Looking back on my college decision making process brings me back to a much more panicked and confused time. Starting high school, I thought I wanted to be a veterinarian and had heard of maybe 15 schools total. I currently study business, dream of going into law and attend a school that I hadn't even heard of two years ago. Clearly the initial plan and the ending goals vary quite a bit, but I am glad I changed my aspirations to something I actually wanted to pursue. My plan of being a veterinarian reflected the pressures put on me and other students by educational institutions. I had been told science was the way to go, never mind that it wasn't where my heart was. Even more of an issue, through lack of information on the sheer number of college options available I believed that the only acceptable schools were large public ones or an Ivy League school. Not only does this damage students and push them into fields they are unlikely to excel in, but it discourages many students from even trying.
As I was volunteering at my elementary school during my senior year I spoke to the kids. A few of them asked how old I was. When they found out that I was graduating soon, one asked me where I would be going to college. I told them, but no one really knew what the University of Portland was. I don't blame them, most people in southern California haven't heard of the school and even when I tell them they call it Portland State University. As I spoke to the kids, one boy said, "I wish I could go to college." I told him he could, to which he disagreed citing that he was too dumb to get in. My heart sank, no fifth grader should feel like their dreams are crushed long before they even have the chance to try and achieve them. Colleges range from the extremely elite and expensive, to the more affordable and more accessible, there was no reason he should feel as if there wasn't an option for him. I proceeded to ask him if he tried hard in school and if he did all his homework. He told me he did, but still got things wrong. Here was a kid trying to do well and still coming up short. I don't believe anyone had outright told him he was too dumb to go to college, but by not informing children of the numerous options they have at their disposal we might as well be telling them that. As I continued to talk to the boy and a few of his friends I realized he only really knew a few colleges. They kept talking about UCLA, USC and Harvard as if those were the only three colleges in the world. He kept saying, "I'm too dumb for UCLA, I can't go to college." As each syllable passed through his lips a part of my soul died. No child should feel like that, yet this is a trend seen through much of our schooling, no matter the level.
With very little information about the career paths available or the immense number of college options available we are quietly discouraging young students. There were some standout exceptions to this in my schooling, whether it be my PE teacher in middle school who had us research a different college each week or my English teacher who told us about how she discovered her passion. On the whole, there wasn't much in the way of explaining the options to students. No one ever explained that private schools may be expensive, but they can offer huge academic scholarships to students who had the grades. There wasn't much emphasis on smaller local schools for students who didn't want to be one in 20,000 students. It takes a lot more than having a career center on campus to encourage kids to make the most of their futures. If they have already given up because they haven't felt there were options available then they will never utilize those resources. When I applied for college I was shocked at how many schools there actually were. It needs to be emphasized to students that there is a college for them, that has the major they want and is at the academic level to meet their needs.
In my own experience, counseling staff focused on getting kids into prestigious school that made the high school look good. The schools dumped resources into science courses and encouraged everyone to major in a STEM field, regardless of if that was the right choice. When I wanted to take an AP art class because it sounded fun, I was told by my counselor that I was wasting my time and probably wouldn't do very well anyway. I ended up scoring a five on the test. When I picked classes he constantly tried to sway me to make a different choice because it wasn't the usual combination. When it came time to apply to schools, he saw my rejection from UCLA as a tragedy from which I might never recover. Never mind the fact that it had been a back up school I only applied to because I didn't know how much academic money I would get at a private school, or the fact that 14 other great schools had accepted me and given me substantial scholarships. The school would pin up acceptance letters from elite schools and hardly cared when other students got into other schools with less name recognition. Harvard, Yale or Berkeley aren't the schools for everyone.
If we continue to glorify a select few institutions, many students will never even hear about other great opportunities they can utilize. Everyone has a right fit place. It may be an Ivy League University or it may be a trade school. If we continue to keep students unaware of their options, they will continue to become discouraged. We don't all fit the same mold, so we must find the right option out of the numerous options out there for our nation's youth.
