College is the Most Expensive Kick to the Head You Will Ever Pay For

I am an online student with Kaplan University. My education is costing me and the government a LOT of money, but I intend to finish my undergrad studies and part of my grad studies with Kaplan. I like the school. I like the curriculum. I like the instructors, and I even like some of my classmates. I like being a college student. I know that college is a choice, not a requirement in life, and as such am wiling to go deeply into debt to prove to myself that I can finish my degree.

Yet there are people for whom this idea is not even a thought. What I would like to know is who told those people that just because their education is costing them what it is costing them that they are entitled to expect more than what they would get if they were going to traditional college classes? There is no guarantee on darned nearly anything these days, but never has there ever been a guarantee on getting your education.

To say that college is not easy is an understatement, but it seems that when some people start their educations online, they are under the impression that it is going to be easier than if they were to pursue their educations by driving to their college of choice, signing up, paying tuition and going to class - physically going to class. It is not easier. I know. I have gone to traditional college and now am preparing to start my fourth ten-week term as an undergrad with Kaplan University. I made the Dean's list in February, but barely passed this past term. Were that I were enrolled traditionally, the same would probably be the case, or I might not have passed at all, because there was a time during the term when I was not capable to attend my online classes. My grades and this past term's GPA prove that fact. The only thing I can do now is make sure that I work as hard as I did the first two terms and do what I can to do better this term.

In short order, whether or not it was due to my own doings or due to things out of my control, the onus lies squarely in my lap, and it is because if truly I would have prioritized my education and not what was happening in my extended family at that time, I would have at least passed with a better GPA rather than by the very skin of my coffee-stained teeth.

Online college is the same as traditional classes in that they are a challenge, but different because the classes are accelerated, and because they are accelerated, you are expected to be able to keep up with the program. We do not have the normal 3 month term. For some people the two weeks makes a big difference. For others, all we want to do is the best we can and get out of the experience the most that we can. It would be like learning to surf, or learning to dance hula, or anything else that is new to our brains. Learning takes time, and if you need help in your learning process, perhaps online schooling is not for you. If the kind of guidance you seek is the sort where the instructor proverbially holds your hand every step of the way, maybe you should be in traditional college rather than the online sort. This is not me slamming you. This is me merely saying that there are some who are too busy to do everything that is required of them to earn their credits through an online program, and me saying that perhaps it would be better to try traditional classes instead of online studies. Online studies, based on my experience, are a little more challenging in that you have to be disciplined enough to be able to make it to all your classes, whether they be live seminars or discussion board seminars. You have to be there, and if you do not make it, then you do not score points for that week.

The same would hold true if you were attending regular classes. In order to get credit, you have to show up to class, you have to take notes, and you have to be involved with the class itself. You cannot just not show up and expect to pass. It ain't gonna happen that way.

The instructors are not required to do more than challenge and guide their students, and why? Because college students, whether they are fresh out of high school or like me, about 20 years fresh out of high school, are all ...(gulp) ...adults, and as such should be able to balance their own lives and their educational goals, enough so that they can at least pass by the very skin of their teeth. It is forgotten often that these instructors whom we expect to do more for us than we are willing to do for ourselves are not beholden to us, only care about our grades as much as we care about them ourselves, and are there to guide and challenge us. They are not hired to become the people who hold our hand during the times we are in their tutelage. Their job, again, is to teach, guide and challenge, NOT pander to our every educational need as we see them to be or as we feel we should be treated because of the amount of money we have chosen to spend on becoming educated.

Online instructors are to be respected, just as you would show respect to those who stand before a class of students who are ready to learn what it is that the instructors have to offer in so far as education is concerned. Your instructors' brains are ripe for the picking, and they are too happy to advise and give clear and thoughtful insight. But they are nothing like and are not to be thought of as one would a high school instructor. The way it has been explained to me is that "you are required by law to get a high school education, but a college education is a choice. It is your choice to fool around and not pass, as much as it is your choice to work hard, apply yourself and become degreed."

What your mother told you when you were a kid, and what my mother tells me still, and I am not a kid, is "In order for you to make the grade/money/friends, you have to apply yourself. It takes work. It ain't gonna just be handed to you. You're going to have to sweat a little, kid..." Guess what?

Your Mom was RIGHT!!!

If you are planning to go back to school, the first thing I would suggest is not to worry so much about the price, but rather, your level of dedication. How dedicated are you to getting the grades you need to get a higher education? How much are willing to put into your education in regards to time and effort, forgetting for a minute about how much you have spent or are willing to go into debt for? Do you have the amount of discipline it takes in order to pass the classes, even if passing only by the skin of your teeth is what you end up doing once or twice?

Most of all, how much are you willing to do on your own, for yourself, and without the aid of the instructors? How challenged are you willing to be by their lessons and how much criticism can you handle without getting your feelings hurt? College is not a requirement. It is a choice, and it is your choice to be a good student or a great student. There is not a college professor alive who will tell you anything different than I have here. In order to become an educated individual, you have to be willing to work hard for it. There is no way around it. You have to be willing to realize that this was your choice and most of all, you have to accept that you are an adult and that you are learning from adults .

Remember, you chose it this way.

It's your dime. It's your time.

Don't be foolish and waste either on your own wrong assumptions and way-out expectations.