August17

Why College?

by Aatina K. Shaikh and Dr. S. Kaisar Alam

Included in this article:

Why should you go to college?
College cost might be low or even free for some
Potential for higher earnings and improved lifestyles
Exclusive access to some jobs
Better professional networking
Effects on the society
Personal growth
Final words

Why should you go to college?

Attending and finishing a 4-year college is one of the major decisions in life. You will hear a lot of conflicting advice about going to a 4-year college, especially on social media. “You’re in for a rude awakening when you get to college! College professors won’t be this lenient! Make sure your resume is filled with things colleges love!” It’s easy to get tired of these phrases when you’ve been hearing them your whole life. We are constantly bombarded by the lives of social media influencers who were able to skip college and still rake in a more than decent income. The yearn to drop out or not even attend college in the hopes of obtaining this lifestyle, which definitely isn’t a guarantee for everyone who decides to put themselves out there online, is risky. This is not to say that doing so will always lead to failure. It can definitely work for some, though the chances are low, so dropping college to pursue a social media career is not fully worth the risk.

In this article, we try to answer the question, “Why should you go to college?” We strongly believe that going to college is beneficial for most people.

College cost might be low or even free for some

College costs can be low or even free, for some students. If your family is under a certain income level, certain schools (T-20s, Ivies, and even state schools) will cover your entire tuition, housing, and other costs. Who doesn’t love free college? A college education that comes at a much lower cost to you or your family can only benefit you, even if you choose a lower paying major. Educational Data Initiative reports, “87.3% of first-time, first-year undergraduate students receive financial aid in some form.”

If you don’t fall into the income bracket for need-based aid, there is still the opportunity to receive merit scholarships that will cover substantial portions of your tuition. There are options available to bring the sticker price down. Even if the prices of universities or colleges are out of your reach, beginning college at a community college is an option. According to US News, community colleges can be an affordable way to start college before transferring to a four-year college. This allows the students to receive a college degree, while saving substantial money in the process. The other advantages include, smaller classes, flexible schedules, proximity to home, and workforce training.

Potential for higher earnings and improved lifestyles

A college degree can lead to major to positive outcomes including a high paying job in four years. If you can receive college credits via transferring AP, IB, Dual Credit, etc., you can graduate faster and at a lower cost.

The US Bureau of Labor Statistics found that “workers’ earnings increase as educational attainment rises.” It takes a simple Google search to find the annual salaries for a certain major, career, or field. For some careers, this can be up in the range of half a million dollars as their annual salary. Open AI engineers can make up to $900k per year!

Axios reported that in 2023 recent college grads (age 22-27) earned $24,000 more per year working full-time than similarly aged individuals with a high school degree ($60,000 vs. $36,000). Lifetime earnings are much higher for people with a Bachelor’s degree (2.8M) than with an Associate degree (2.0M), some college (1.9M), or high school diploma (1.6M). According to Institute for Higher Education Policy, many colleges (2,414 or 83% of schools, serving 18.3 or 93% of US undergraduates) provide a 10-year positive ROI (students earning equaling or exceeding what a high school graduate earns, plus enough to recoup their college investment within ten years).

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, High school graduates are almost 40% more likely to be unemployed and, according to the Pew Research Center, almost four times more likely to be poor. According to Pew Research, people without a college degree were 3 times more likely to have lost their jobs at the height of COVID19 pandemic.

A Georgetown University report states, “postsecondary education is no longer just the preferred pathway to middle-class jobs—it is, increasingly, the only pathway.”

Exclusive access to some jobs

Some jobs require a college degree. If you want to be a physician, a nurse, or a lawyer, you will need a relevant degree. Furthermore, engineers, social workers, psychologists, teachers, public sector employees, and others also need a degree. Although the number of college graduates has been decreasing, demand for them is increasing. In fact, fields requiring educated workers have been growing faster than fields requiring less-educated workers. Thus, the percentage of jobs requiring more qualifications (than a high school degree) has been going up. In 1983, 68% of US jobs did not require more than a high school diploma. In 2021, this number was down to 32%. According to a report from Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce, 72% of jobs in the country will require a college degree or some sort of post-secondary training by 2031. The report disagrees that automation will kill jobs and states, “automation primarily will eliminate specific tasks within jobs rather than wipe out entire jobs.” In fact, it estimates the number of jobs will continue to grow to 171 million jobs in 2031, up from 156 million in 2021.

In many areas, your potential to grow professionally is much more limited without a college degree. According to Pew Research, “about half say their college experience was very useful in helping them access job opportunities (53%) or in helping them develop skills and knowledge they could use in the workplace (49%).” A college education allows you access to work in a prestigious field, while also developing your personal self as you do so.

Better professional networking

“Who you know” might sound like a cliche, but it is true. As you advance through your career, networking becomes essential, including when you are looking for a job. When in college, you can create connections with others and build your network. Surveys show that people with college degrees have larger networks (including with community leaders) than those without one. You might live with a few others in a dorm or an apartment while in college. You make friends with people you take classes with. You can make new friends while being in a club or a sports team. I personally have benefitted many times from my alumni network at IIT, Kharagpur, including getting access to consulting opportunities that were not advertised.

I have seen firsthand how having the right connections has allowed people to skip the entry level portion of their field since they had been working with someone to gain experience. They are later hired within the organization of that connection with strong recommendations to go with them. One time, someone reached out to me to sell life insurance. The only reason I did not hang up on him was that he was an alumnus from my graduate school the University of Rochester.Can you find a current employee as a reference when applying for a position? It will make your application stronger.

Remember, the connections you make in college can stay with you as long as you maintain them.

Personal growth

When you attend college, you have to adopt a structured personal lifestyle. You are forced to manage your priorities in a way to ensure you can fulfill all of your responsibilities. You will be busy with assignments and exams, leadership roles in clubs, and working a job, while maintaining a social life. Being able to balance all of that is a skill that will remain beneficial to you as your personal responsibilities expand. Aside from that, having assignments with deadlines can get you used to working with tight deadlines, possibly while juggling multiple tasks in your career. This is true whether you decide to go into marketing and are working with multiple big clients or if you are an attorney who has multiple cases to present in the courts on the same day. You will need to learn how to keep everything balanced to maintain your competitive status within the workplace. College teaches you many life skills that allow a person to mature faster and more efficiently as they are allowed the independence to choose their own path.

We should not forget about clubs and student organizations, which can substantially aid in personal growth. Rutgers University, New Brunswick has over 750 student-run clubs. UCLA has over 1,200 and Princeton University has more than 500. Even smaller colleges like TCNJ has more than 230 and Kenyan has more than 100. You can try various activities from tennis, robotics, yoga, or even knitting. Most colleges also have career centers that can help you find summer internships. These can help you explore a career that interests you. If you like the work environment and can make a good impression on your colleagues, you can most likely get a job within the organization.

Effects on the society

There are long-term consequences of college education. If the US falls behind in college education, the US will lose the competitive advantage against nations like China, which are increasing their college attendance. High school graduates were two and a half times more likely to be on Medicaid, four times as likely to get food stamps, four times as likely to need public housing, and their children are three times more likely to receive free school lunches. People without college educations also are less likely to vote, half as likely to volunteer, and more likely to divorce. Nearly 50% of married couples with less education split up; for college graduates, the rate is 30%.

Studies have shown that college education even affects life expectancy. Between 2010 and 2017, estimated life expectancy declined for those without a 4-year college degree and increased for those with a college degree.

Jennifer Ma, Executive Research Scientist at the College Board issues this warning, “There will be fewer jobs that people can get with just a high school diploma, so this will be an issue as more and more jobs require a college degree but fewer and fewer students go to college.” This could set off a series of cascading effects. Jason Lane of Miami University said, “What we’re seeing right now is hospitals understaffed, supply chain concerns, schools closing because we don’t have enough people to keep them open,” he said. “But what happens when we don’t have enough people studying to be teachers, or to be nurses?”

Final words

As we mentioned earlier, there are definitely people who are able to become successful without a college degree, but they are also outliers. Society needs to continue gaining an education as a whole if we want to continue to advance ourselves. Everything is possible, so while you can attempt nontraditional routes, it may be smarter to do so alongside working to academically advance yourself through attending college. There are many influencers who continue to go to college even after their rise to fame. Take Noah Schnapp. He is going to UPenn (an ivy league) even after his major success in Hollywood. If he can go to college, we can all go to college. Having that paper that displays your college education can be a huge stepping stone in the labor market, where it has become competitive for almost all positions. There is a lot that a college education can do for you and one is ensuring a decent, livable salary. I want to emphasize how important this can be, especially for students who come from a family where you can’t fall back on your parents. A college education is a ticket to a life where your future is more secure.

College admissions and SAT/ACT prep help

If you need help with your college essay, Prep Excellence can help. Feel free to inquire about these services to cater to your needs specifically.

It’s never too early to start preparing for the SAT and ACT. If you need help with your test preparation, please check out our blog and YouTube channel. Prep Excellence offers several industry-leading test prep courses and top SAT and ACT tutoring that you can take advantage of.

Reviewed by Ashfaque Rahman and Kurratul Ayin

October09

Uncategorizedby Aatina Shaikh

Creating a College List

Written by: Aatina K. Shaikh

Disclaimer: This article was originally published in September 2022. The article has been substantially revised since then.

First Step: Creating a College List

Included in this article:

The college application process can be daunting, and whether you have started to prepare for it or not, knowing the steps and tricks to get through it makes the process run smoothly. Through this series, I hope to guide you through those steps so you can feel prepared and confident in your college applications. Then, you’ll be able to relax afterward as you wait for college decisions to be released.

One of the first things students should work on is putting together a list of schools they would like to apply to. The list will often change as colleges are periodically added or dropped after learning more about them, which is normal. Don’t feel pressure to apply to a school simply because it was on your list at one point. When choosing the colleges you plan to apply to, you must complete extensive research to decide if the colleges are good for you. Remember, as much as the colleges admit applications based on what they offer; you should be picking schools to apply to based on what they offer.

When researching colleges, it’s essential to have about 8-12 institutions on your list to have a higher chance of gaining admission to a college. Placing all of your faith in 1-2 colleges is never a smart move. However, “shotgunning” or applying to an excessive amount of schools to increase your chances typically is not the best approach either. In such cases, applicants tend to forfeit the quality of their applications and pay thousands to apply to schools that are not realistic choices. To combat this issue, research into the programs offered and college visits helps to refine your list.

A good rule of thumb is to have 3-4 safeties, 3-4 targets, and 2-4 reach schools.

What are Safety, Target, or Reach Schools?

Safety schools: institutions where your stats place you well above their average admitted student, giving you an almost guaranteed admission. Oftentimes, these are state colleges with high acceptance rates. They allow you that safety net to fall back on in case your target or reach schools don’t pan out.

Target schools: colleges where you fall between the 25th and 75th percentile when looking at your statistics. These are colleges where you fall into the shoes of their average admitted student, allowing you almost a guarantee of admission; however, there is still a chance of rejection. It’s important to apply to these colleges when looking for a place to support you as a student and surround you with academically like-minded individuals.

Reach schools: are colleges with incredibly low acceptance rates and are highly competitive. Whether or not your stats meet the average, applying to these schools isn’t always a waste of time. Most of these institutions take a holistic approach to selecting applicants, so there is always a possibility. However, it’s essential not to hold a significant weight on their decisions. Another note regarding reach schools: Ivies and T-20 (institutions with single-digit acceptance rates) will almost always be reach schools, no matter your stats. These institutions accept very few people, and the students in their classes are incredibly diverse, so while you may be their ideal student, you still may not be accepted due to the slim admission rates.

It’s important to consider schools that fall under any of these categories to ensure that your choices are varied and that you have options that take into account any circumstance that may arise.

Researching Colleges:

Many factors go into researching colleges, though many students don’t know what to look for. I will briefly summarize the top five categories that many students find important, but if something isn’t a deal breaker for you or doesn’t hold as much weight, feel free not to include it within your research. There will also be categories that aren’t as relevant to deciding if the college is good for you; however, it’s wise to note.

Pro tip: Create a spreadsheet to store research in to look back on later. I will reference this spreadsheet a few times within this series as it will help a lot when applying to colleges and receiving admission decisions.

Factors to Consider:

Cost of Attendance (COA):

The COA of a college is imperative because while schools award financial aid through grants, scholarships, and loans, we must be realistic about how much they will give. If you are an out-of-state (OOS) student, they will most likely award you less than an in-state student. This phenomenon applies heavily to colleges under the University of California (UC schools). They will give little to no aid to out-of-state students, so expect to take out loans or pay for the entirety of their tuition on your own.

For low-income students, look at colleges that are 100% need-blind. They will award low-income students full tuition or a full ride if admitted but remember that they are typically incredibly competitive. Examples of need-blind colleges include the entire Ivy League, Boston University, Rice University, Stanford University, MIT, and others. If you are low-income, you may consider creating a category to mention how willing they are to help with financial need because while not all institutions are 100% need-blind, state colleges may have similar rules for students residing within their state, or colleges may guarantee almost 100% financial needs are met. Consider scholarships and programs within your state, like Questbridge or Bright Futures, and those offered within certain universities.

Acceptance Rate:

The acceptance rate will play a significant role in which category you place the college under (safety, target, or reach). It’s great to keep an eye out to keep your expectations appropriate for the institution. Often, students may attempt to avoid applying to colleges with low acceptance rates, which limits their options. Not sending an application to a school you would like to attend because of a low acceptance rate is a guaranteed rejection, whereas applying gives you a chance or at the very least, an answer. However, schools should not be chosen simply by acceptance rates but by what they offer.

Average ACT/SAT/GPA:

This category will allow you to create goals for your standardized scores while also working to bump your GPA up to their threshold within the first quarter/ semester of school. A strong ACT/SAT (99th percentile or top 25th percentile score for the school) score makes any application stronger. Still, many schools are test-optional or test-blind for applicants attempting to gain admission into the class of 2027, so it’s crucial to note that as well in case you don’t have a score in this range. Please remember that your score on the SAT or ACT does not make or break an application, nor does it define you.

Diversity:

This one is important for applicants looking to find a community on campus, especially if you’re likely to house on campus. It also allows a dash of culture to enrich your time at the institution. A diversified campus typically has support groups for all groups of people and is more accepting of differences, even within the student body. It also creates a safer, more comfortable environment for students who identify as people of color.

Population Size:

The population size of a campus is critical to your time on campus. Suppose you’re looking for a campus where you see the same few people daily, and teachers are typically more interactive with their students. In that case, you will want to find colleges with smaller populations because it often leads to lower faculty-to-student ratios. Colleges with under 5,000 students would be considered to have a smaller population size. For students who are comfortable with the idea of a busy campus bustling with life, look for campuses with large population sizes (~10,000+). If a medium-sized school sounds perfect for you, where you get the best of both worlds, look for institutions with about 5,000-9,999 students.

Consider a category in that spreadsheet for faculty-to-student ratio if class size is essential to you. Still, it isn’t mandatory and depends on the student’s learning size and comfort when deciding if they are looking for a specific class size. Smaller and larger ratios have advantages and disadvantages, so bear those in mind when choosing what is best for you.

After a College is Added to the List

Once you’ve decided to add a college to your list, there are a few more things you will want to look for and store somewhere in case you need to find it later. While it may seem obvious, it’s important to remember these when completing applications.

Application Deadlines:

Noting when applications are due allows you to create a timeline for when you begin your applications to these colleges. Submitting applications before the deadline that you choose does not increase your chances of getting in, but keeping a day or two for a buffer period is good in case of any technical difficulties.

Early Decision (ED): is binding, meaning if you are accepted to the institution, you are legally required to go unless there is a financial issue. The acceptance rates for early decision will be much higher than the institution’s regular decision or early action, so if there is a college you are sure you want to attend if admitted and it’s your dream school, applying ED may be the route to go. Expect application deadlines in October or November for Early Decision.

Early Action: is simply applying early, with no legal binding to the school. You receive your admission decision early, though there may be a higher acceptance rate for Early Action. Colleges may also require students to apply in the Early Action cycle to be considered for merit scholarships, so research if this is true for your colleges. The application deadline for Early Action is around the same time as Early Decision, so October or November.

Regular Decision: will have a later deadline and is the most competitive, but again, nothing binds applicants to the school. This application round is the most common, so colleges receive most of their applications during this round. The major advantage to this round is it’s due later (December-January), so there’s more time to perfect an application and hold more confidence in it.

Demonstrated Interest:

A couple of colleges will base their admissions decisions on demonstrated interest, so it’s important to remember to fulfill this piece of their review. The best way to show demonstrated interest is through visiting the school, scheduling a virtual visit, and communicating with them over calls or emails. How you interact with them on social media can be significant, so follow their Instagram accounts or Twitter. Try to communicate with them frequently because one email simply isn’t enough. You must convince the admissions officers that their school is your first choice (even if it isn’t) because they will be biased toward students who seem more excited about attending their institution.

College Website:

This one is a given. It’s mainly to go back when you need to do some more research on specific programs to help you write your supplemental essays. It helps when you have a direct link because college websites can be hard to navigate because they cater to many different groups of people.

Admission Counselor Contact Information:

This can be important to keep in mind when there are questions the website can’t answer. This information is also a direct line of communication that is best for demonstrating interest outside of visits. Contacting the institution is a great way to land on their radar; however, don’t bet on this working for prestigious schools with high volumes of applicants. Research the specific admission counselor assigned to your region/location because you will be redirected to them regardless, so it’s best to email them directly for a faster response. If you can’t find their email, don’t stress too much and send it to the generic one because they will most likely redirect you themselves.

Housing:

Many institutions will guarantee housing for first-year students, even require it, so it’s essential to ensure you know these facts beforehand. If housing off-campus is important for you, this may be a deal breaker; however, for those relying heavily on housing on-campus, it’s reassuring to know there will be space for you. When they have a rule that first-year students are to stay on campus, though, know that there will almost always be a lively student body with events constantly happening to entertain and enrich the students. Leaving your parents may be nerve-wracking, but rest assured, they will try to give you a great experience while you spend your year there.

Final Thoughts:

The college application journey may seem complicated; however, this series will hopefully give you peace of mind, knowing the steps will be laid out with detailed instructions. Don’t feel that your college list has to be definite once created. You will learn more about different colleges in the coming months, so it’s okay to change what colleges you are interested in. Just ensure that as you get closer to October or November, you aren’t constantly changing your list because this will be when writing supplements becomes important. Keep an eye out for additions to this series to keep yourself on task and in the know this year. It can be hectic, but there are a lot of resources you can benefit from, so try not to overlook them.

Good luck as you begin your college application journey. You got this!

Reviewed by Sarah Zunaed and Dr. Kaisar Alam