Why did I go to College?

Luis says: "I think education is the evolution from primitive thinking to rational and logical thinking.  Education is the tool to shape the minds of every individual.  It is the way for our society to progress and humanity to prosper."

Why did I go to College?

What is education to me? I believe education is the process or tool of evolution from thinking out of instinct to rational and logical thinking. When a baby is born he does not know how to communicate or do many of the daily things we do. Education is the tool we use to help his brain adapt to his surroundings. With it we teach him how to speak, properly hold a spoon, and maybe teach him his name. Through this process his brain starts to grow and begins to change. Slowly but surely in time he will learn to rationalize and be able to make decisions based on what was previously taught to him.


Education is essential in life. It is not something you can go without in these days. The world we live in is full of problems and situations that require educated decisions. Most companies higher the graduate with the highest average or if not they at least require a degree. I think education will keep on growing and we will be able to teach new things to our children, new words will appear on our language and they will be passed down through generations as it evolves and it keeps growing. Education will never stop changing and become more and more demanding every year, schools will teach more things, just as they do now from what they taught 30 years ago for example.

I came to college because, besides from the social experience and meeting a lot of new people, I also want to get a degree in accounting and be able to have a career as an adult. I want to leave college with the business knowledge and be able to join a company and use what I’ve learned during my classes and be successful. If I don’t take advantage of these years of college I’m afraid ill have a hard time finding a good position out in the field and not be able to compete with those colleagues that have trained and studied hard for their career.

It is hard to get real life experience in college since there are no classes that offer it but I guess that comes through the years and with a little patience. I will try to study and make these years the most productive I can because when I am released into this concrete jungle I need to be able to hold my own. I can honestly say my education will play the largest role in helping me survive in our modern society.

Why did I go to College?

Christian says: 

Why did I go to College?

Last night I was watching the movie The pursuit of happiness and in a scene, actor Will Smith said “There were three lines below highschool for more education, I didn’t need that many lines”. Even though I was a funny remark, I couldn’t help but understand the situation. The importance of education. I think most people go to college because their parents push them towards it. Not because they willingly want to, at first. But, as we grow older, we learn the importance of a good education, therefore, we go to college. It is important to make having a degree a goal because as we set it in front of us, we drive towards it in the hopes of achieving it. Also, we are living at difficult times and the world needs the aid of capable professionals. In college, a part of the process is not only to be educated, but also maturing and viewing things from another perspective. By watching things from another view, we can be more aware to other we might’ve not been before and our opinions could change for the better. It provides us with the maturity highschool doesn’t fully give us. As we go along in college, it gives us the opportunity to work with classmates, and we become more of social people and we learn to be liked by others or if not necessarily liked but at least we make the effort to work together. We gain communication skills and leadership. It’s not only a wonderful preparation but a perfect one also for adulthood. When we complete the whole journey, we find ourselves capable of sustaining a family and providing them with food, shelter and all the things that make education worth the long while.

Why did I go to College?

José says:

Why did I go to College?

I consider myself to be extremely fortunate when it comes to my education. Many people might think that being a 25 year old still in college is not exactly something to be proud of. I think it is actually a more rewarding experience having the added maturity that comes with 5 or 6 plus years of life. The reasons why I started late, in my view, are sort of a blessing in disguise. I would not be the person I am today without going through the things I went through before I entered college, however cliché that may be. The important thing is that I have found my true calling and that I made what I believe to the be right decision. A bachelor’s degree is a terrible thing to waste.

Ever since I was a little kid, I had a fascination with martial arts and I really enjoyed these types of movies. I remember renting Hong Kong Cinema kung fu movies at a video store in Condado and enjoying them a lot. Soon I started to notice how musical and pleasant the Cantonese language (main Chinese language spoken in south of China and the main language of immigrants in the USA and PR) was. I also began at this time to watch anime films and series, which also peaked my interest. Soon after I grew a fascination for the Japanese language as well. I began independent studies in which I taught myself how to be somewhat literate in Japanese. Later I had the good fortune of taking French in 11th grade, which really motivated me to excel in the language. I was probably the top student in the class and definitely the only person who took French that year who can actually speak it today. Seeing how interested I had become in languages, I was presented with the chance to move to Houston, where my brother lived, and finish off my senior year there. I immediately took as many languages as I could and it was great. In my senior year I would end up taking French, Mandarin, and Japanese. Once I finished high school, it was clear how much I liked languages. Or was it?

Languages were not profitable, nor were they a viable profession, at least not in the eyes of some of my family members. This compelled me to choose business as my major. That didn’t last very long. Within 2 semesters I dropped out and joined the working force. My career as a waiter saw me start small and would eventually have me making more money than the average government employee could ever hope to see. However, this was not fulfilling. At first I believed that changing profession would do the trick. I immediately changed to the computer industry and began designing web sites for a company. This also did not last that long. It was soon clear that I needed to get back into school, but my skewed view of professional vs. personal preference was still not strong enough to force my conviction. Hence, I rejoined school under the same major as before and thankfully it did not take long before I realized that I should just take languages.

To this day, I cannot think of a better decision in my life. This new turn has really strengthened my belief in myself. I now see the professional I can become. I have always been the type of person to give just the right amount of effort to complete a task, never going beyond that unless I was genuinely interested in something. With language learning, I do not have that problem, and since I learn what I truly want to learn, it really helps motivate me to work hard in other areas of my education.

Why did I go to College?

Adrian Says: "For me, education is an experience that somebody goes through and learns something new at the same time. I considered education a privilege that not many people have. Its an opportunity in which you gain knowledge through teachings or experiences. You can basically receive an education anywhere as long as you are learning something new. Since we were born we receive an education by our parents teaching us basic things, but as we get older our education expands and we learn new things by the school, our parents, friends and life experiences." 

Why did I come to college?

Education is any act or experience that has a formative effect on the mind, character, or physical ability of an individual. It’s the process by which society deliberately transmits its knowledge, skins and values from one generation to another. For me, education is an experience that somebody goes through and learns something new at the same time. I considered education a privilege that not many people have. Its an opportunity in which you gain knowledge through teachings or experiences. You can basically receive an education anywhere as long as you are learning something new. Since we were born we receive an education by our parents teaching us basic things, but as we get older our education expands and we learn new things by the school, our parents, friends and life experiences.

College is an institution of higher learning that grants us an opportunity to receive a bachelors degree, a masters degree or a doctors degree. Since we were little we went to elementary school and continued our way up to high school, and we graduate. When we graduate most of us want to go to college, but why necessarily? A lot of students are forced by their parents to go to college and receive education. Others want to go to college because they force themselves to go and want to get a higher education. Some people don’t get the chance to go to college and get to miss out on an experience that betters our lives.

For me personally, I went to college because college is an opportunity to gain universal knowledge and with that, become a better person in the future and become a successful professional. I went to college because it is full of experiences, not just a academically, but also fun experiences with friends. College expands your horizons and with that you start to see life in a different way. Right now I’m studying accounting, but I am thinking abut transferring to art. I love art and I’ve been drawing since I was very little. I also went to college so I can be more prepared in the future and also to meet new people. Basically college is full of opportunities and experiences that I don’t want to miss out on and are very important in the future. That’s why I went to college.

Why did I go to College?

Beatriz says: ''Education is any act or experience that has an effect on the mind, character, or physical ability of a person.  Education is the process by which the society transmits its knowledge from one generation to another.  You get an education at school, by learning from books, teachers, etc.  Also, you can get an education from your experiences and how your parents have taught you to act or do things."

Why did I go to College?

When I first thought of what I wanted to do with my life, I was a little girl, around ten years old. I said: “I want to be a dentist”. And ever since that day, I started thinking what I would become when I grew up. Eventually, as I was growing up, I started to change what I wanted to be. But I knew one thing for sure, that I had to go to college, so I could be whatever I wanted to be.
My parents influenced in my decision, because I know they regret what they did when they went to college. They both had the intelligence to do everything they wanted, but they followed their role models, their parents. Right now, they think that they could have done much more than what they did, but it is too late. That is why I wanted to do something that I liked, but that would be good for my future, too.
My goal is to study Medicine, and I know I will be very good at it. College is not easy, but it is worth all the hard work, because I know in the future it will pay up. I am really happy with the decision I made, because I love to learn. In my opinion, college is very important in our lives, because it helps to develop who we really are. College is a really big step for every person that wants to achieve their goals.
This is my first year of college, and I am really happy that I chose to study General Science, because I love science and it is really good for my future. I would not like to work for someone else. That is why I chose Medicine, because I can be the boss of myself. In Medicine I can go to different areas, but right now I think I would like to work with babies and little kids. It is easier to work with them, than with older people, and they are much cute.
I don’t regret my decision of coming to college. This will be a good experience that will lead me through life. I did not come to college because of anyone else; I came because of me, because I wanted to do it. I will learn many things from this experience and I am not letting anyone else decide what I am going to do with my life. This is my decision and I know what is good for me.

Why did I go to College?

Liane Says: " There are two types of education for me; Education given in schools, institutions, colleges, etc. and education taught on the streets, at home, in church, or with your friends. Everyday we are taught something whether it be voluntary or involuntary. What we choose to learn is what we apply in our life and how we constitute ourself as a person. Education is the knowledge you gain in the process of learning. It is a matter of absorbing all the information and somehow molding this into one character which is YOU! Choose wisely and make the right decisions!" 

Why did I go to College?

Mariola Says: ''The definition of education is not the definition I would use. In my opinion education is when you are able to learn from experiences and from the things you see in your life. I do not like to learn by the teacher delivering knowledge to the students. The best education is the one that you are able to debate, talk and hear the opinion of everyone around you. In the classroom the best education is the one that you can communicate and talk with the professor. The sum of all this types of education is the ones that make you learn and be able to understand everything around you." 

Why did I go to College?

Since I was a little girl, I have always been influence about going to college. My father is the President of the Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico and he has always told me the importance of getting a higher education to contribute to a better society. He has taught me how my college experience is going to be and how I could use it in the future. The truth about all this is that I have never sit down and think why did I want to go to college. In my life, college was a normal thing to do and I never asked any questions about why I had to go to college. This is the first time that I am going to think about the influences and ideas of what got me to college.

My high school years were the best of my life. I was president of my class in my third year of high school, got really good grades, was in a really good school and had all my things in order to get to college. When my senior year arrived, we all had to stop for a minute and ask ourselves what did we want to do after graduation. The answer for that question was easy: I was going to college because I wanted to. In my school, the faculty and administration promoted us with the idea of going to college and we all thought that is was a pretty good one. I think that it is a good idea because that way we can learn new things, be better persons and, best of all, study what you have always wanted to be when you grow up. In high school, I loved all my science classes and my electives were all in science. That’s when I realized that I wanted to study biology to become a doctor. That senior year I applied to University of Puerto Rico where I got accepted and started in the Natural Science faculty.

When I got to college, I loved my faculty and started to get more interested in the science things. I have had the best experience with my professors. I have learned from all the points of view that there are; not always I have agreed with them but I think that that’s part of your learning experience. My parents have always encouraged me to be strong and keep going and the reality is that without them I could not make it. My field of study is really hard and sometimes you get really upset and tired because it demands a lot of work. Sometimes these kinds of things are the ones that make me wonder why did I choose to go to college. But then I realize that this hard work is going to pay later and be really rewarding.

Both of my parents have gone to college and for each one of them was a different experience. My mother got to go to Spain in her college years; there she got a really good opportunity to learn from new experiences. My father studied in the USA and he got a really different experience than my mother. These experiences that my parents had are the ones that motivated me to college. With their encouragement and the help of my high school, I got the idea of going to college. Writing this essay I realized that I went to college to learn new things, get new experiences, construct my personality and life, and meet new people who share their points of view and help me see all the different perspectives that are in our world. College is the first step you take to get a better point of view of life. These few years we spent on college are the ones that make progressive people who help evolve and make a better world. Our generation has the responsibility of making this world work and prepare it for future generations.