College has become such a necessity in this past decade and for good reason: you further your educational path more independently, you begin to focus on the career of your interest, and you use skills that you never had the chance to growing up that will allow you job opportunities. As imperative as college is, I do not believe that it should be free.
We attend school our entire lives starting at the age of four when most children start pre-school; we continue to learn throughout elementary school, middle school, and high school, until we are able to enter the working field and pursue a job that will sustain our futures. Although you may end your educational career with high school, most young adults in today's age continue with college. With such a high number of students attending universities, the prices should be attainable and should not put these scholars into debt for the next 30 years; however, they should not be free. College is a privilege; it is competitive, it is challenging, but it is also rewarding. If you apply yourself to your greatest ability, you will be apt to receive all the rewards that come with a university degree. But if this educational step was to be free, it would be taken much more lightly, and the importance of a bachelor's degree will lower to that of a current high school diploma. So instead of attending a college for four years, to obtain a degree that will mean more to the work force, you will need to tack on another two to four years to either earn a master's degree or a doctorate. People are already struggling to find occupations with a bachelor's degree, so why should we make it worse by making it free?
Throughout my years of pre-school to high school, I came across hundreds of people who did not care about learning and attended school because that was what society said to do. We are told that it is important to go to school and retrieve all the lessons this field has to offer. I always tried my hardest to achieve stellar grades, join extra-curricular activities to become more well-rounded, and create connections with teachers and those I attended school with for networking contacts later in life. I was always bothered by the people who took something that I cared for deeply with a grain of salt. Schooling shapes your future so why treat it as a joke? If college tuitions were to become free, the people who did not care about high school could carry on to college and continue to not give attention to the thing that will advance their careers. Starting college and being submerged with people who cared about their educational path as much as I do was refreshing; I was matched with friendly competition in not a one-on-one battle, but in ways that made me want to better myself daily. It's so nice to be surrounded by people who care not only about what they are learning, but what their future holds, so for this to all go down the drain because tuitions are nonexistent is calamitous.
I learned more in one year of college than I did in the past two, maybe three, years of high school. In college, you are forced to change, adapt, and prove your worth at the university; it is not about how many nights you go out drinking or how many parties you attend, it's about becoming the best person you can possibly become. I have come into contact with an array of people: complete brainiacs, people who love and care to learn, and those who go to school because their parents said to and are wiping away their costs. The brainiacs generally do not have to pay due to the great majority of scholarships they extort; they have proved their loyalty to applying themselves to education and will continue to do so over their four years of college. The people like me, those who love to learn and will apply themselves in hopes to attain a career of their aspirations, are forced to face the fact that they will be in debt. At the end of my four years, will owe close to $80,000. It is a big number and although it can be scary, it pushes me to try my hardest every damn day. I need to work hard to get that job that will not only satisfy my ambitions, but that will pay well enough for me to live a life I crave as well as tend to the loans. And those who have free educations without monetary worries take their time at university very lightly; they expect to have their parents help them procure an employment opportunity come graduation. Of course it is impossible to categorize all college students amongst these three categories; there are always those people that seem to defy all the laws or do not fit into said criteria. But from what I have seen and gathered at my university, it is the most accurate depiction of the student body.
Just because college may seem like a necessity in this present time, it is a privilege, not a right of passage. If you want to attend college profoundly enough and are willing to face the monetary affairs that are stapled to the diploma, you will not let a tuition stop you. College should not be free because it is too important; it should never be taken lightly or as a joke, and there should never be an easy route for this adventure. Even as a college student, I stand against this topic in a debate and I hope if you are not with me, you at least understand my argument.
