05/08/2012
Lesson #129: Don’t just spend 4 years of your time and [enter ridiculous tuition cost here] of your money on your college education.
Make it an investment. You have to put in the time and effort now in order to make the stressful days and sleepless nights spent studying worth it one day.
And on that note, back to studying. :)
04/04/2012
Lesson #95: College isn’t an investment in your future unless you make it one.
“A college education is not an investment in your future if you are taking out loans just for the college experience. It’s not an investment if you’re not coupling your education with training. It’s not an investment if you aren’t researching which fields are creating good-paying jobs now and 30 years from now.” (Source)
This article is a must-read for all college students and high school juniors/seniors who are thinking about college.
There’s a reason we call it “getting an education,” not “being given an education.” Knowledge can’t be given to you. Only resources can. You have to take it upon yourself to use those resources as tools in acquiring the knowledge itself. How much of an education you actually choose to “get” is, for the most part, completely up to you.
02/02/2012
Lesson #33: Consider how your implicit costs can translate into explicit costs.
They overlap more often than you think. Take, for example, the cost of skipping class. (I’m choosing this because I know I’m guilty of doing it more than I should.) The costs that come to mind are obvious and, more often than not, don’t seem too expensive. We’ll miss a lecture and notes, but no big deal. You can usually get the notes from a friend or catch an online podcast of the lecture. What we don’t realize, however, is that skipping even a single class has explicit, monetary costs as well.
I crunched the numbers for the cost of skipping a single class at a UC:
Cost of Tuition: $13,200/year or $4,400 per quarter (excluding Summer quarter)
-Most students take 3-4 classes per quarter.
$4400/3.5 classes = $1,257.14 per class per quarter
-There are 10 weeks of instruction per quarter
$1,257.14/10 weeks = $125.71 per class per quarter per week
-Therefore, for a class that meets 3 times a week (MWF):
$125.71/3 = $41.90 for every class
-For a class that meets TWICE a week (Tu/Th or MW):
$125.71/2 = $62.85 for every class
The average cost of skipping a single class at a UC ranges from $40 to $60. Next time you’re considering skipping, think about whether or not it’s really worth it. :)
01/10/2012
Lesson #10: The number of times you sneeze (consecutively) is determined by genetics.
Random, huh? The lesson behind this one: Go to class. You learn interesting things. To be honest, if you judge me solely on my study habits up to this point, I wouldn’t blame you for thinking I’m extremely apathetic with regards to my education. This is by no means true; of course I care about my education. But up to this point, I’ve taken it for granted more than I’m willing to admit to myself and to everyone else. I’ve come up with petty excuses (which, in my head were completely justified but shouldn’t have been) to not go to class. I’ve put off studying for embarrassingly trivial matters (ex. Disneyland…lol). I’ve convinced myself that my other obligations (mainly my work schedule) made it “okay” to put off studying until the last few weeks of the quarter. I lost sight of the joy of learning interesting, new things. I’ve taken for granted that I’ve been blessed with the opportunity to pursue a higher education and that the resources that I need to succeed are not only present, but are in excess and at my disposal.
When you’re managing your time amongst all your obligations, it’s easy to let yourself slip here and there. Sleep in: don’t go to class. Tired: don’t study. Lazy to do homework: go on Tumblr. And, when you consider education as an “obligation,” it’s even easier to undermine its priority level because it’s viewed as somewhat of a chore. Always remember that not everyone has the opportunity to pursue an education (at any level, but even more so at the post-secondary level). Education isn’t an obligation; it’s a gift. Treat it like one.
Side note: I didn’t even learn the little sneezing fun fact in a bio class. I learned it in my Intro to Computer Science class. Just goes to show you that you learn more than you expect to when you actually decide to show up. :)
