Purpose of Education: College Admission Essay Sample

Nothing better epitomizes today's motto of learning than Aristotle's analysis of education, "The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet." It seems that the fruits of education have bloomed even greater and sweeter than ever before. The fruits are the incentives behind the ever-increasing literacy rates, and the temptations and lusts of the young population who is graduating more and more from college. Yet, in this tide of progressivism and in these spirits of intellectuality, who actually stops and wonders why he obsessively seeks a good education? And then, what is the real purpose of a prime education?

The most obvious answer inculcated in the minds of any respondent to these questions would be the predictable and hackneyed maxim of "Knowledge is power". With professions of doctors, lawyers, and any other vocations well-advertised in their propitious incomes, there is a clear protocol that all of the disciples must follow: the First Commandment, study hard, Second Commandment, do well on the SAT, Third Commandment enter top college, and finally, bear the sweetest fruits or rewards of education, money.

Personally, I am not willing to invest a lifetime into education if the ultimate reward is money. Money cannot be the fruits of my education, and, most importantly, the prime goal of my life; I believe in a higher purpose of education, a good education.

Now entering my senior year of high school, I have begun to understand the purpose of my education. Yes, as a consequence of a high-quality education, I will accrue some fiscal security in life. However, the purpose of my education, I know, is the satiation of my own relentless competitiveness and personal vindictiveness. As for the former, competitiveness constantly impels me to learn more and know more. I am constantly in motion, in mind and body, to improve to be the best in any fields of competition, whether intellectually or athletically. The minute I stop progressing intellectually, I feel as if I am already a thousand miles behind the increasingly savvy world. Hence, an intangible force constantly irks me to keep up with the best minds of my age. The latter goal of my education is the compensation for all that my parents had given up for the education of their children. I am indignant at circumstances that had left them with little options but to trade their prestige and wealth as doctors in their country for a much more humble emigrating life of financial insecurities and emotional distresses, all intended for a better education for their children. I cannot bear to see my mom serving for anybody and scrambling to save every penny, for she once was a well-respected doctor whom the maternal side of the entire community looked for guidance. I cannot bear to watch my dad dragging home day after day, trying to suppress his much damaged pride so his children wouldn't see his suffering. Nights go by and early mornings come, I would stumble upon clandestine conversations of my parents, in which my dad poured his heart out expressing his grief, for the barrier of language has forsaken him from his beloved profession. Though my dad is a doctor, everyday he struggles to climb over that language barrier, trying to fight against the tides of stereotypes, trying to earn the respect of his colleagues who continually belittle him for his lack of "Americanism", and trying, with all his age and the grays on his head, to earn a living. I can't hold back the anger and the tears when I think that the man, once so well-admired and revered in half a county for his dedication to his patients and his ingenuity in cardiology, has now been reduced to a mere supplicant of some novice doctor whom the man has the age and experience to be his superior scholar. And this is why I must pursue education with all that I feel, all that I know, and all that I can give. The fruits of my education will not be the gratification of wealth, but of the compensation of what my parents had lost: prestige, pride, and future.

For these very purposes of education, it is absolutely essential that I receive the best education in the country. Only then would I be able to satisfy my competitiveness and ameliorate the irreparable payment I am forever indebted to my bearers. If the purpose of education is one of only temporal satisfaction, then any quality education would suffice. But if the purpose of education is to heal and bandage the wounds of the past and the humilities of life, then I am willing to fully dedicate my entire life to that goal of education.