Why do we go to college?
What do we gain after attending college? A degree certificate? A job? Or is
there something that we might have never thought about in a deeper sense? Yes.
Most students join colleges to make them able to move closer to their dream of
getting into an established career and financial stability. The society and the
parents push the students to bag more marks and their grades become a matter of
utmost significance. But from a student’s perspective, it is much more that
they gain. The college life, for them, becomes a path to discovering
themselves, finding new paths, new versions of themselves and a different
perspective. The official outcome that they receive might be the degree
certificate, but there occurs a deeper transformation within each individual. More
than an academic achievement, a personal transformation is what happens. In
simple words, they discover who they are.
Colleges are often
more than just academic institutions. For students, it becomes a place where
they often find the first stage of independence. It becomes a place where they
move away from family expectations, get exposure to diverse people, cultures, viewpoints
and attitudes. As Ralph Waldo Emerson writes, they realize that “the only way
to deal with this world is to find your own way.” This is how they get the
first taste of independence. They start finding problems and find solutions on
their own. And slowly they develop into individuals who are capable enough to
build a world that stand so strong. The college also become a place where they
start questioning beliefs, values and ambitions. They form strong and
intellectual companionships, explore the campus, form amicable relationships,
which becomes the paving stones to the future they are about to build.
The interactions
with the peer group and academic intellectuals will help shape their identity. Their
lifestyle, interests and beliefs will be affected to a certain extend by these
factors. Student clubs, debates, cultural events, and activism play a very
crucial role in the development of these individuals. As depicted in many
movies, canteens are the best places where people share not only food, but
emotions, opinions, perspectives and knowledge. So informal spaces such as
canteens and corridors becomes places of sharing and developing knowledge and
thereby influencing the identity formation of youth. The brilliancy and beauty
of youth is shaped by these spaces more than classrooms. And what about hostel
rooms? Informal space? Definitely yes. And the stories and memories shared by
the hostellers will definitely speak of how these spaces have acted as a “home”
for them where they receive the best of things that serve a very crucial role
in their development as a “human.”
And do you think
the students who pursue a particular course choose their career in the same
field? No! There are studies that reveal that around 25% of graduates in some
countries work in jobs unrelated to their major (Liu et al.). And also in many economies, a significant portion of
graduates do not use their degree directly (Robst).
There are studies that reveal that having
a degree does not strongly predict job type, income, or employment
in some contexts (Tomlinson). These
studies imply that not every student that graduates choose a profession or
career related to what they have studied or which degree they have graduated.
Instead, many students discover passions that might be unrelated to their
degrees. They have a wide aray of possibilities in discovering areas that might
really help them gain satisfaction along with a great financial stability. For
example, it might be during a random conversation among their peers that a
student realises or discovers their passion for filmmaking. And similarly in a
very random time, a science student might discover his interest in theatre. So
students do not just get a graduation certificate after completing their
college studies, instead colleges are places that help them find who they
actually are, where their passion lies, and who they actually want to become in
life.
For them, college becomes a laboratory for
experimenting with identity.
But there
is a very relevant question that tags along. Does college only offer a positive
atmosphere and everything right? Definitely not! Higher education institutions
are places where the students make mistakes. Plenty of them! But there is
something positive about that too… They Learn! They learn from the mistakes
they have made and the struggles they have undergone. That’s what is really
going to mould them as strong individuals who is about to enter a world full of
uncertainties. All the confusions and mistakes and experiences they go through
will help them develop an emotional maturity and self-awareness.
So, a
college graduation might open before them several professional doors, but the
direction they choose to walk through will be guided by the identity they
develop over the years they spend at their college. There is just one question
that remains: After all these years, do we remember the grades and theories and
notes and lectures? Or do we remember the memories and experiences that shaped
who we became? If it is the memories and experiences that we remember, what do
our children have to remember?
References:
Liu, Yujie, et al.
“Reasons for College Major–Job Mismatch and Labor Market Outcomes: Evidence
from China.” Journal of Economic Behavior
& Organization, vol. 198, 2022, pp. 1–17.
Robst, John.
“Education and Job Match: The Relatedness of College Major and Work.” Economics of Education Review, vol. 26,
no. 4, 2007, pp. 397–407.
Tomlinson,
Michael. “Forms of Graduate Capital and Their Relationship to Graduate
Employability.” Education + Training,
vol. 59, no. 4, 2017, pp. 338–352.
Adithya. S
Assistant Professor of English
Al Shifa College of Arts and Science
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