What I wish someone told me heading to a large University.
Often, so many people are so fixated onto this belief that going to college, and getting into the right fields will land you a good job for years to come.
By no means am I telling anyone to not go to college. I am telling everyone that if you are only going to college to get a degree, than it is not worth it. I too went to a university, I too went to a university seeking just a degree, but I stayed in college because I saw so much more.
Universities are way more than just a degree
When we restrict a university by merely just a piece of paper, you are lacking in seeing the bigger picture, and I don’t mean just figuratively, but also quite literally. Let me show you some numbers:
The average number of undergrads at a university is 6,035
The average number of undergrads at the top 10 biggest universities is 45,807
Many universities have at least 1 staff member per 10–20 students
That means your school has an average of at least 300–600 professors
The worst part about college is that it will take a really special professor to show you want these numbers can mean to you. I don’t have a doctorate degree, but let me just give you some advice from University 101.
Your beliefs will be challenged, embrace that
College isn’t simply a place to where you will make friends with your roommates, stay up all night heading intoxicating foods, and making bad decisions. It is the place where you become you. College is a mixture between the last 18 years of your life, and the next 18 years of it, all except with someone to hold your hand.
You will go through heartbreaks, you will break people’s hearts, and you will likely cry on few final exams.
This is not the time to give up, this is the time to grow up. You will have responsibility over the support system you have, the days you show up to class, the time you will eat, what you will eat, and the most important one is what/who you will believe. A University is different than a local community college, and better for a lot of reasons beside financially. In a big university, or even a large college, you are in a place with a rapid diffusion of ideas. It is here, in the midst of different religions, differing races, creeds, ethnicities, nationalities, languages, values, cultures, and beliefs that you sharpen your belief system.
Embrace this, do not speak out in hate towards other’s beliefs or cultures, but rather see the beauty in everyone’s individual lives and understand it. This is the key to loving others and as well as to sharpen your own beliefs.
Humble yourself early
There is no institution in the world more equal than a four year university. I will say that the equality here may not be perfect, but it is not a place to where Daddy’s money will get you A’s or B’s. It is not a place to where just because you are the most popular in the class the teacher will give you a pass. The professors you have in your class do not have to pass you, many times, if they see you as lazy they will not even want you.
Many professors do not care for basic human interaction, you are one out of over 60–100 kids that they have to see 2 times a week. You both have lives outside of school, and if the professor won’t let you pass, then you are not going to pass.
Not just professors are like this, but also coaches, directors, and work studies. Many times in high school, and sport clubs, they will allow their kid to hang out in the sport for a while even though they do not possess to skill or the work ethic to be there. This is not the same in colleges or universities, if they do not reach their goal, the dean of that school paying them dozens of thousands of dollars will be breathing down their neck to ask them why they fell short.
Universities are businesses, public schools are just that, public—anyone can come.
When you humble yourself early, you can finally do three things that I wish I learned every year in college:
1) Shut up
2) Listen
3) Do
These three things will carry you further, faster, and longer in college. I do need to add one disclaimer: the very thing that you may need to do, is to speak up.
You are apart of something bigger
College is the best place to start a business, mainly because of the stats that I indicated earlier. More importantly it is a place to where, at least, hundred of people will benefit off the product/service that you create. It is at the least worth a try.
College is a good place to start a business, I have made my case on that. College is more importantly a great place to spark a movement, history has made the case on that.
Not only will you become more educated and given the skills to be able to go through life in college, but you will also be able to learn more about different cultures, and also the differences and the inequality that persists in culture. Every region of the world has an advantage, and disadvantage compared to others. College is a place to where people from all these backgrounds converge as colleagues, as equals, and start asking the deeper question. Why?
Why do these inequalities persist, why do they continue, where do they come from, this allows an individual to see themselves as part of something bigger, an overall purpose as well as an individual purpose as their part to play in it.
Is a 4 Year University worth it for you?
College is not for everybody, but it can benefit anybody
It might be worth it, or it might not. The real deciding factor, and the only one that will know is you.
We are used to being handed papers and tests, but in college, the test that will set you apart isn’t given, but you must chase after it. You must continue to chase it, year after year, tweet after tweet, Instagram post after post, and at the end of the story, if you have achieved something bigger than a simply piece of paper to be framed on the wall, then congratulations. You have truly done something special. You saw through the institution and saw the people, the knowledge, the mentors, and the collision between you and your University has created a once-in-a-lifetime event, a supernova.
Congrats, you are truly someone special.
