Is the military a smarter choice than college?

College offers a person a chance to better themselves through an education and a chance to have a better job. A college education only offers a degree of knowledge – a recognized certificate of knowledge in a field of study. However, not all college degrees are a career oriented or a marketable certificate. Some examples are degrees in gender studies, Women’s studies, etc….

Colleges can prepare a student to strengthen their qualities of leadership, being accountable, meeting deadlines, and multitasking. If the college experience is fully taken advantage of, students should have no problem talking about and using the skills and values that they learned and implemented. College can help students improve their oral communication and presentation with people and audiences. This can directly carry over into the workforce.

In order to qualify for college, a person must graduate high school and receive a diploma. The next step in the process is to submit an application to a college and wait for an approval or rejection. Provided that you are approved, your next step is to sign up for an open semester. Students usually finance their college expenses by taking out loans and borrowing from family members.

For many students just introducing themselves to the career force, it seems colleges have not adequately prepared them for the competitive market that they're about to enter or taught them to set realistic expectations. The simple truth is colleges and universities are not adequately preparing students for the real world, and people are mistakenly keen on the notion that more people with college degrees means more jobs with higher wages.

The Military The Armed Forces is America’s largest employer and is divided into five military services: Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and Coast Guards. Military careers are extremely adventurous and should only be held by dedicated, hard working, intelligent people. When deciding on entering the armed forces, one must also decide which service he or she would like to join.

Some join for the discipline and structured environment, where fashion and family name are less important than professional and athletic ability. Some join to be surrounded by like minded individuals where respect runs both up and down the chain of command. Very few join for the opportunity to kill. Many join hoping to never see combat, but will use lethal force when the time comes. Few join in order to become rich or famous, but many solders take the skills they learned in the military and do well in the civilian world.

Although the military has many career paths that are transferrable to civilian careers, there are some career paths that have limited or no opportunities in the military. There are limited opportunities for creativity based career paths – music, art, or sciences – physics, mathematics, etc, or engineering – civil, software, mechanical, etc., ). Or none – social causes – activist, social work)

A civilian person’s outlook for getting a better job and life is to go to college. This is not always the best path though. This can put a person into debt. There is another option for a civilian. They can join the military. Life in the military is structured and can provide a person with a sense of security and safety. The military will take care of their personnel by providing the proper amenities.

In the civilian world, there is much more freedom. A person is able to come and go as they please and spend time with their families. In the military life, there is not as much freedom. This is traded off by the close knit bond between military personnel.

In order to gain the best experience for a trade, a person should research which path will take them the farthest in the field that they choose. If college is the better choice, then they should go to college; however, if the military is the better choice, then they should not have any preconceived notions that are wrong. In the end, it is a person’s decision where they want to go and how they want to get there. People should not be pressured into making a decision that they will regret later.