Filling out tax forms is just one of the daunting tasks students are faced with after graduation. Casey Chun/The Fordham Ram
By Ainsley Kilpatrick
A college education provides students with much of the knowledge that they will need to succeed in life after graduation.
However, many life skills are left in the world of “education through experience.” Students graduate without knowing how to file their taxes or apply for bank loans. College students who do not have the opportunity to learn through experience are often left unaware when they encounter situations regarding these life skills.
Colleges currently offer no courses on important information for life after college. Students who are not majoring in accounting or finance are often caught unaware.
As a Jesuit Liberal Arts institution, Fordham University provides education in pursuit of the Jesuit principle, cura personalis. This includes the intention and drive to educate the entire individual in an attempt to make him or her well rounded.
This is reflected in the core requirements, which require the exposure to many fields of study. However, because Fordham does not provide its student body with a course covering the basic skills necessary for success in the real world after graduation, it is failing in this mission. Without these skills, a student cannot develop into an independent adult who does not need to rely heavily on others for support.
The cost of a college education has grown exponentially in recent years. This, in combination with the fact that a graduate degree has become a prerequisite for many professional positions, means that students are accumulating significant debt in the form of student loans. When students attend college, it is like entering into a contract in which students pay for an education that will prepare them to be successful in the future. Many students are forced into taking on incredible debt because merit scholarships and financial aid do not always cover enough of the cost of college. Because students are pressed into this fragile situation by the financial obligations of this contract, it becomes the burden of the university to provide them with the tools they will need to deal with these loans in the future.
There are serious repercussions from the lack of this knowledge. Student loans are categorized as unsecured loans. If a person defaults on his or her loan, it is within the lender’s rights to sue for a portion of his or her income until the loan has been repaid. Many students are unaware of this as they enter into contracts and encounter no opportunities in college to receive reliable information.
As it stands, students must rely on mentors and guardians for lessons in real world matters. If a student does not have a familial support system in place, the only other reliable source of information is for costly classes through companies such as H&R Block. As a college student with a limited budget, it is unrealistic to pay for these classes.
The lack of these life-skill courses persists in universities across the country and is a problem. It is imperative that universities adapt with the times and realize the significant need for the courses. They must recognize the needs of their students in this matter.
Basic courses on finances do not need to be a part of the core curriculum, and they need not be required. It is inarguable, however, that these courses need to be offered to provide students with the well rounded education they need to become independent adults. Fordham provides students with several classes and services in order to send them into the real world with as much knowledge and preparation as possible.
However, without classes about how to handle adult responsibilities (things that are not self-explanatory, like taxes or taking out a mortgage), students go into the beginning of their professional lives feeling nervous and overwhelmed.
If Fordham began offering extra classes or information sessions about these topics, it would boost the confidence of young adults living on their own for the first time and give them the practical skills they need to organize their lives. This is not a suggestion that is limited to Fordham. College students everywhere would benefit if their universities paid more attention to life skills.
