Dare to be Different Your Future Depends Upon It

To be clear, the need for a higher education has not diminished, it has increased.

By Douglas M Midgley, J.D.

Article Source: Click Here  Dare to be Different

It seems almost like yesterday that the student who graduated from a college or university with a Bachelors degree had the advantage needed to get that coveted employment interview for the job he had worked so hard to get. After all, others had only graduated from High School, so a Bachelor of Arts or Science degree from an accredited college or university gave the job applicant a leg up on the others who applied. That is not the case today, and it is becoming more difficult to find suitable employment even with a four year degree. How do you solve this?
 

To be clear, the need for a higher education has not diminished, it has increased. So one possible answer to the question posed is to continue your education and get an advanced degree in your chosen field of study. It is the most obvious way to have a leg up on the competition and is the one that you should pursue if it is at all possible. Recalling when I attended the University of Florida, I was so taken with my many new friends and the opportunities to have fun, that my time at the University almost ended, before it even got off the ground. My grades for that first semester of my Freshman year were very borderline and I thought for sure I could be on my way to failing a course for the first time in my life. Not because I could not do the work or absorb the course content, I was just too busy having fun at the bidding of my friends, and as a result, did not make the effort needed to obtain good grades. I had failed to keep my eye on the goal of graduating. At age eighteen:I was a Freshman student living on campus in a dormitory for the first timeI was out from under the immediate reach of parental supervisionI was making decisions for myself that could have future consequences, most of which were not in my best interestsI was working part-time to supplement the funds my parents were able to send meI was not making an adequate effort to learn the course workDon't let this happen to you. Without a change of direction, it's a prescription for failure.What we heard during the Freshman Orientation session has been lost to the ages except for this. At the beginning of his remarks, the speaker told us:Look to your left and take a good look at the person seated next to you, and then to your right and do the same thing again. Two of the three of you will not graduate from the University and go home.Attend all your classes, study and prepare your assignmentsMy advice to those who are just entering a college or university for the first time then is this: don't run with the pack. Behave differently. Confine your fun to part of the weekend and spend the rest of the week attempting to master the course work assigned to you. Don't just attend college or the university. Be smart. Become the student that graduates. Let the guys who were sitting on your left and right at orientation be the ones who fail.