In the 2002 comedy Orange County, high school student
Shaun Brumder is denied admission to Stanford due to a transcript
snafu in his high school guidance office. During his mini-meltdown,
he has the following exchange with his spacey mother, Cindy:
Shaun: I have to go to college!
Cindy: Why?
Shaun: Because it's what you do after high school!!!
It’s a funny moment in an otherwise mostly unfunny movie. But if you want to find the right college, if you want to get accepted, if you want to make the most of the time and money college will cost, you’re going to need a much better answer than Shaun had.
Going to college "just because" and hoping that it will eventually be worth it is not a good strategy. You’re a lot more likely to get in shape if you go to the gym with an end goal in mind than you are if you show up and wander passively near the machines. And you’re a lot more likely to look back on college as a valuable use of your time and money if you go into it knowing what you want.
I’m not saying that you need to have your career or even your major picked out ahead of time. In fact, I think it’s perfectly normal for a 17-year-old not to know those things. If that’s the case, your answer to the “Why college?” question might be that you want to discover your talents and figure out your professional path in life.
Your “Why?” answer might change as you do your college search. It might even change once you get to college. Nothing is set in stone when you’re a teenager. But what would you say today if a college application or interviewer asked you, “Why do you want to go to college?”
The first step is to find your answer to that question.