career path before entering the university. Those courses that are attended are not interesting. The statistics say that 20% of potential dropouts do not do their homework, as they are not interested in the subject (Roldens).
On the other hand, many students follow the parents desire, as some of them are not adult enough to take a decision about their future life in the teen age.
As a result, 3.3% out of 10% of students are studying under the pressure. 2.5% out of these students are dropouts (Alfred, 2010).
Dropping out is not necessarily bad for students. Maybe Steve Jobs, Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg were not good enough to get the diploma, but they managed to get the success.
Thus, the formula is simple: hard work + passion in the work=success. After all, university is not for everybody.
Bibliography
Alfred, P. “If You Want to Know Why Students Fail, Just Ask Them.” U.S. Army Medical Department Journal 2010: 65-72. Print.
Ehrenberg, R. Tutition Rising: Why College Costs so Much. Web.
Lewin, T. College Dropouts Cite Low Money and High Stress. 2008. Web.
Mirabella, L. Life after College: High Unemployment and Depressed Wages. 2012. Web.
Roldens, P. Re: What Causes Many College Students to Fail or Drop Out?. Web.
Whitebourne, J. The dropout dilemma: One in four college freshmen drop out. What is going on here? What does it take to stay in? 2002. Web.