Topic Tuesday

Is a College Education Worth It?

Based on conversations I have had in the past, the answers were different across the board.  Being a college graduate, I can say that there are definitely pros as well as cons to the institution which is our College experience.  I will summarize:

Pros:

Personal development away from home or my comfort zone was one of the most notable.  This was the true beginning of my life as an adult.  Having to be responsible for bills, my schedule, and accountability for my scholastic obligations.

Cons:

Prerequisite classes.  It seemed like the College spent more of my scholarship and loan money than I did.  Let’s be honest, if you are one of those students that know what they actually want to major in, those prerequisite classes sure make it a long journey.  They are generally those classes that are repeats of what you have already done in high school hence, unnecessary.  I could see if I actually needed biology to get my business degree, but it was not the case.  How many thousands of dollars would I have saved myself if prerequisite classes? 

Just my opinion, all scholastic institution should be held to a specific operating standard where there should be some type of transition into a career applicable to each major.  Students and parents spend thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars to be “prepped to function” in society within their areas of study.  It should be the responsibility of the college to facilitate that transition.  Fair trade? Right?

Now, quite a few years removed from college, I still am paying on those good ole student loans…….No fun……However, I am positioning my son to go to college as well.  I am just changing the approach by challenging him to know what he wants to do before he makes that decision because if he wants to work on cars, a certification will suffice, saving him a financial burden, and the higher likelihood of employment when he completes his education. 

Now, to the debate over whether a college education is worth it may have begun when the colonists arrived from Europe and founded "New College" (later renamed Harvard University) in 1636. With 19.9 million US college students in 2013 and average student debt at over $26,500, the debate continues today.

People who argue that college is worth it contend that college graduates have higher employment rates, bigger salaries, and more work benefits than high school graduates. They say college graduates also have better interpersonal skills, live longer, have healthier children, and have proven their ability to achieve a major milestone.

People who argue that college is not worth it contend that the debt from college loans is too high and delays graduates from saving for retirement, buying a house, or getting married. They say many successful people never graduated from college and that many jobs, especially trades jobs, do not require college degrees

By the numbers:

In 2011, 50% of US college graduates under 25 years old had no job or only a part-time job.
One in three college graduates had a job that only required a high school diploma or less in 2012, including more than 16,000 parking lot attendants, 83,000 bartenders, and 115,000 janitors with bachelor's degrees.
In Aug. 2013, approximately 6,900 accredited colleges and universities were operating in the United States, compared to 3,535 in 1990 and 1,851 in 1950.
In Apr. 2013 the unemployment rate for college graduates over 25 years old was 3.6% compared to 7.5% for high school graduates.
So there you have it!!!  What say you?  Is college worth it?