2026-10-22: I found these old writings when I was cleaning up some stuff and added them here.
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Issue
Educational institutions have a responsibility to dissuade students from pursuing fields of study in which they are unlikely to succeed.
Essay
The main aim of educational institutes is to impart knowledge to students and make them worthy of finding a job or working by themselves and making their way safely through our current society. Therefore, it becomes a responsibility of the institutes to advice students against making decisions which might cause them hardships later in life.
Some students choose their field of study based only on the amount of job opportunities they perceive available in that particular field. One of the reasons for this can be that they might not be too good in financial condition and need the extra money. This can turn into a recipe of disaster if the student is not that good in that field since the competition in the said field will also be high due to other such candidates applying for similar reasons. It is generally better to be really good at something with less opportunities than to be average at something with more opportunities. The scarcity of jobs in today's market is only in place where someone has mediocre skills, but having commendable skill in any area causes much rarer and better paying opportunities to open up. In this case, correct guidance from the institutes at correct time may have a life-changing effect on the student's life.
There are other students who are studying some subjects just because they want to gain knowledge in those subjects. They have other means setup as their main income sources. A student who is studying physics because it interests him while coding as a freelancer professionally serves as a great example of the same. But these are rare cases who already have figured out as to what they want to do with their life. Universities will be better off letting study whatever they wish since their success doesn't depend upon how they perform in that field.
In conclusion, we can say that it would be better if educational institutes were to correctly guide students regarding the field of study they pursue. On the other hand the institutions should not discourage the students too much since no one can predict future and know if someone would be successful or not. Moreover the definition of success might mean academic success to some while to some it may mean financial independence and yet some others may only need to be happy to be satisfied from their life.