Skipping class

I'll be the first to admit that I've skipped a class or two. Or three. Or four. It's college, and everyone skips some classes at one point or another. \nI remember being in high school and being told by my college freshman friends how awesome college was because you didn't have to go to class. \nIt was a rather rude awakening to find some professors in fact, do take attendance. \nStill, there are those that don't. So sometimes classes get skipped. The general consensus tends to be if you can get an A while sleeping in your dorm room, why bother going to class?\nThat was the question I was pondering the other day when the answer came to me. (And I might get some raised eyebrows for this one.)\nIn theory, everyone who attends college chooses to do so. They choose a major from the 130 possible undergraduate major fields of study. College is more serious than high school.\nNot to undermine it, but high school was just the prerequisite for college, the preliminary. Unless your major calls for it, you will probably never again have to recall Hamlet's soliloquy, factor an equation or list the dates for the major Civil War battles. \nCollege is different. You're dangerously close to the working world, the "real world." Whatever you study here will make a direct impact on your life after college. Most of your classes will actually teach you something pertinent to what you need to know for whatever job you'll have later in life. \nWe spend so much time in high school preparing for and obsessing over getting into college, that many seem to think of it as the ultimate goal. \nSo once they get here, a lot of people, including myself, seem to forget there's still work to be done. No more cruising through classes. \nAside from that, someone, whether it's you, your parents, IU or the government, is paying a LOT of money for you to gain an education. If you blow off half your classes and still get the grades you want, you aren't really being educated. The money that was meant to buy your education goes to waste. \nYou'd be paying for a report card and a diploma, not a true education. In the short run, that's OK. You can still get into whatever master's program or get hired at whatever job you want. But you're only hurting yourself. You're depriving yourself of the chance to gain experience, intelligence and insight. \nThere are people who would give their right eye for a shot at higher education. Many college students of our generation seem to think everyone goes to college. I used to be one of them, until I read a random statistic online. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 72 percent of Americans older than 25 don't have a bachelor's degree. \nYou are members of a privileged 28 percent. Take advantage of it.