I do not understand the stereotype society puts in place for high school students to go onto college. Based on the price of most standard 4 year colleges, the return on invest is substantially lower than it was even ten years ago. Annual tuition is over double the price it was in 2005. According to the Economist, there is about 1.3 trillion dollars of student loan debt this year with about 43 million students who report being in debt. If college is so expensive then why do so many students pay to attend, perhaps because it would allow students better chances at higher paying jobs after graduating? Wrong. Employers are more than ever looking for candidates with experience, a strong portfolio, and good a personality over a college degree. So why do students still feel the need to attend college? The answer that most commonly comes up is that students feel pressure from their family members or from the people around them to gain a degree. This comes from older generations not having as easy access to higher levels of education, and the typical belief that those who did go to college during those times were wealthier and smarter than those who did not attend. But, times have changed. So why is society still pressuring students into going to college when it’s not as important as it used to be in order to attain high level jobs. Is college really worth it?
Vocational education has certainly been de-emphasized in American society, and that is a shame. A 4-year college education is not the path for every student. Depending on your goals, there are many jobs that are very fulfilling, financially rewarding, and obtainable with a vocational education. There are other jobs that are only obtainable with a college degree. In some cases, only with a specific college degree (Engineering for example). Other jobs require a college degree - but aren’t as specific as to what the major is.
For a while there was a misguided notion that 4-year college was the path to success for everyone. There seems to be growing recognition that is not true - but that does not mean there is no value to a traditional Bachelor’s degree (which is also the path to advanced degrees required for certain occupations).
Not every student spends outrageous amounts of money - or goes into significant debt - for a college degree. For many degrees, and many schools, the ROI does pay off. It’s all about realistic expectations and being a savvy consumer (as is much in life).
Many larger companies will not even consider resumes from applicants who do not have degrees. Right or wrong, that is reality. I know I have hired people without degrees, but more commonly have hired people with degrees who have changed direction and are now working in a field totally unrelated to their undergraduate major.
In a word - yes college is worth it but it’s more complex than a simple answer. On average, you make more money for each tier of education you have
http://work.chron.com/comparison-level-education-salary-6533.html
But it gets more complicated than that. If you’re going to get an art history or psych or fine arts degree or something, then it’s ill-advised to put yourself in $200k+ debt for it. You can normally go to a cheap local state school and get a bachelor degree that will put you in better life standing.
For example if we take avg statistics, and you earn 20k a year MORE for having the knowledge that’s associated with a bachelors degree, and you start to add that up, then in a decade, you’ve earned somewhere around 200k more overall than you would have with just a high school diploma. Not including interest expenses, and assuming you pay around full cost for a private school education, that would be relatively equivalent and you would break even 10 years after college.
Here’s some more analysis of how much more money you make with a degree:
http://www.thebestschools.org/bachelors-degree/
It’s a bit… lazy to just complain about how expensive college is. There’s so many options to make it affordable.
- Work hard and get merit aid.
- Go to community college for 2 years and save a bunch of money
- Go to one of those schools like U of Alabama that gives a good of money for minor statistics.
- Just go to whatever state school in your state is the cheapest or just live with your parents if possible.
OP I think it’s a strong claim to say definitively that employers are looking for people with work experience over people with degrees. If you want to go into accounting or something, you can probably teach yourself that, and get a bookkeeper certification with just getting an associates degree. But if you want to go into engineering, or a field where peoples’ lives are at risk, then having an education is obviously superior. Ideally, a lot of companies are looking for people with BOTH work experience and at bare minimum a bachelor degree.
IMO for many people college is worth it. As noted above there are ways to lessen the cost. But I would agree that college is not for everyone and I wouldn’t argue with any person who decides to choose vocational training for a job such as a plumber, hairdresser etc.
That’s not true. The recession actually hit high school graduates harder than college graduates, so the [gap between them has actually widened](http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2014/02/11/study-income-gap-between-young-college-and-high-school-grads-widens). The average debt of a recent college graduate is just over $25,000, which is a totally doable amount of debt for the average college graduate, who makes between $35,000 and $65,000 a year depending on their major.
Many of the highest-paying, most desirable jobs require or essentially require a college degree. Case in point: software development. Lots of people will tell you that you don’t need a bachelor’s degree to get a job as a software developer/engineer, you just need to write good code. But if you look at the ads for software developers at most companies, almost every single one of them will say “Bachelor’s degree required.” The highest-paying jobs with the greatest amount of career flexibility and autonomy require bachelor’s degrees or higher. It’s more important nowadays that students attend college to get high-profile jobs, not less.
Absolutely. It’s not necessarily fair, or even right, but it’s the way things are. It used to be that your actual skills were all that mattered, but a college degree has become an automatic filter for many companies, to where you can’t even get your foot in the door or a chance to show your skills, without one. The college degree is the new high school degree.
PS. IT is still a notable (and perhaps only) exception to this as skills are easily demonstrated and the industry still appreciates the fact that skills, not a piece of paper, matters most. However, upward mobility within an IT company can be limited by a lack of degree.