Importance of Scholarships

Well of course there is the obvious importance of helping people pay for college, but that is not the only one. Another main importance of earning scholarships is that they can be seen as accomplishments in the eyes of yourself and in the eyes of whichever college you are applying for. Which could very well help you in getting admitted. It shows the college that you are willing to go the extra mile to further your education by fulfilling all of the scholarship requirements. This will make you appear to be disciplined (if you are filling out scholarship applications then you probably are disciplined) and almost every single college wants disciplined students who are willing to put forth the effort in furthering their education.

Reflection

There aren't really any tasks that I need to accomplish other than to graduate from high school on May 23rd, 2015. Then I will leave for Air National Guard August 1st, 2015. I switched from Air Force to Air Guard, but it's basically the same as the Air Force except it's funded/operated by the state of Texas. That's really all there is for me to do, I just have to wait.

Is College Worth the Cost and United States School System vs. South Africa's School System

No I do not believe that a college degree is necessary for economic and social success. Here's why. If an individual wants to become a high school teacher then of course you will need a degree for that. In fact, I haven't met or even heard of a high school teacher that doesn't have a degree. But if someone wants to become a manager at a restaurant, no they will not need a degree. So what would be the point in going to college for a degree that they don't even need. Further more, it really doesn't matter how much money an individual earns per year when it comes to if they're successful or not. For instance, the average restaurant manger earns less money than the average teacher. But let's say that the teacher does not have a good budgeting skill but the restaurant manager does. By the end of the year the restaurant manager will have saved more money than the teacher. So according to our societies definition of success, the restaurant manager will be more successful even though he or she does not have a degree.

On a scale of 1-10 I would give the United States school system a 7, and I would give South Africa's school system a 8.5. I'm not saying that our schooling is bad or anything of the sort, I'm simply saying that South Africa's is superior to ours. In America, we go throughout our entire school career (kindergarten-12th grade) learning things like reading, writing, math, and history that more than likely do not pertain to most of our careers we want to go in to. But in South Africa, grades 0-9 (kindergarten through 9th grade) they learn about all the stuff we learn from kindergarten through 12th grade. Then once the students in South Africa get done with grade 9, they can either choose to stop or keep going to complete grades 10-12. Grades 10-12 are when the students learn material that actually pertains to the career field they choose. So during these grades, they won't be using their time learning things like where lines on a graph intersect or how to find the value of "x" unless it pertains to their future career. Because let's be honest, when am I ever going to have to do that sort of stuff in my career that has nothing to do with algebra.