Learn another language, earn a degree, get a higher education and go broke.
That should be the sales pitch for college recruiters. It seems like everyone I know has taken out loans, overdrawn a bank account or lives with the constant stress of not eating for a week between pay periods.
Either going to college is getting too expensive or college students aren't taught the life skills they need before they're thrown into the world of renting, shopping and checking.
"I haven't overdrawn my account, but I've put a lot of stuff on credit cards that I'm still paying off," said junior Amy Simkins. "I've learned the most just through experience."
Simkins is one of many students who said they wish they would have been taught more life skills instead of other general education requirements.
Simkins said she would have liked to learn practical skills, like how to buy a car or how to budget her time and money.
"Why do I need biology or some literature class?" Simkins said. "I think they should be filled with parenting classes or a class that teaches you how to budget."
There is little training in life skills for college students with the exception of a class called "Introduction to University Life" that is offered to incoming first-year students for general education. The curriculum of the course covers campus resources, health and wellness issues, time management, information literacy and study skills.
Jennifer Roy, University Housing and Food Service coordinator, teaches "Introduction to University Life" and said she thinks the class is extremely helpful for life skills. However, Roy said only about a quarter of incoming first-year students take the class.
"It's an introduction to college that's designed to help students make a healthful transition into college life," Roy said. "I think it should be a mandatory requirement for first-year students to take."
Brooke Rose can be reached at:
brose@mail.csuchico.edu
Other stories in the series:
To eat or not to eat? Debt is the question
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