Issue39~第一篇issue 求指导，谢谢！~

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TOPIC: ISSUE39 - "The intellectual benefits of attending a university or college are vastly overrated: most people could learn more by studying and reading on their own for four years than by pursuing a university or college degree."
DATE: 2010/8/8 16:06:23

University is not overrated, for not everybody is able to get a good knowledge only by learning on their own for four years. What's more, students choosing to attend college have more important intents.

First of all, students by studying and reading on their own for four years can learn more about knowledge on book only if those students are equipped with capable self-study ability, such as making scientific study plan and implement ability, self-control ability and problem-solving ability. If one knows clearly what is needed to learn and makes a scientific plan accordingly, and then carries it out with determination. When he or she meets problems during the process, he/she could solve them by themselves or through taking advantage of effective tools like the internet. As we all know, there are some people, for example, Bill Gates, achieving great success by learning on their own. Bill Gates drop out from Harvard to found his own company Microsoft, and most of his program engineering knowledge is acquired by self-study. However, at the same time, we should notice that there are other vital factors contributing to his achievement, such as a good family education and a full back of family members and friends. In other words, studying and reading all by oneself for four years instead of attending college could but not necessarily lead to learning more.

As far as I’m concerned, People without such capable ability and external conditions have better attend college. In university, there are compulsory courses arranged by experienced teacher and optional course from which you can choose what you are interested in. And when you have questions, you can discuss with classmates or professions. Also the atmosphere of competition could remind you to study hard. All the above points cannot get from studying or reading all by oneself. Of course, attending college alone does guarantee success too, but we can learn many other important lessons from college. And in my view, that’s why we choose to attend college for four years.

The last but not least, as college is also called "a miniature society", choosing university is to learn many more important things besides knowledge on book. The first thing to learn is to how to communicate and cooperate well with others. For it's a society of people, the ability of getting along well with others is of vital importance to survive and thrive. Just as the Confucius says (and i paraphrased): whenever three people walk together, one of them will be my teacher. I will learn from their strengths, and I will eliminate any shortcomings I see in them. In addition, in college, we have more time to develop our interests and make friends; even we could start a club to cultivate leadership on how to efficiently organize and coordinate with teammates. What's more, college is also a place to proceed on socialization and a place where we may see some black sides of the society, and then learn to face it in a placid mood.

College is like a circle, and for some students, studying knowledge is the centre, however, the broader area besides the centre is also very important. All in all, college is not overrated, and we should get a thorough understanding of college's function and make a balance between learning knowledge and fostering other social activity abilities.