Having just completed my bachelor’s degree after many years of gainful employment, my take away from this experience should be an alarm for many who have been away from college for a long time.   When they say our colleges are liberal, that is an understatement.  Our colleges are promoting socialist and Marxist ideologies.  Young adults wanting to go to college, and their parents, should be very aware of this before they decide which college to attend, or whether they should attend at all.  While a bachelor’s degree is mandatory for many entrance job positions, get a degree in business, management, or finance.  Colleges offer degrees in “bitterness studies” such as women’s studies or ethnic studies, and these will not help you in the business world.  Understanding that, many colleges offer scholarships for special talents such as sports and music.  There are scholarships for other special categories and it would be good to research what is available.  In Florida the lottery contributes towards a Florida resident student through Bright Futures and used to pay up to 100% tuition in a state college or university for a student graduating from high school with a 3.5 GPA or better, 75% for a GPA between 3.0 and 3.5.  I think that has dropped somewhat, but some money is available.  There are so many opportunities to help pay for college, and they also offer jobs on campus where students can get paid or get credit towards tuition.  My best advice would be do not worry about which college you get into.  Seek advice from your guidance counselor at high school. They are on top of all of the scholarships and other funding available.

Honestly, I would recommend a high school graduate take some time between high school and college and work at a job, apprentice, and get some real life work experience and discover what you like to do.  You are going to be working for many years, and you should enjoy what you do.  Then you can go to college with an idea of what career you want to pursue.  In addition, many companies will help pay for school if the degree you pursue will help you advance within the company.  You have your entire life ahead of you.  Do not get in debt so young.  It is not necessary to go into debt to get a good education and a good job.

If you want to know what is happening on college campuses, here is an article I wrote about my experiences returning to college after so many years. Click here.