Quantity or Quality?

One of the topics that always seems to arise during "discussions" with my father, is our differing opinions on school and education.  Although we both agree that a solid college education is important, our viewpoints on the type of education one should strive for differs dramatically.  I have always been an A+ student, from Kindergarden all the way through my senior year of high school.  Academics were important to me, and to be honest I was good at it!  My good grades came naturally, without much extra effort or frenzied studying required.  Now that's not to say I didn't bust my ass in high school.  I took every AP and IB class available.  I even graduated with a full IB diploma (if you don't know what that is, look it up because I don't feel like sidetracking from my rant to explain it).  Bottom line is, I was the quintessential hard-working, top of the class, student-athlete.  With such a reputation it was assumed that I would go off to a real pretentious big-bucks, big-name university...and I wanted that for myself.  My top-choice school was Penn State University.  I applied...I was accepted!  So here I was, graduating from high school with the highest level diploma possible, accepted into Penn State University, excited to further my academic career and move on to bigger and better things with my life.  Sounds like any 18-year old girl's dream, right?

Now enters my father - traditional, conservative, stubborn.  For him, the best way is the cheapest way.  Everything is about money, and every decision he makes is whichever is the most economically sound at the time.  So naturally when the time came for me to start thinking about college, the fiscally-oiled wheels of manipulation started turning in his head.  I already told ya'll what my plans/intentions were.  His argument: "Go to community college for 2 years to save money.  You're basically taking the same classes the first two years at a 4-year university anyway, this will just be cheaper.  Then after your 2 years at community college transfer over to the 4-year school of your choice."  Now I like to think of myself as a reasonable human being, so I listened to his proposition and considered the high points.  I was reluctant in taking his advice because I felt like community college would be a step down from where I had already carried myself academically.  Junior college - it's like the 13th and 14th grade.  I wanted more for myself than that.  I deserved more for myself than that.  But a lot of what he was telling me made sense (although in retrospect I know now that this is because my father has an uncanny way with persuasion and I was too naive to see it and stand my ground).  So off to junior college I went (with my head hung low because the question of the year when you graduate from high school is, "Where are you going to college?" And when the words Community College came out of my mouth instead of some big prestigious name, people would give me a look of disbelief followed by a confused, "Really?" Yeah...didn't help much).  Despite the skepticism, I hoped for the best and off I went.  Let me tell you it was the worst. year. of. my. life. (luckily it was only a year because I had worked hard enough in high school to earn enough college credits to knock off a year).  The classes were a joke, the professors were a joke, the people there were a joke.  Yet my grades managed to slip below that which I was capable of achieving because I lost my motivation to succeed.  I didn't care.  I hated being stuck in this too-small town while all of my friends were off having a blast and making new friends at the colleges of their choices.  I was depressed beyond belief, I couldn't find a job so I had to depend upon my parents for everything (and they're the type that tend to invoke a feeling of guilt for all they provide).  So all of this heartache and hardship and bullshit for what?  To save a couple bucks?  Now, living in the world we do today where the economy is basically shit, I understand that saving money is important...but at what personal and emotional cost?

I stuck it out and when the time came I started sending in the applications to transfer schools: Johns Hopkins University, Bucknell University, University of Florida, and George Mason University - all schools that offer a bachelors of science (B.S.) degree in neuroscience.  Once again, I was excited.  I was done with community college, I saved a little bit of money, but now it was time for me to finally get my shot.  New city, new friends, and a good quality education in a field of complete and absolute interest to me.  But the transfer never happened.  Once again, enter father stage left to fuck with lead character's life some more.  At this point, loans were inevitable.  All of the colleges I had applied to were too expensive to pay for out-of-pocket.  But my parents refused to help me with the finances and actually stated point blank, "We will not give you any financial support unless you go to a state school."  I have nothing against state schools, but none of them offered a degree in my curriculum of choice.  My father said to me, "Why does it have to be neuroscience?  We can't afford it, so you're going to have to settle for a degree in biology or something similar."  But that's the problem...I shouldn't have to settle.  Settling leads to regret, and ultimately failure.  I knew that if I pursued a degree in biology that there would be too many classes that would cause me to want to blow my brains out.  But the neuroscience coursework in comparison...I looked at those course descriptions and every single one of them I was like "Get me in!!!!"  I was excited, and I was inspired!  Neuroscience is something that I felt passionate about.  And I think that's what this all comes down to - passion.  If you are passionate about something and you have the opportunity to go after it, then you do it.  You don't push it aside or put it off for something less than.  Even if it means you have to make a sacrifice for it, whether it's a financial sacrifice, or a material sacrifice, or anything else.  If I have to put myself in debt for the rest of my life in order to afford an education that is meaningful to me, then by all means that is a sacrifice I am willing to make.  I want an education that will increase my knowledge-base...and stick.  I want to go to classes because I want to go to classes.  Because I want to learn that which another human being has the passion to teach me.  An education that will carry me to monumental success in my future.  You just don't get any of that at a community college.

In my opinion, community college is not a place for saving money.  It is not a stepping stone.  Community college is a place for those who honestly don't know where they want to take their lives beyond high school, but are still motivated to take it somewhere - for those still trying to figure it out.  It is not a place for those with bounding academic skills, eager and anxious to further their educational experiences.  It does not offer a high enough quality of education, hence why it's so cheap.  There is a reason that prestigious schools are so expensive.  You get what you pay for.  If you know what you want to do, where you want to go...if you have a plan...then you proceed with that plan and you don't look back.  Because if you stop - if you modify that plan and simplify it due to a secondary factor such as money - you'll never end up where you want to be.  Money is not everything, and you cannot put a price on education, nor desire, nor the will and passion to strive for excellence and ultimately succeed!  Quality...not quantity.