Why do people go to college if they don't take it seriously?

[BanjoBilly!]

Whenever my teacher gives out an assignment for us to work in groups I see other people just talking about their life, Facebook, making jokes and they do not complete the assignment on time. I also overhear people talking about how they do not care about class/college and that they rather party. Why do they even go to college and pay for classes if they are not going to make the effort to succeed? It just doesn't make any sense to me. College isn't like high school, nobody is going to make sure you do your work, right?

[Dorothy K.]

Well, it sounds like you've discovered a truth that exists on many campuses, and that is the fact that many students that are in college really have no business being there. A lot of students are just there to make their parents happy. Many others only care about the courses that pertain to their majors and figure all other classes are a waste of time, so they slack off, especially in group assignments, where it seems like somebody else can manage doing it all. They really don't care and they get by with just the minimum needed to pass; it isn't until they graduate and have to compete for jobs that they realize their mistakes. Its quite sad, but it's the truth!

[Jordan]

people should take it seriouly,they pay to do it,if they really don't care about college what do they do there? they shoud go working as soon as possible

[Doc Martin]

According to studies, more than half of college students don't benefit. Their knowledge of the world and their critical thinking skills don't improve from High School graduation to College graduation.

The lower the High School graders and SAT/ACT scores, the less likely it is for students to benefit from college. This is why it is stupid to recommend that students with less than ~3.0 GPA go to college (time in community college usually doesn't help).

More than half of High School students should be encouraged to take a four year apprenticeship in some decent trade or other vocational training.

[Cassi]

I've come to realize a lot of my generation (born around, say, 86-91) were raised being told "go to college and you'll do well in life" without an actual thought behind why on our part. We grew up with the idea in our head that college just laid everything else out for us automatically almost. A lot of people go to college just because they were raised to think that's what they are supposed to do. Then you have the people who go for a reason they made for themselves and are the people that do well.

[green3ch]

Well we live in the age of entitlements. So here is college, another entitlement. Some student go to college because they feel that a higher education is their right and they have it owed to them. They know if they can just barely graduate they will still qualify for higher paying jobs. Some of the lack of involvement comes from the fact that they probably already have a job in the family business when they graduate. So they wind up doing only the minimum requirment to graduate.