A slow news day combined with writer’s block is an opinion writer’s worst nightmare. It is at times like these that I try to drum up ideas through various media as to what is on people’s minds. With the unfortunate removal of the “Just Sayin’” section, the collective conscious mind of the student body has been harder to tap into.

I took a small sample from Facebook asking what was on everyone’s minds, more specifically what they’d like to see an article on. I got several responses and although requests to write about prostitution in Iowa or implementing Cylon detection systems would have lead to some interesting articles.

The comment that stood out the most requested a discussion on “the decline of trade schools and how colleges are taking people who were never qualified to be here in the first place. It’s bad because now you have to have an AA to even be an assistant manager at most retail places.” This post received a whopping nine likes. All kidding aside, I feel it’s an issue that is definitely on the mind of at least a few people.

Seeing as how we’re at school that literally accepts so many students to the point that we almost didn’t have enough dorm rooms, you have to wonder, are we accepting too many people? Or are you just going to an easy college? And if it’s easier, did the college make it easier or are people just smarter? Let that one simmer for a second.

I honestly feel it varies from person to person and their major of interest. There’s always been the notion that some students are pursuing easier degrees than others, but as someone who typically struggles with standardized exams, I can say what’s easy for one isn’t always easy for another. You might be super good at math or computer programming but have no idea how to run a restaurant. Both are professions that have their own difficulties but valuable intrinsic rewards.

The larger issue at hand however is that of obtaining a bachelor’s degree out of pure necessity, almost as if it’s the next step after high school you must follow through with. And it’s not just students choosing to take the risk of obtaining a degree, but everyone is at fault — parents, college institutions and employers — for putting in our minds that it’s literally a “requirement” to go into the real world. College has become a necessity rather than a privilege, and I think some of us have forgotten that. I’m all for pursuing further education after high school, but only if it makes actual sense for you and your goals. There’s no reason to go to college and take out huge loans just for the sake of going to college.

There’s a school of thought that argues if you get a quick one- or two-year technical degree and start accumulating wealth earlier in your life you can be just as well off as someone who got their four-year degree, and especially if they went to graduate school or got their doctorate. Yes, your salary will be higher right out of college, but taking into account the time value of money and student loans you would have needed to have taken out, you’re still going to take a while to accumulate wealth.

And as a Wall Street Journal article suggests, there’s so many factors that go into this calculation, such as risks you may or may not take, finding and keeping jobs, various life events and whether or not your online business hits the big time. It’s hard to say one way or the other, but the general consensus is whether or not you go to college or get a job out of high school or get a technical degree, it’s hard to calculate an exact level of advantage to each due to varying situations. The average salary of someone with a college degree might be higher, but the factors that go into each person’s salary and how they got there are unique stories in their own.

The real issue my friend was pointing to was that even if you decided to skip college, you’d have almost no shot of success since almost everyone is getting a college degree and almost all jobs are starting to require them. This almost makes having a college degree to be on the same level of that of a diploma due to its universality.

College used to have an elite nature that both increased its appeal to potential students as well as the increased worth of its graduates. With the further separation of the middle class from the wealthy, are you, the future college grad, the information worker as a textbook would define you, considered to be working class or part of the elite? The bourgeoisie or the proletariat? An enlightened individual or just another multiple choice test zombie? Only time will tell.