Eva Ramirez
Ruth Benander
English 1000
15 September 2015
The True Price of Education
“Every good journey starts with the first good steps.” – Lao Tzu. Going to college has its costs; a lot of students do not know what real cost is. The real cost of education is not only about financial, social and health control. It also implies the managing of time and saving money. However education is the most powerful weapon to be successful.
One of many ways people usually see college is “ oh, it is too expensive”. According to Adam Brock , “attending a four-year college in the U.S, can cost more than $40,000 a year.” Not everyone can afford this huge amount of money. Therefore, you must have student loans in order to be able to get a high quality education; as a result the financial cost of college is to ask for student loans.
When you get into college, your social life counts as a big change in your daily life. Spending a lot of hours studying can, in fact, change your plans. Going to college is learning to balance between parties vs. homework, watching TV vs. tests, relationships vs. readings. Nevertheless the balance is the price for getting better grades.
Health is another factor and most of students must learn how to deal with it. There are a lot of factors involved. Being overweight is one instance. Not getting enough sleep can affect your weight. In reference to the article “College Freshman Urged to keep Excess Pound away”, if you do not get at least 6 hours of sleep, people “often crave high-calorie junk food the body can quickly break down for energy”. That being said, you must get enough sleep, in order to not gain weight. Therefore another cost of college is learning how to take care of yourself.
Knowing how to manage your time can be more that helpful, and it must be applied in your daily life. Learning how to be more organized, your life as a college student will change and it will get easier. Making a schedule, for instance, where you can write down all your assignments, readings, tests coming up, will provide you that feeling of confident that you have everything under control because you will be able to know what comes next. As a result, you will never be late on homework, classes, and you will even have time for your personal life.
Saving money is also a good preparation to pay for college. If you know for sure you are going to college, and you know it is very expensive, get a job and save the money you earn, try not to spend it on things that later on, you will probably forget you have it, invest it is something worth it as education, in the end, education will be the weapon that will provide you a better future life. However this is another cost for college, but as a result you will not have to worry for the next two or four years of college.
If you want to be a successful college student, you must keep in mind what you are going to face in the future, and must be prepare of how you are going to deal with every situation. The best way to be prepared is knowing the costs and this will provide you a plan of what to do before college. College is going to be a new life where you are going to get unique experiences that only happen once in life, therefore it must be enjoyed.
Education for our Children
“The root of education can be bitter but the fruit is sweet”-Aristotle. When students start going to college, what always parents think is about the challenges that at some point they must have to face. It implies financial, health and emotional costs. Sometimes it is not easy for everyone. However supporting college students with education and engaging them to be themselves will help them to find their path and as a result they will succeed on everything they do.
According to Liz Addison, “Tomas Jefferson once wrote, ‘everybody should have an education proportional to their life.’ “ The essence of Tomas Jefferson argument is that, students will get an education according with their financial state, and what they can afford. When students pass from high school to college, parents always think about the financial cost. According to Adam Brock, “ attending a four year college in the U.S can cost more than $40,000 a year.” In other words, paying for education in America is expensive. It implies, paying for student loans, tuition, books, transportation, technology, and so on. Don Mooney states that, “degree is a ticket to the middle class or beyond.” In making this comment, Don Mooney urges us to have education. Getting at least a bachelor’s degree will provide us a better life. That being said, asking for student loans, and paying for books, food, investing in transportation is the financial cost of going to college, and in order for students to have all the accommodations for their life, parents must support them giving them education.
The cost of health is not easy as well. Most of the parents tend to neglect their health. Sometimes people reach a point where they forget about themselves. They start going to sleep very late because they are waiting for their “son’s call”, or they can even loose the appetite because they worry excessively. Parents also tend to have concerns about what is happening with their child while he/she is not leaving at home. Thinking and wondering if their child is eating healthy, if he/she is getting enough sleep, if they have all they need in order to have a good academic life, etc. However, if the goal here is to engage and make the student being successful, parents must let them go and understand that they are not children anymore, and that if they ever need something they will figure things out, in order to be an excellent college student.
Along the way , parents will meet with emotional situations, and they must learn how to deal with it. Some parents have not noticed that for a long time, they overprotected their child since birth, “don’t touch that”, “ don’t eat that”, etc. Still, it is not their fault; they are just doing their job as parents. However, it affects them when the child has to leave because since there was a strong bond between the parent and the child, now that the child is not leaving with them anymore, parents might feel that they are not spending enough time with the child and that leads them to feel sadness. That being said, Emotions are another cost that parents must pay when the child is going to college. Therefore, understanding that their child is not a high school student any more and that this part of life, at some point was going to happen, is the key to transmit that parental confident to the child, letting them succeed.
Parents must be prepared with enough time for their children going to college, evaluating all costs and alternatives. Savings are always the key for this purpose in order to provide the best support for their son’s future.
Work Cited:
Addison, Liz. "Two years are better than four" The New York Times. Essay, September 26, 2007. Wed. September 10, 2015.
Brock, Adam. “Is College Education Worth the Price?” VOA Learning English. Education, September 8, 2015. Web. September 10, 2015.
College Freshmen Urged to Keep Excess Pounds Away. (2012, August 19). Retrieved September 12, 2015.
Mooney, Don. "Opinion: Striking out with college grads." The Cincinnati enquirer. Web. September 10, 2015.
Students:
I am going to talk about financial, social,health,Managing Time, Saving money.
Parents:
Financial, health and emotional.