Assignment 6 - Eli Flomenhoft

Last year in AP Seminar I worked on a paper that went in depth on the cost and benefits of attending college. Although I picked this topic somewhat haphazardly, I finished the paper realizing that college was needed to succeed in adulthood, but it is a helpful tool. Through the research I discovered that many college graduates have mental health problems from the rigor of college. Furthermore I found that many college graduates go on to take minimum wage jobs well into their late 20's. For a concept so deeply engraved into our society as being important, you would think it would be more helpful and less harmful. But it turns out it's not. In order to come up with a solution to this problem, which was required for the paper, I researched the benefits of other post-secondary educations such as technical school, vocational school, or trade school. Any number of these choices for post-secondary education are both less stressful and more helpful for young adults. When I began researching this topic I believed college to be the be all end all to higher education. Nothing was better or more useful than college. Yet I was surprised, as I researched I found that many college graduates are not succeeding despite having gone to college. And I attributed this to the abundance of people holding college degrees and the dearth of jobs in comparison. That's why I chose trade school as my solution. If one field doesn't have any open jobs, move to another. And as of now there are plenty of jobs requiring vocational, technical, or trade school educations. While I will still apply to college that option is not open to every one. Trade school on the other hand is a more accessible option that is sure to provide you with a job on the other side.