Some people say that college is what leads to a person having a successful career. Others insist that higher education is not always necessary. They often argue that trade schools are a good option for people who do not want to go to college and would rather get their career started more quickly.
Three local college graduates and a student success coach weighed in on the topic. While they agreed college isn’t required for a successful career, they each pointed to a variety of advantages college can provide.
Higher education “can give you more options about career choices than (you were aware of) before you went to college,” said Brookdale academic adviser Lauren Langford. “I think it’s helpful in the sense that it gives exposure to classes you might not have thought about before you went to college.”
“I do not think that college is necessary for a successful career because there are jobs in the trade field that do not require a bachelor’s degree and not as many people are getting jobs in that field,” said Bess Mascone, a 24-year-old Washington College graduate from Middletown. “I feel like going to a liberal arts school affected me going to a grad school because liberal arts schools require many different courses. Therefore, you are exposed to a lot of material.”
“I don’t think it is necessary, but it personally helped me and taught me a lot academically and socially. I learned a lot of good skills and traits such as time management, working hard, working with different people, and I wanted to go into a math-related job, so my classes helped me with that,” said Lindsay O’Keefe, a 23-year-old The College of New Jersey graduate from Middletown. “College has affected my career path because it prepared me well, and I learned a lot when I was in college.”
Additionally, O’Keefe shared, “I attended a career fair on my campus where I got the opportunity to meet the people I would end up working with in the future.”
“It can sometimes be smarter to go to a trade school because it can be shorter, and it can be easier to get yourself in a specific field,” said Alle Prezioso, a 22-year-old Montclair State University from Wilmington, Delaware. “I got my paralegal certificate along with my bachelor’s, which helped me become a certified paralegal, which helped me get a job and helped me to know exactly what I needed to do in my job role.”