Can you guess why this school only allowed 5% to take SATs?

Fox

Wed, Feb 13 2019, 9:10 pm

Honestly, I've never understood the obsession that seems to exist on Imamother to send everyone to college.

I'm not doubting the existence of all these young women who've been stymied in their pursuit of higher education, but I think people are glossing over the majority: young women who attend college with no real goal or direction, treating it simply as a holding pen because they don't want to work full-time and have nothing else to do.

There are two reasons to attend college: (a) professional preparation; and/or (b) the desire to engage in vigorous intellectual life and become a more erudite individual.

The vast majority of my DDs' friends who attended college fit into neither category. Except for a select few, they had no clear professional goals, and if their professional goals were nebulous, their desire for intellectual rigor was downright ephemeral. In fact, not to be unnecessarily cruel, but many of them were both spoiled and directionless; they didn't want to work at a demanding full-time job, but they wanted a socially-acceptable answer to the question, "So what are you doing with your life?"

This wouldn't be such a problem if they didn't accumulate significant debt, relatively useless degrees; and little more direction than they had previously. And now, their student loan debt is sometimes a problem in shidduchim.

Forty years ago, there was a legitimate reason to push kids to college at 18 or 19. The reality was that if you didn't attend at that point in your life, there was virtually no chance of doing so later. Fortunately, that's no longer the case. Universities trip over one another to accommodate adult, working students.

The seminary craze has resulted in BY-type high schools pushing everyone to attend seminary, no matter how ill-advised or financially unfeasible. I'm not convinced that extending that kind of pressure to college is a wise idea.

Yes, I know everyone will claim we need to give people "choices." But that's how seminary started out, too. Today's "choice," when institutionalized, becomes tomorrow's requirement.

amother

Lilac

Wed, Feb 13 2019, 10:36 pm

Sorry, fox, but while I agree with you on seminary, I disagree on college. Since you're using tour daughters and their friends as a sample, I'm going to use myself and my friends. A small percentage of my classmates didn't go to college at all, and most of them teach today. Of those that did go, a very small percentage dropped out early when they got married young and realized their life plans no longer necessitated a job (aka marrying into money). Many of us had hefty merit scholarships covering a large portion of our undergrad tuition. The overwhelming majority graduated with a bachelor's, and unless doing something like CPA, went on to graduate school. Once again, there are a small smattering of those who aren't working in their field of study. Their income is no longer required, so they do "hobby type" jobs to keep busy. The rest are all using that graduate degree to pay the rent, tuition for our kids, you get the picture.

ETA oh and I strongly disagree that a married woman can pick up and easily start college any time. The logistics are so much more complicated when there are kids in the picture. At that point finances is usually a major concern as well. Far, far better IMO to have an undergraduate degree in your back pocket "just in case," than to start from scratch two or three kids in.