A two- or four-year college degree is becoming more and more important for unlocking the doors to economic and educational opportunity in America today. Getting a college education requires a lot of time, effort and careful planning by parents and students, but it provides knowledge and skills students will use for the rest of their lives to help them succeed in whatever they undertake. By going to college students:
- Get (and keep) a better job. Because the world is changing rapidly, and many jobs rely on new technology, more and more jobs require education beyond high school. With a two- or four-year college education, your child will have more jobs from which to choose.
- Earn more money. On average a person who goes to college earns more than a person who does not. Someone with a two-year associate degree earns more than a high school graduate. In 1998, a man with a bachelor’s degree or higher earned almost 98 percent more than a man with only a high school diploma, and a woman with a bachelor’s degree or higher earned almost 84 percent more than a woman with only a high school diploma.
- Get a good start in life. A college education helps your child acquire a wide range of knowledge in many subjects, as well as advanced knowledge in the specific subjects they are most interested in. College also trains students to express thoughts clearly in speech and in writing, to make informed decisions and to use technology—useful skills on and off the job.
Students who are not interested in going to a four-year college or university for a bachelor’s degree can benefit from the skills and knowledge that two years of college provide to compete in today’s job market. These students may want to pursue a technical program in a community, junior or technical college, which provides the skills and experience employers look for. Many high schools and some local employers offer career-focused programs called “tech-prep,” “2+2,” “school-to-work”or “school-to-career,” which are linked to community and technical colleges. These programs coordinate high school course work with course work at local colleges, and in some cases give students the chance to learn in a real work setting. This way, the high school material better prepares students for college-level work, and also starts the student on a clear path toward a college degree.
Students interested in technical programs will probably want to take some occupational or technical courses in high school, but they also need to take the “core” courses in English, math, science, history and geography that are outlined in step 2.
RESOURCES
- A Better Chance - www.abetterchance.org The mission is to increase substantially the number of well-educated young people of color who are capable of assuming positions of responsibility and leadership in American society.
- CLEO – Council on Legal Education Opportunities – www.cleoscholars.org In 1968, the Council on Legal Education Opportunity (CLEO) was founded as a non-profit project of the ABA Fund for Justice and Education to expand opportunities for minority and low-income students to attend law school. In 1998, Congress passed the Higher Education Amendments Act, creating the Thurgood Marshall Legal Educational Opportunity Program, which they deemed be administered by CLEO.
- College Board – www.collegeboard.com The College Board is a not-for-profit membership association whose mission is to connect students to college success and opportunity. Founded in 1900, the College Board is composed of more than 5,700 schools, colleges, universities and other educational organizations.
- Youth Change – www.youthchg.com/ Youth Change and Director Ruth Herman Wells, M.S. have been training youth professionals throughout North America for almost 20 years. We provide information-packed general session, on-site and recorded workshops. We also publish many books, ebooks, and DVDs, all designed to deliver the newest and fastest solutions for the "worst" kid problems.
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