Topic 3: Where Choices Lead

In analyzing the benefits and costs when making choices, many tend to ignore the things that they need to give up---opportunity costs. As a student transferring from other school to PAS, I have to give up my original high school—HGSH. As for getting into the HS Econ. class, I have to give up the Public Speaking class. To tell the truth, indeed both decisions aren’t my own decision. Getting into PAS is apparently a decision from my parents. To them, it might be a “rational” decision because I can go to foreign college that can increase my opportunity for finding a better job. However, to me this decision distant my friends and me –physically and mentally—and the educational system I grown up with for 16 years. This decision just suddenly threw me to an unfamiliar system. The higher intuition fee and less schooling hours seem to be costs that can never balance out with any benefits. Yet, I might be wrong. Though the intuition fee is high (and much higher than that of local school), but it ensure quality intuition. Also, the potential benefit (going to foreign college rather than staying in Taiwan) could outweigh the costs. A typical Taiwanese stereotype: graduating from foreign countries is far “cooler” than graduating in Taiwan. If I could take the full control of making this decision, I might choose to stay in the original school. Though getting a foreign degree might indeed increase job opportunities, I believed that one can achieve whatever goal he wants as long as he has single-minded determination.