Fewer high schoolers want college, enrollment continues to slide

[dfrecore]

If the point of college is to find a good job - and you find a good job - then there's not point in going to school NOW.  You may find that you choose to go back later, when you figure out a career path that you'd like to take, or you hit a ceiling, or something else.  But there's really no reason why you have to go to college immediately upon high school graduation if you don't even know what you want to do with your life.  There is also no rush to find out.

I never understood why high school grads are basically forced to go to college immediately following graduation. So many have no clue what they want to do and why would they? They haven't experienced much in life yet. Sure, some know what they want to do. Good for them. Go do it. But that's not the case for most people. And then there's the students who have 15 majors in 2 years and have 6 credits because they add and drop like the tides roll in and out. It never made sense to me why you had to college straight from high school. I know way more about what I want in life now than I did then. I also know what I don't want. That right there is priceless.

Agreed.  I'm a HUGE fan of working after high school to try to figure things out.  Sure, it may be "easier" to go to college right after high school because in theory, you have a lot less responsibilities and whatnot. But when you really don't know what you want to do, you seem to spend a lot more time and money in school.

I have 1 kid who started college but also works FT right out of HS, and 1 who said "I cannot spend another minute in school" and started working FT after HS graduation.  He spent about a year working FT in a couple of trades, and decided that he does not want to do that.  He literally spent 0 minutes in school, and 0 dollars, to figure out a few things and got paid to do it.  He is at bootcamp right now, and I'm thrilled that he got a year to find out what he does NOT want to do.  Priceless.  If he ever decides to go to college, it will be with some life experience under his belt, and narrowed down some things as well.  He'll be better off than many of his friends who went to college right away (out of a group of 6, 1 already dropped out - he's going to become a pilot; and 2 already changed their majors).