Is college worth it? well to answer that question we would need to define “worth it”. For something to be worth it there would need to be repercussions for something enjoyable or something that caused hardship. People should make that effort to get a college degree and the outcome with benefit them in the end. […]
In today’s society, a rising question in the minds of American youth is, “Is college worth it?” To which the answer is a resounding “yes”. Attending a university still carries a large amount of value ranging from being able to develop as a person by gaining responsibility and independence to the opportunity of increased material […]
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Get startedGrowing up college was necessary, often times parents and close ones described it as a privilege you were born into right from the start as a little boy or girl. For a long time and for many of us millennials. There is a limited number of pathways. These pathways consist of either go to trade […]
College is the best investment you can make in your life. A college education provides you a better hourly wage or salary, it overall makes it more likely to be employed and gives you more flexibility when it comes to finding a job. Even with the tuition cost and fear of wasting time, college is […]
“Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.” (William Butler Yeats). High school education is both needed and important in our lives; it helps us grow both with common knowledge and gives us a chance to give us the foundation to form our own ideas. But after high school, most wonder what they should do, move on to college and take the chances of going into debt over tuition, or going straight into the workforce. According to most sources, including parents and educators, going to college will give a person the opportunity and greater chance of getting a higher paying job with a more ‘luxurious’ life rather than being just a high school graduate, but is this ‘myth’ true?
To begin to diverge into this myth, we must first discuss the negatives of going to college. According to Mary C. Daly, college tuition can be exceedingly pricey. The average college graduate pays the annual tuition of about $20,000- $50,000 based on which college the high school graduate decides to attend. Bryan Goodwin states, “… based on the belief that a four-year degree guarantees a passport into the middle class” many people find themselves dropping out, in debt, and unemployed. In fact, due to the information from Jaison R. Abel, since the Great Recession and 2001, many recent college graduates have had a hard time in finding a job. And especially since 2001, college grads have especially been hit with unemployment and underemployment, which is “working in a job that typically does not require a bachelor’s degree.” Overall getting a college degree does not change the fact, that you can be left with debts and no job. But there are also many huge pluses to getting a degree that may out weight the bad.
Bryan Goodwin explains it best when he states, “despite the current hand- wringing, college graduates still earn significantly more than non-graduates on average”. Through Mary C. Daily’s informative article she brings up several important points on how going to college is much better of a choice than just being a high school graduate and not getting a degree. She tells us that a four-year college degree is still a great investment, and the “difference between earning [degree verse no degree] continues such that the average college graduate earns over $800,000 more than the average high school graduate by retirement age”.
Through her research, she comes to the conclusion that the value of the college degree has not declined over time, but risen for some graduates. With several studies, she believes that the “value of a college education rises over a worker’s life”. In her conclusion she made a very valid point, saying that although there are stories of people who have made success without college, for most Americans the way to get higher earning careers involves a four-year college degree. Before we fully understand whether going to college and getting a degree is either a smart way to your future well-off financial career or a worthless time that can only bring a person debt, the next thing we need to discuss is what are the pros and cons of going right out of high school.
Is college really that important or should a person just go straight into the workforce? According to Jaison R. Abel, there are Good non-college jobs; for example “electrician, dental hygienist, or mechanic-that is paid an average wage of around $45,000 per year”. Another thing about not going to college is not getting yourself into all those possible debts which you would be paying off for a while. Although there are these agreeable jobs, normally “High school graduates consistently face unemployment rates about twice as high as those for college graduates…” (Daly 3). According to Daly, when the labor market takes a turn for the worst workers with lower levels of education are especially hit hard. And while college graduates can recoup the costs of schooling by age 40, there still is a huge difference between how much a person with a college degree makes than a person who only has a high school degree. Thanks to all of this information we now have the ability to answer the age-old question, “Is College worth it?”
Whether you get your college degree or go straight into the workforce, you will always have positive and negative possibilities. Yes, even after you get your degree and spend all that money on college, you could end up unemployed or underemployed. At the same time, you also have a very favorable chance at getting employed and becoming more and wealthier each year compared to if you did not go through college. It is true that you also could land a well-paying job if you do not get your degree, but it is extremely important to take into the account that you do have a possibility of landing a low wage job and having a high chance of unemployment. So with all this information, the best conclusion is that your best way to a well-paying career is to go to a four-year college, work hard, and earn your degree.
