There are many reasons to go to University.  Not all of them are good reasons though.  In this article I will look at what are, in my opinion, the best reasons to spend three to four years of your life in lecture theaters, racking up plenty of debt and living on a shoestring budget.

Pursue A Career in Academia, Law or Medicine

The fact of the matter is, if you want to be a scientist, lawyer or doctor, the only place you can get the qualifications to do this is at University.  If the only way to get into the career you want is through University then the decision is a no brainer.  Whilst those careers on this list aren’t the only ones that need a specific University degree, they are probably the best examples.

If this is the motivation for going to university, it is important that you have explored other options for getting into your career of choice.  There are loads of ways to get into many career paths, not all of them through a university degree.

Broaden Your Horizons

University is a melting pot of people from all over the country and sometimes all over the world.  It is rare that you will get many opportunities to meet and become friends with such a diverse group of people.  University often offers great opportunities for traveling too.  I was lucky enough to travel from Leeds in the UK to Kingston, Ontario.  This broadened my horizons like nothing I’ve ever experienced before and I would recommend it to anyone who asked.

You will be pushed and pulled into a new person over the course of your degree if you allow yourself to be.  You will experience things you never would have if you’d taken up a career after leaving high school.  You will be exposed to new ideas on politics, philosophies and musical tastes.  The people you will meet and the relationships you will have will define you like never before.  You don’t have much choice over who you live with a lot of the time and it is inevitable that some of who you live with will rub off on you.  This isn’t just a good thing, it’s probably the best thing.  Especially if you’re lacking a little direction and identity like I was.

I went to University being a devout metal-head with strong nationalistic views.  I wasn’t motivated and didn’t really know how to push myself.  After 4 years my iPod still has some old favorites on it but has been rejuvenated with genres such as Reggae, Dance and Classical.  I still can’t get into Jazz though!  My politics have morphed from the old narrow minded racist that I used to be to a globalist, capitalist free marketeer who believes in living and letting live.  I have also embraced the entrepreneurial spirit since I realized that money is important if I want nice things, which I do.

Moving Out

Going to University is a great way to branch out by yourself into the world, find yourself and learn how to live.  Whilst it would be pretty easy for most people to just rent a flat, by moving to a strange city and being cut off from your old support networks will help you to evolve from a child into an adult.  University accommodation also provides a safety net.  It’s not quite as insane as simply moving to a new city all by yourself.  If you fail miserably, there will be someone to help you pick yourself up and dust yourself off.

University will give you the freedom to move out and live your own life with the structure in place to make the shock much more bearable.  The first year serves as a nice introduction to living by yourself and after that you will often have the opportunity to practice what you’ve learned later in your degree when you get a house for your self and your friends.  They also have the support network in place for you incase it all goes tits up!

Nurturing and Creative But Forgiving Environment

For me, one of the best things about University life is the attitude of a lot of the academic staff.  In all my experiences they will push you to improve at everything but don’t get mad if you don’t, like at school.  Obviously it’s better if you succeed and they certainly won’t let you onto the next year of your course if you fail all your exams however.  Given the freedom to learn and grow in the way I saw best was such a liberating feeling.  You really can push yourself as hard as you want, in the areas you enjoy the most.  Often this happens outside of the classroom.  You still need to meet the graduation criteria (if you intend to graduate, that is) but so much of what you learn happens despite your course, not because of it.

I worked in my department on a research project after I had graduated.  The hours were 9 am -5 pm and a little over £20k a year.  Pretty standard for any recent graduate going into their first job.  My supervisor was quite clear that the time only meant what the payroll office required to set wages.  I was free to work as and when I pleased, providing I could show I was making progress.  When I couldn’t solve a problem I had the freedom to go about learning how to solve it in what ever way I pleased.  In essence, I was being paid to learn new and fun skills.

In this environment I would often get up at 9, think about what I wanted to get done that day and sleep on it for half an hour, seeing how I felt about my plan after a short nap.  I’d often wander into my lab at around 10:30 and get to work.  I never took lunch or coffee breaks, preferring a working lunch.  If I wasn’t feeling particularly creative, I’d often go to the gym for an hour to focus my thoughts.  I have been known to go and catch a matinee at the cinema close to my lab as well.  I never made a habit of this though.  I felt it’d be too close to taking the piss.  I did see some colleagues of mine who’d had the same idea there on one occasion though!

The fact that I could get away with this, or rather that this attitide wasn’t frowned upon is a testament to the liberating environment that university provides.  It may sound like I was slacking and my parents certainly never got what I was doing, but I made progress.  Going from an empty page on my computer screen to having written a functioning scientific model which rendered it’s self in 3D too, all in a couple of months.

University Scene

There is no denying that University culture is much more diverse than office culture.  The special interest groups you can find sometimes beg belief.  A few of my favorites were: “Swashbucklers Society” for role playing pirates.  Basically dress up as Jack Sparrow, drink beer and pretend to sword fight whilst talking in a “Ye Olde English” accent.  Next is the Circus Skills Society.  By association with a member I learned to fire breath.  That in it’s self is pretty cool and I can’t imagine any office I’d work at having a thriving circus skills club.  They weren’t just pyromaniacs either, they did the whole shebang! Finally University Sports clubs are something that aren’t found outside the students’ union.  Sure you can play rugby, hockey and even american football for local teams but the University sports team culture is far more intense in my experience.  If you are serious about this kind of thing, university is the way forward.  If you want to meet interesting and unique people, there really is no better place than the university societies scene.

Genuine Love For Subject

If you genuinely love what you do and want to learn from some of the best people in your field, the best place to be is at University.  This applies to all subjects.  I used to think that going to University to study business or commerce was a waste of time when you could go out and start your own business but the more I learn about the theory of business, the more it seemed like a fascinating thing to study whilst remaining in the relative financial safety of a University course.

Some of the greatest minds in your fields will be close by for you to talk to and learn from.  For someone who wants to know everything there is to know about something, purely for the sake of knowing it, university really is the best.  If, however,your aim is to start a business, you’re probably not going to enjoy learning about business theory.  You should probably get out into the world and do it.  You’ll learn more about running a business by failing a few times in your first few years than you will by sitting in a lecture theatre listening to someone talk about profit margins!

In Closing

Some of you might notice that graduating wasn’t one of my reasons.  There’s a simple reason for this.  I don’t think going to University to get a degree is a good reason to go.  The value of a degree has been devalued recently since anyone can go and can graduate with a 2:1 or 2:2 with very little effort.  The reasons mentioned here will truly enrich your life, making the money spent one of the best investment in yourself that you can make.

There is a lot of pressure from schools to convince their graduates to go to university, mainly because it looks good for them that a high proportion of their previous attendees moved on to get a degree.  If you’ve been pushed to go to university, but don’t see their reason on this list, it could be because I have missed it or don’t see it as important.  It could also be because you would be better off somewhere else.  University is definitely the easy option after school and a lot of people are going, hopefully for the right reasons and not just because they have been put under pressure from their peers and schools to do so.

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