Why college is worth all the money

Surreal /səˈrēəl/ 

Adjective:  having the disorienting, hallucinatory quality of a dream

Taking your daughter to college orientation is bittersweet.

Taking her to orientation at the same college you attended is surreal.

Walking the grounds of my alma mater over thirty years later, everything is similar but nothing is the same.  I know I’ve walked every inch of every path but I can’t remember what it felt like back then. 

Things change.  Yesterday’s piercings are today’s tattoos, and the quaint soda shop is now a Bruegger’s Bagels.  If things didn’t change, it would be wonderfully satisfying for the alums and terribly sad for the students.

What hasn’t changed:  A community of professionals who dedicate themselves to making sure young people transition from childhood to adulthood in a way that makes them better and smarter, more interesting, more interested, and more well-rounded individuals.

College is the single best cranial training ground in the world and the world would be a better and more productive place if every one of us could go back every decade or so. 

It would be like renewing your vows as an enlightened human.

One of my favorite orientation speakers laid out the skills that the college student of 2012 will come away with:

Problem solving

Decision making

Critical thinking

Not to mention, becoming an informed citizen and lifelong learner, gaining breadth and depth of knowledge, and forming invaluable connections.

Is it any different than 10, 50, 90 years ago?

Conceptually, no.

Financially?   Yes.  Ridiculously so.  

But as insane as the costs are, I believe it’s worth it. 

Now that’s surreal.