Is it a good idea to go straight from high school to college? Many young people I know have chosen to take a year’s break and defer their college or university for a year and do one of two things. I’ll talk about one today and the other in my next education blog.
Sometimes finances play a part and the parents may not have enough money to pay for college without some assistance. So some young people will work for twelve months in any job they can find to help get a little money saved towards that. I have friends whose daughter works in the local supermarket, so she can help pay for her university course next year. Because the reality is even if they get a scholarship, there are still plenty of other expenses that need to be accommodated.
Others are unsure what they really want to do. Rather than going to university and enrolling in course and then finding out it’s not what they wanted and dripping out and reenrolling son something else it might be more beneficial to go and work for a while until it become clearer what they do want to do with their lives.
Being out in the work force and earning their own money and just finding out how things work in the worlds outside of school and university is a good experience for any young person as they have to deal with different people of different ages and from different backgrounds and walks of life. They will often encounter this more in the work force than a college or university situation.
They also learn more about how to manage their own money and soon realize how far it will go and what they can afford and what they can’t. They learn more about what things cost when they have to pay for them themselves.
It’s amazing how attitudes change. When our offspring got out in the work force they soon discovered having the right label on a pair of jeans or shirt wasn’t so important after all when they had to pay for it.
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