Initial Internet Research on Schooling- 41

"College Degree Not Required"

This article has a list of lots of career paths and what percentage of the people in those career paths earned a college education. "Jobs at the top of the list are good bets for people with no degree. Jobs at the bottom of the list are bad bets" at the top of the list is an air trafic controller with 32% of workers who got a college education, to an optometrist with 100%. It is a pretty long list but there is still a pretty good amount of jobs that do not require a college education.

But these jobs, although may not require a college degree, are they careers that anybody would want to spend their life doing? We also have to take into consideration that the careers I believe should be sometime people are willing to do for a good amount of time. The time and money spent on college should not be the only weighing factors. Recently, for me, there has been constant advertisement about college, that it opens up more options.

Why Should You Go To College?

McGuire says an important reason to go to college is for the opportunity it provides. "As opposed to generations of the past, high school graduates today are unable to obtain the number of high-paying jobs that were once available." The college expectations in society have changed over the years because of employment availability. It seems as though it is becoming more and more of a struggle to get a well paying job in the U.S. because this new expectation/requirement is a college degree.

McGuire also discussed in his article a topic that came up in my interviews; connections. "The more connections which are collected during your college career, the more options you will have when you begin your job search" College seems to be the time where a student having decided a career path, meets with people in this field, giving them a greater chance of success in this field of work. But connecting back to my interview, it seems as though you need these connections to get into college to begin with. Everything seems to be a competition of who you know and what connections you have more than the work you have done.

How Does Having a Degree Vs. No Degree Effect Employment Opportunities?

Similar to the first website I researched, this website provides a list of careers that do not require a college degree but it still makes a point to say that a college degree makes finding jobs easier. "While there are Employment Opportunities available to those with and without a degree, earning a degree can lead to higher paying positions, more options and more opportunities for promotion."

This website also demonstrates that the higher the amount of eduaction one attains, the less chance of facing unemployment issues, "However, the unemployment rate for those without a degree is higher than for those with one...Unemployment rates by amount of education, according to the American Foundation for the Blind (AFB), www.afb.org, are: Less than a high school diploma: 6.8 percent [up to] Doctoral Degree: 1.4%"

Overall, these websites convey that college is a necessity in obtaining success in the work force. These sources talked very breifly about the change between generations, how in the past, the majority of students were not expected to continue education after high school to get a well paying job.

Competition in College Admissions:

There are more students applying to schools now than before. "this is another year of historically high numbers of applications at numerous schools...In addition, the advent of online applications has led to students applying to more schools, especially top students who are aware that their preferred schools are competitive." Recently there has been more competition for colleges. There is more demand for higher education in society. Because the majority of students now are going to college, everyone is expected to try for college even if it does not seem necessary for the student's choice in their career path. As seen in previous websites, going to college opens up more options, it leaves room for someone to change their mind. It also allows for higher paying jobs even though the cost of college is increasing.

It seems as though competition is increasing by the year, "Statistics from the 2006-2007 application season indicated that college admissions have become more competitive than ever," the top, most rigorous colleges' acceptance rates are decreasing,"The acceptance rates at Yale, Harvard, and Columbia fell below 10 per cent for fall 2007 admissions. Princeton's acceptance rate just cleared 10 per cent, and Dartmouth's was just over 12 per cent...there's no denying that admissions to top colleges and universities are highly competitive, and likely to remain so for years to come."


Works Cited

"Are College Admissions Getting More Complicated." College Admission. 2009. Web. 2 Mar 2010. .

"The Best Career Opportunities, "College Degree Not Required"." CityTownInfo.com. 2007. Web. 24 Feb 2010. .

MGuire, Jeff. "Importance of College Education." College View. hobsons, Web. 24 Feb 2010. .

"How Does Having a Degree Vs. No Degree Effect Employment Opportunities?." DegreeDirectory.org. 2010. Web. 24 Feb 2010. .

School Interviews- 40

Part A:

The majority of my interviews were focused on the college process, the college experience, and whether college is worth the money. But a small portion of my interviews were focused on different types of schools and how students feel about those different types of schools.

a couple 10 year old girls that I spoke to talked about the types of schools they go to including, elementary school, acting school, and hebrew school and how they felt about these schools. One girl seems to enjoy acting school (from my perspective) but does not like any of them on a social level (drama with another girl). The other 10 year old said she did not like elementary school because it does not interest her but she does enjoy her acting school because she likes the people there. Based on these interviews, the people who are at your school affect how a student may feel about school. The social experience of school overpowers the academic experience in these cases.

I interviewed a European lady at my internship about college. I asked what she thought about the college application proccess. She said it is overly stressful and it can be simplified. College is so stressed about when it is just an extention of high school. She also talked about the competition and how it is not completely objective, there is still favoring going on and lots of future success depends on the connections you have.

In a similar conversation with a school of the future senior and we talked about the reqirements for the college application proccess. The colleges seem to be expecting lots of experience when the student is looking for experience. Students look into schools to gain the experience they are lacking but it makes the student feel like they are incapable of studying in a field because they do not fill the requirements to study in that field.

Going back to my interview with the European lady, I also asked her about her thoughts on the social experience of college, she thinks that it is effective to develop independence but it is also complicated for young people because there is this pressure to change or fail, the college social experience can vary depending on the individual experience. She has a history of going to college in London and college in America, so I asked her to talk about the differences in those experiences. She said that there is a different mentality between the two because they are two completely different cultures, she said she felt safer at her college in London than at her college in America. In addition, financially, London is less than America because of the different economic structure.

I intervewed a female sophomore college student from Florida about the college proccess. She thought you should not have to pay for the application proccess especially if you might get denied. But "it is what it is," the community college application is pretty simple but for universities and more rigorous schools require a more complex application proccess and if that is what you want then you have to apply yourself to get it done. She then started talking about test taking, she does not like it because it is not a strength of hers but it is necessary. I also interviewed a male sophomore college student from New York about the college proccess. He said it was at times annoying and it takes a long time.

I then asked the female sophomore if she thought the money and stress for college is worth the experience, she said that her cousin had an amazing college experience and she does not regret the money and the stress. The sophomore explained that she is a lawyer so financially in the long run it won't be as stressful as it would be for her because she wants to get into education where financially it might take longer for her to get out of debt from school. Overall, it depends on the career path and personal experience if it is worth the money and the stress. From the male sophomore's perspective, he said he enjoyed classes and likes learning so it is worth it.

Part B:

I think it is interesting how the social aspect of school, the people who are in your school, can make or break your school experience as discussed in my interview with two 10 year old girls. Your experience with school emotionally affects the overall experience (socially and academcially, although I believe people think more about the social experience more than the academic). It is also interesting how the social and academic parts of school depend on each other at times. If a student is having social problems, they might be less motivated to focus on the academics, or the opposite. A student might be distracted by social aspects of school. The academic part might help create the social part.

The female sophomore said "it is what it is" about the application proccess and it made me think about schools as a sorting machine. How we have to adapt to what society asks of us to be considered successfull if that means going through a rigorous application proccess for the risk of denial or the relief of approval. Even though she does not agree with test taking she believes it is neccessary. Her perspective seems to be that this is how society is and there is nothing we can do about it, we adapt to the level of work we think is suitable for ourselves. But what if expectations get so high that even the moderate levels are frowned upon? Should we push ourselves to risk stress and money? Or accept that we are not accepted?

In regards to the college application proccess, I wonder, does the college experience live up to the hype of the application proccess experience? which I should have asked in my interviews. There is so much stress over completing the application and waiting for the approval, does it match up to the reality of going to the college you chose and going through the experience after long periods of thinking about it.

First School Assignment- 39

Part A:
Please write 3 each of the most interesting, fascinating, powerful questions, ideas, and experiences you've encountered about school.

Why do we have to go to school now, at such a young age?
What parts of the school curriculum do we need now? Or at all?
What should be added to or taken out of the school curriculum?

What are the pros and cons of school?
How can they be altered to make school time spent more wisely?
What can be done to make our own learning experiences more worth while?

What are the personal and emotional experiences with school?
What is good/bad about these experiences?
How will the social experience of school help or hinder us now? in the future?

Part B:
Please explore one aspect or moment of school in a 2-4 paragraphs. Show us what's strange or great or awful about it. Talk about how you feel about it - how do you think it came to be - what consequences it produces.

I think that it is interesting how we interact with the people in our school when school is just a routine part of the first 18+ years of life. I have made some amazing friends through my experience in school so even though there are things that we learn that don't seem so important or interesting, it seems okay when you have interesting people to go though it with. I believe that the general view of school is that it is a boring place where we just kill time until we have to leave and do whatever we want. But personally, I don't find it as boring as people make it out to be. I don't necessarily jump out of bed every morning excited to come to school but its not completely boring either.

Another interesting aspect of school is that it is supposed to prepare us for the future. It takes almost 20 years before society believes we are mature and ready enough for the real world. The authority figures hype up the idea of the work force and the real world for so long. The four years of high school prepare us for college and the four + years of college prepare us for our career that we are supposed to know. I believe that all these several years of preparing is delaying us. Those who know what they want to do have to fill the years of required courses to fulfill that career choice. But I guess if one does not know what they want to do, they have several years to decide. I'm not sure which is better.

But I do believe that school and college should not be enforced with so much pressure. It looks so bad if you have not gone through high school or college. People do not take you seriously if you have not gone through the several years of schooling that you will most likely forget within your experience in your career anyway (more specifically the generic curriculum learned in high school). I do think education is important but there should be more freedom. Society makes me believe they want me to be like everyone else, go to high school, go to college, get a generic job and be just like everyone else.

Art Project Cool- 38

The Cool Fool from Sandy G. on Vimeo.

1. What insights about cool does the art integrate? What do you hope people will realize or question from their encounter with your art?

Some insights about cool that this piece of art integrates is the paradox of trying. Trying to be cool is uncool but you cant be cool unless you put in some sort of effort but it just cannot be shown. The main character "Mike" is seen in several different ways. He did not seem to try very hard to get people's attention while playing baskeyball in the gym. When he does not try the is left unnoticed by one girl and has another girl falling for him. In the cafeteria it was clear that he was trying to get some sort of attention when he walked in. When he does try, people are more critical about his coolness. No matter what you do people are going to have mixed opinions of you. There is no deffinite way of getting everyone's approval. There is no definite way of being cool.

2. Describe the process of making the project - how'd you do each step? If it was a group project, what did you contribute?

It was a rough start in our group (me, Andy, Carrie, Kate, and Rachel J.) to create the video because we could not decide what we wanted to do that would have everyone involved. We finally decided on basing our idea on the show "The Office" where the basic set up is that a scene happens and the characters who are in the scene say their point of view and what they think of the situation. This allowed everyone do have an acting part and we all contributed our own ideas while edited together.

First we did the personal parts where everyone said their character's opinion, then we created the group part. This part was a little different from what we originally planned where there was a "Cool Mike" and an "Uncool Mike" as two different situations with different characters showing the different reactions to Mike. We ended up having Mike as one person where others had mixed feelings about him which seems a little more realistic and simpler to convey. We showed Mike interacing with other people in school and we see him presenting himself in a more casual way and in a more "obnoxious" way. Once we had all of our footage we got together to put all the clips in the decided order and adding necessary effects.

3. Does making art seem cool to you? Why or why not?

I think making are is cool. It is a cool way to "show don't tell." I love making art because there are so many possibilities and ideas to choose from that will fit the art's message, you have a lot of freedom to creating art in creative ways. It can be challenging at times because you want to make something that will grab the audience's attention in a way that allows them to understand what you are trying to show while enjoying the piece of art but once you overcome the challenge it can be very rewarding. Specifically to this video, it was hard at first in deciding what to do but once we did decide, it was cool to collaborate with the rest of my group and make something that we were happy with. I feel like in general, art is something almost everyone can connect to. Art is a general form of expression it can be through audio, visual, movement, there are so many different ways. I think most people can connect with art in one way or another.