For some, the idea of four more years of college is as appealing as the mumps. Yet, for too many, it seems like the only option.   

Karina Grudnikov hits the nail on the head with this articleon whether college is for everyone. In "College: The Only Path to Success?" she talks with several young adults who have taken alternative paths to jobs, and raises some important questions we all must ponder.

Karina interviewed me for the article and managed to turn my ramblings into a fantastic piece. She's clearly a pro.

Here's the beginning. I urge you to click through and read.

"After graduating from the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Houston, Texas, Olivia Kaufman followed the same track as thousands of others: She went right to college, despite doubting her sense that it wasn't the right place for her. In 2006, she enrolled in St. John's University at Queens, NY. A year later, she dropped out.

"I went there and didn't do well," says Kaufman. "I've never been good at sitting down and doing homework."

Kaufman, 23, returned to her parents' home in Texas, where she enrolled in the University of Houston, in the hope that living with her parents would force her to focus on her studies. It didn't. She left college again, only to attempt it one last time at a community college. But there, the classes were too easy and Kaufman found herself gaining credits but little knowledge. She finally called it quits on school after three years at three different universities.

Like many who leave college, Kaufman worked a variety of jobs as she attempted to find her true calling. She first went into the Navy, from which she was shortly discharged due to medical reasons, and then worked at Starbucks. "I started to wonder what I was going to do with my life," Kaufman said, "and if I'd spend my whole life being a barista, making $7.80 an hour." One day, her mother asked if she had ever considered becoming an emergency medical technician, or EMT. Kaufman had been a lifeguard for several summers, and her mother knew she loved helping people. "I didn't even think that would be an option without a college degree," said Kaufman. But, as it turned out, there was a certificate program at Houston Community College where she could get her basic EMT certification. She enrolled in January 2010....

I'm hearing the rumblings of a backlash against the automatic from high school to college, and I think it's happening now because of the ever-rising cost, the difficulty finding jobs, and a generation that is ambitious and self-confident enough to carve new, viable paths. 

A new book by Anya Kamenetz called DIY-U (do-it-yourself university) is at the forefront of the movement. Another site, called Eduventurist by a lovely young woman, Weezie, catalogues interviews with young people who have taken alternative paths. And then there's the recent announcement by gazillionaire Peter Theil whose foundation offered $100,000 to 20 young adults under 20 who had promising entrepreneurial plans and who did not want to go to college. The applicants, the foundation notes, "applied at a time of increasing debate about the cost and value of college and student debt." 

For all those high school seniors who have the urge to join Benjamin at the bottom of the pool because they have no idea what they want to do, or because they can't imagine another four years of school, options may be on the horizon. Everyone needs more education after high school. It's just a matter of what that education looks like.