College Education is Worth the Cost
Content
Divine Glory P. Malbuyo
March 21, 2015
I-BSMT
BC 12-B
College Education is Worth the Cost
Rebecca, the 7th of the 11 siblings who grew up in poverty, have a compelling desire to give
her family a better life.Because of her goal to become rich in purpose of helping her family, she
accepted any kind of available job like working as a helper with different families in her
hometown. When she was in her elementary years and high school, she sell pan de sal, iced
candy, and iced buko and also sell fish in the public market just to earn money for her schooling.
She insisted on going to college knowing that her parents cannot afford the school fees but that
didn't stop her from attending college. She take the job as a sewer at Bataan and pursue
Accountancy at the Polytechnic University of the Philippines. She was only 18 years old when
her mother died and now she faced a great challenge of taking care her younger siblings that
leads her to put her college education on hold and become a domestic helper or a nanny in
Singapore. But while she was in Singapore, she studied Accounting at the Open University of
Singapore Institute of Management and was able to finish the undergraduate program without
her employers knowing it. To earn more money for her family, she decided to work as a nanny in
Canada where she continued to pursue her graduate studies in Accounting and Marketing at
Ryerson University in Ontario. She continued to pursue her studies despite of the obstacles and
struggles she’s bearing upon her shoulders because she believes that good education is the only
way to succeed and she never stopped studying because if she wants to be successful in life, it is
very important for her to continue learning and develop her skills.
In today’s competitive world where economy is ever changing, financial crisis have become a
leading factor and a barrier to everyone's achievement especially in attaining a higher education.
Students,who have passed from primary and secondary education, doubted themselves of
whether they should get a college degree due to some factors that contributed to their frustrations
like the tuition had risen quicker than income, student debts are overwhelming, college graduates
have a hard time finding jobs, and college degree don't really guarantee a job preparation to
students. But, amidst the current situation that befall upon us, there is always an advantage to
every disadvantage. Despite of the tragic cost, education is one of the best things that you can do
for yourself, a necessity for everyone to survive and keep up with the different, changing paces
of this society and it is the basic foundation of human lifestyle. Nevertheless, a college diploma
is one's ticket to live a better life and the passport to the future. And from where I stand, I
strongly believe that College Education is worth the cost.
Student loan debt is crippling for college graduates. Fifty thousand pesos – That would
be the average annual cost of tuition for a student entering college in the Philippines. When a
high school graduate is about to set foot on college, it’s not surprising to know that parents would
shell out a money worth between thirty thousand or fifty thousand just for the tuition fees.
Higher education comes with a hefty price tag not only in the Philippines but also to other
continents like North and South America and even in Europe. Penelope Trunk said that many
people think that college education is the open door for more opportunities but in her
perspective, the debt is the one that closes that door. Is it worthwhile to attend college and get a
degree? A constant question that has reverberated throughout the social medias, in a government
controversy and over family dinner table for centuries. But the alarm bell has rung even louder in
recent years, when student loan debt in the United States grew to over $1.2 trillion and tuition
increases continued at nearly triple the rate of inflation when economy is still aggressively weak.
You can cost more than $40,000 a year upon attending a four year college in the United States
wherein people with a college education are drowning in debts and are fishing in troubled waters
like borrowing money to finance their education. As of 2010, the total amount of credit card debt
in America was expended by the total debt of the student loan. An increased from 25% to 43%
with the student debt was reported between 2003 and 2012 and their average loan balance was
$20,326 in 2012--a 91% increase since 2003. Even in the Philippines, Kristel Tejada, a student
from University of the Philippines-Manila committed suicide when she realized that she could no
longer finance her own education at the University.
In the article of Miami Herald; Franklyn Casale, the President of St. Thomas University,
addressed that a college degree is always an investment worth making. Well, they would say
that it is unnecessary for a student to attend college due to the student debts that are
overwhelming but in order to get a higher education, student debts are necessary just like you
need to climb the mountain before you get to see the view. This is how the whole scheme of
things works. All things are hard to achieve and difficult before they become easy and it is a
cruel paradox to know that the sweetest victory to have is the one that is most difficult. Going to
college may be expensive but so is skipping it. Paul Taylor, executive vice president of special
projects at Pew said that the only thing more expensive than going to college is not going to
college. He further explain it by showing some recent reports that those with a college degree
now make $17,500 more per year than those without- a wage gap that’s doubled in recent
decades and those without degree are four times more likely to be unemployed. College
education could raise the student’s chance of economic success in the future. A degree may cost a
lot, but it gives the student an access to higher-paying jobs after they graduate. According to
Clayton (2011), “Individuals with bachelor’s degrees earn about 60 percent more than those with
just a high school diploma, who in turn earn about 40 percent more than high school dropouts.
Furthermore, as of April 2003, the College Board states that college graduates with a bachelor’s
degree earned $30,000 more per year than a high school graduate, or about $500,000 more over a
lifetime.” College graduate makes more money than students who have no degree. Recent
reports showed that the median income for families headed by a bachelor's degree holder was
$100,096 in 2011—more than double than that for a family headed by a high school graduate.
The median increase in earnings for completing the freshman year of college was 11% and the
senior year was 16% in 2007. Even in the Philippines, a student will be fully admitted to enter
into a college institution if he/she qualifies for the position and all the requirements were
satisfied which are based on the student’s description during the secondary levels. Nevertheless,
market jobs or employers working in higher companies based an individual’s qualification for
the job in his/her personal records by its college degree. In the Article of Matikas Santos at
Inquirer.Net, Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago believes that a college degree should be a
requirement that will be included in the Constitution for elected officials. The Philippines is
already one of the competitive countries in the world and in order to have global
competitiveness, they should not only require members of local and national bureaucracies to be
degree holders but leaders like mayors, governors, presidents and senators should be formally
educated since education is a powerful constraint against narrow parochialism and a gateway to
ideas that can change communities.
College degrees do not guarantee learning or job preparation. Many college students
would feel that college is a waste of money because it isn't necessarily the mind-expanding
endeavor it’s always made out to be and it doesn't guarantee learning due to the fact that instead
of learning the major points and lessons that concerns with their course, they have to take classes
that have nothing to do with their major in purpose of fulfilling a general educational
requirement. “This Gen Ed thing is really stupid”, says a physical therapy major at SUNY
Buffalo.Many employers have said that the problem with the economy in every countries are not
necessarily because of a lack of jobs but a lack of qualified people to fill those jobs. Moreover, a
survey by the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools revealed that less than
10% of employers believe that colleges do an excellent job preparing students for the working
world. In the interview with CNN, Penelope Trunk said that in general students are not learning
in college anything that's useful in the workforce, and colleges right now are acutely aware of
that and are trying to figure out how to re-position themselves, either as learning for the sake of
learning, or becoming more vocational depending on the school.” A number of surveys –
including Bentley’s own recent preparedness study – reveal concerns over the preparation and
performance of millennial workers.They discovered that, indeed, significant numbers of business
executives, higher education influentials, students and parents believe that students in general are
not well prepared for the post-graduate workforce.The loosening of academic standards not only
negatively impacts the quality of critical thinking and reasoning skills acquired in college in a
general sense, but it also make students ill prepared for the job market. After 4 years of college, 6
% of students demonstrated no significant improvement on Collegiate Learning Assessments.
According to the statistical data, 56% of employers in 2013 thought half or fewer of college
graduates had the skills and knowledge to advance within their companies and even 30% of
college graduates testified that college did not prepare them well for employment, specifically in
terms of technical and quantitative reasoning skills.”A 2011 Pew Research survey found that
57% of Americans felt higher education did not provide students with good value compared to
the money spent.”
College degrees might not guarantee job preparation but college exposes students to
diverse people and new ideas and allows students to explore career options. College is a
great place to help students explore what they want to do in the future and experience many new
things. It allows people to undergo an atmosphere that is a step closer to the “real world”.
According to Arnett (2011), “College allows emerging adults to try out a wide range of possible
paths to their future…It’s worth the time, because the benefits last a lifetime.” During the
progression of the explorations, some instantly become aware of which path they should follow.
For many others, it may only be the starting point of their explorations, yet they will leave
college with a positive consequence of having a stronger understanding of themselves. Access to
a variety of people allows college students to learn about different cultures, religions, and
personalities they may have not been exposed to their home towns, which broadens their
knowledge and perspective. In 2004, 79% of people with graduate degrees and 73% of college
graduates thought that "it was very important to try to understand the reasoning behind the
opinions of others" compared to 67% of associate degree holders, 64% of high school graduates,
and 59% of high school drop-outs. According to Arthur Chickering's "Seven Vectors" student
development theory, "developing mature interpersonal relationships" is one of the seven stages
students progress through as they attend college. Nevertheless; Vivek Wadhwa, MBA,
technology entrepreneur and scholar, stated that American teenagers party in college but they
learnt social skills and developed an interaction with each other by partying. Moreover, Barack
Obama, 4th President of the United States, said that education is the key to compete in the
global economy wherein attending college is the time where the student learn about the world,
engaged with new ideas, and discover the things you're passionate about and expanding horizons.
According to Casale (2013), he stated that the college experience educates the whole individual,
and helps developed the person’s values. Furthermore, Rebecca Mead, staff writer for The New
Yorker, even said that college teaches students "to nurture critical thought; to expose individuals
to the signal accomplishments of humankind; to develop in them an ability not just to listen
actively but to respond intelligently;" all of which "are habits of mind…from which a letter
carrier, no less than a college professor, might derive a sense of self-worth.” Based on the
statistical data gathered, 74% of students in 2011 said college helped them "grow intellectually"
and 69% said college helped them grow and mature as people.
Many college graduates are employed in jobs that do not require college degrees and
recent college graduates are un- or underemployed. What about college graduates who get
stuck in low-level jobs as baristas, sales clerks or waitresses? About a third of college graduates
spend much of their careers in jobs that do not require a bachelor's degree. In the US News
Article “Going to College is a Mistake for Many”, Richard Vedder, PhD, Director of the Center
for College Affordability and Productivity, stated that “About 40% do not make it through a fouryear bachelor’s degree program in even six years.” According to the Department of Labor, as of
2008, 17 million college graduates were in positions that did not require a college education.
More than 16,000 parking lot attendants, 83,000 bartenders, 115,000 janitors and 15% of taxi
drivers have bachelor's degrees.College graduates with jobs that do not require college degrees
earn 30-40% less per week than those who work in jobs requiring college degrees. In 2011, 50%
of college graduates under 25 years old had no job or a part-time job. According to the Federal
Reserve Bank of New York, 44% of recent college graduates were underemployed in 2012. And
in February 2013,the unemployment rate for recent college graduates was 8.8% down from
10.4% in 2010, but up from 5.7% in 2007; furthermore, the underemployment (insufficient
work) rate for the class of 2013 was 18.3%.
College graduates have more and better employment opportunities. The New York Fed
researchers find that college is worth the cost. The workers still tend to earn more than high
school educated workers and are less likely to become unemployed than their high school
educated peers, the study says. According to Julie Margetta Morgan, JD, PhD, Education
Counsel for Senator Elizabeth Warren, “College graduates make an average of 84 percent more
over the course of a lifetime than those who only attend high school. The unemployment rate for
young college graduates is under 5 percent, compared to more than 13 percent for young people
with only a high school diploma.” Michael Greenstone and Adam Looney showed their recent
reports that college graduates are more likely to receive on-the-job formal (22.9%) or informal
(17.2%) training, more access to technology, greater autonomy, and ability to enhance skills
compared to high school graduates. Moreover, 58% of college graduates and people with some
college or associate's degrees reported being "very satisfied" with their jobs compared to 50% of
high school graduates and 40% of people without a high school diploma. Despite the recent
struggles of college graduates, investing in a college degree may be more important than ever
before because those who fail to do so are falling further and further behind," the researchers say.
Nevertheless, during the recession between Dec. 2007 and Jan. 2010, jobs requiring college
degrees grew by 187,000, while jobs requiring some college or an associate's degree fell by 1.75
million and jobs requiring a high school degree or less fell by 5.6 million. Approximately 63% of
jobs will require some college education or a degree as calculated by Georgetown University in
2018. In the statistical data of the National Statistics Office in Philippines showed the result of
Labor Force Survey which portrayed an estimated 93.4% in 2015 and 92.5 % in January 2014
of the employment rate compared to the unemployment rate which was estimated with 6.6 % in
2015 and 7.5 % as of 2014. All in all, degree holders will have more opportunities than those
who have not.
In conclusion, despite of the tragic cost in attaining higher education, a journey of getting a
college degree is worthwhile after all. There’s no question that college has become more
expensive, as technology advances to a higher level and the economy is still aggressively weak,
which caused the students to developed some drawbacks in getting a college degree. College
education might put the students to the sea of grief and in the wintry forest of life, but most
studies and evidences indicate that it still pay off. College Education is a life where achievement
are landmarks and choices are crossroads that sets drawbacks among student’s decision like how
the student debt’s overwhelmed and crippled the college graduates, of which it does not give a
guarantee to learning and job preparation and that recent graduates are un- or underemployed.
Students should not depend their goals and dreams on numbers that were shown or even on
persons who have attained a higher degree for college is what students make of it. It is their
responsibility to make their life worthwhile and also their choice of whether they are going to
make their story or let other people's live dictate their autobiography. As they say, to every
disadvantages, there is always a corresponding advantage. According to Dan Rather, “A college
degree is the key to realizing the American dream, well worth the financial sacrifice because it is
supposed to open the door to a world of opportunity.” College Education may came with a hefty
price tag but it is an investment worth making where it gives you an access of higher-paying
jobs, provide more employment opportunities, helps students to acquire more knowledge and
broaden their horizon and an experience to live a better and stable life.
From Nada to Prada and from selling fish in the public market of Dasol to being a nanny,
Rebecca Bustamante became a founder and president of Chalré Associates, a multinational
recruitment firm for senior management executive positions through her hard work and passion
for education.
Works Cited
Ghose,T. (2013, May 31). Is College Worth the Money? Retrieved from
http://www.livescience.com/37030-college-pros-and-cons.html
Santos, M. (2013, January 11). Santiago wants College Degree enshrined in Constitution for
Elected Officials. Retrieved from http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/339055/santiago-wants-collegedegree-enshrined-in-constitution-for-elected-officials
Obama, B. (2015, January 9). Remarks at Pellissippi State Community College in Tennessee.
Retrieved from https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2015/01/09/remarks-presidentamericas-college-promise
Pew Research. (2011, May 15). Is College Worth It? Retrieved from
http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2011/05/15/is-college-worth-it/
Carnevale, A. (2011, November 17). College Graduates Earn Higher Pay.
http://www.usnews.com/debate-club/is-a-college-degree-still-worth-it/college-graduates-earnhigher-pay
Tapper J, Dabney S, Pam S. (2013, May 31). Expert: College is not Worth It. Retrieved from
http://thelead.blogs.cnn.com/2013/05/31/expert-college-is-not-worth-it/
Loose, T. Is a College Degree Worth It? Retrieved from
http://www.university.com/is_going_to_college_worth_it/
Denhart, C. (2013, August 17."How the $1.2 Trillion College Debt Crisis Is Crippling Students,
Parents and the Economy.” Retrieved from:
http://www.forbes.com/sites/specialfeatures/2013/08/07/how-the-college-debt-is-cripplingstudents-parents-and-the-economy/
Frank, L. Examining the Value of College Degree. Retrieved from
http://www.payscale.com/content/value-college-degree.pdf
Punay, E. (2013, March 16).UP Student Kills Self Over Tuition. Retrieved from
http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2013/03/16/920420/student-kills-self-over-tuition
Lude, J. (2014, February 11). Going To College May Cost You, But So Will Skipping It.
Retrieved from http://www.npr.org/2014/02/11/275297408/going-to-college-may-cost-you-butso-will-skipping-it
March 21, 2015
I-BSMT
BC 12-B
College Education is Worth the Cost
Rebecca, the 7th of the 11 siblings who grew up in poverty, have a compelling desire to give
her family a better life.Because of her goal to become rich in purpose of helping her family, she
accepted any kind of available job like working as a helper with different families in her
hometown. When she was in her elementary years and high school, she sell pan de sal, iced
candy, and iced buko and also sell fish in the public market just to earn money for her schooling.
She insisted on going to college knowing that her parents cannot afford the school fees but that
didn't stop her from attending college. She take the job as a sewer at Bataan and pursue
Accountancy at the Polytechnic University of the Philippines. She was only 18 years old when
her mother died and now she faced a great challenge of taking care her younger siblings that
leads her to put her college education on hold and become a domestic helper or a nanny in
Singapore. But while she was in Singapore, she studied Accounting at the Open University of
Singapore Institute of Management and was able to finish the undergraduate program without
her employers knowing it. To earn more money for her family, she decided to work as a nanny in
Canada where she continued to pursue her graduate studies in Accounting and Marketing at
Ryerson University in Ontario. She continued to pursue her studies despite of the obstacles and
struggles she’s bearing upon her shoulders because she believes that good education is the only
way to succeed and she never stopped studying because if she wants to be successful in life, it is
very important for her to continue learning and develop her skills.
In today’s competitive world where economy is ever changing, financial crisis have become a
leading factor and a barrier to everyone's achievement especially in attaining a higher education.
Students,who have passed from primary and secondary education, doubted themselves of
whether they should get a college degree due to some factors that contributed to their frustrations
like the tuition had risen quicker than income, student debts are overwhelming, college graduates
have a hard time finding jobs, and college degree don't really guarantee a job preparation to
students. But, amidst the current situation that befall upon us, there is always an advantage to
every disadvantage. Despite of the tragic cost, education is one of the best things that you can do
for yourself, a necessity for everyone to survive and keep up with the different, changing paces
of this society and it is the basic foundation of human lifestyle. Nevertheless, a college diploma
is one's ticket to live a better life and the passport to the future. And from where I stand, I
strongly believe that College Education is worth the cost.
Student loan debt is crippling for college graduates. Fifty thousand pesos – That would
be the average annual cost of tuition for a student entering college in the Philippines. When a
high school graduate is about to set foot on college, it’s not surprising to know that parents would
shell out a money worth between thirty thousand or fifty thousand just for the tuition fees.
Higher education comes with a hefty price tag not only in the Philippines but also to other
continents like North and South America and even in Europe. Penelope Trunk said that many
people think that college education is the open door for more opportunities but in her
perspective, the debt is the one that closes that door. Is it worthwhile to attend college and get a
degree? A constant question that has reverberated throughout the social medias, in a government
controversy and over family dinner table for centuries. But the alarm bell has rung even louder in
recent years, when student loan debt in the United States grew to over $1.2 trillion and tuition
increases continued at nearly triple the rate of inflation when economy is still aggressively weak.
You can cost more than $40,000 a year upon attending a four year college in the United States
wherein people with a college education are drowning in debts and are fishing in troubled waters
like borrowing money to finance their education. As of 2010, the total amount of credit card debt
in America was expended by the total debt of the student loan. An increased from 25% to 43%
with the student debt was reported between 2003 and 2012 and their average loan balance was
$20,326 in 2012--a 91% increase since 2003. Even in the Philippines, Kristel Tejada, a student
from University of the Philippines-Manila committed suicide when she realized that she could no
longer finance her own education at the University.
In the article of Miami Herald; Franklyn Casale, the President of St. Thomas University,
addressed that a college degree is always an investment worth making. Well, they would say
that it is unnecessary for a student to attend college due to the student debts that are
overwhelming but in order to get a higher education, student debts are necessary just like you
need to climb the mountain before you get to see the view. This is how the whole scheme of
things works. All things are hard to achieve and difficult before they become easy and it is a
cruel paradox to know that the sweetest victory to have is the one that is most difficult. Going to
college may be expensive but so is skipping it. Paul Taylor, executive vice president of special
projects at Pew said that the only thing more expensive than going to college is not going to
college. He further explain it by showing some recent reports that those with a college degree
now make $17,500 more per year than those without- a wage gap that’s doubled in recent
decades and those without degree are four times more likely to be unemployed. College
education could raise the student’s chance of economic success in the future. A degree may cost a
lot, but it gives the student an access to higher-paying jobs after they graduate. According to
Clayton (2011), “Individuals with bachelor’s degrees earn about 60 percent more than those with
just a high school diploma, who in turn earn about 40 percent more than high school dropouts.
Furthermore, as of April 2003, the College Board states that college graduates with a bachelor’s
degree earned $30,000 more per year than a high school graduate, or about $500,000 more over a
lifetime.” College graduate makes more money than students who have no degree. Recent
reports showed that the median income for families headed by a bachelor's degree holder was
$100,096 in 2011—more than double than that for a family headed by a high school graduate.
The median increase in earnings for completing the freshman year of college was 11% and the
senior year was 16% in 2007. Even in the Philippines, a student will be fully admitted to enter
into a college institution if he/she qualifies for the position and all the requirements were
satisfied which are based on the student’s description during the secondary levels. Nevertheless,
market jobs or employers working in higher companies based an individual’s qualification for
the job in his/her personal records by its college degree. In the Article of Matikas Santos at
Inquirer.Net, Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago believes that a college degree should be a
requirement that will be included in the Constitution for elected officials. The Philippines is
already one of the competitive countries in the world and in order to have global
competitiveness, they should not only require members of local and national bureaucracies to be
degree holders but leaders like mayors, governors, presidents and senators should be formally
educated since education is a powerful constraint against narrow parochialism and a gateway to
ideas that can change communities.
College degrees do not guarantee learning or job preparation. Many college students
would feel that college is a waste of money because it isn't necessarily the mind-expanding
endeavor it’s always made out to be and it doesn't guarantee learning due to the fact that instead
of learning the major points and lessons that concerns with their course, they have to take classes
that have nothing to do with their major in purpose of fulfilling a general educational
requirement. “This Gen Ed thing is really stupid”, says a physical therapy major at SUNY
Buffalo.Many employers have said that the problem with the economy in every countries are not
necessarily because of a lack of jobs but a lack of qualified people to fill those jobs. Moreover, a
survey by the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools revealed that less than
10% of employers believe that colleges do an excellent job preparing students for the working
world. In the interview with CNN, Penelope Trunk said that in general students are not learning
in college anything that's useful in the workforce, and colleges right now are acutely aware of
that and are trying to figure out how to re-position themselves, either as learning for the sake of
learning, or becoming more vocational depending on the school.” A number of surveys –
including Bentley’s own recent preparedness study – reveal concerns over the preparation and
performance of millennial workers.They discovered that, indeed, significant numbers of business
executives, higher education influentials, students and parents believe that students in general are
not well prepared for the post-graduate workforce.The loosening of academic standards not only
negatively impacts the quality of critical thinking and reasoning skills acquired in college in a
general sense, but it also make students ill prepared for the job market. After 4 years of college, 6
% of students demonstrated no significant improvement on Collegiate Learning Assessments.
According to the statistical data, 56% of employers in 2013 thought half or fewer of college
graduates had the skills and knowledge to advance within their companies and even 30% of
college graduates testified that college did not prepare them well for employment, specifically in
terms of technical and quantitative reasoning skills.”A 2011 Pew Research survey found that
57% of Americans felt higher education did not provide students with good value compared to
the money spent.”
College degrees might not guarantee job preparation but college exposes students to
diverse people and new ideas and allows students to explore career options. College is a
great place to help students explore what they want to do in the future and experience many new
things. It allows people to undergo an atmosphere that is a step closer to the “real world”.
According to Arnett (2011), “College allows emerging adults to try out a wide range of possible
paths to their future…It’s worth the time, because the benefits last a lifetime.” During the
progression of the explorations, some instantly become aware of which path they should follow.
For many others, it may only be the starting point of their explorations, yet they will leave
college with a positive consequence of having a stronger understanding of themselves. Access to
a variety of people allows college students to learn about different cultures, religions, and
personalities they may have not been exposed to their home towns, which broadens their
knowledge and perspective. In 2004, 79% of people with graduate degrees and 73% of college
graduates thought that "it was very important to try to understand the reasoning behind the
opinions of others" compared to 67% of associate degree holders, 64% of high school graduates,
and 59% of high school drop-outs. According to Arthur Chickering's "Seven Vectors" student
development theory, "developing mature interpersonal relationships" is one of the seven stages
students progress through as they attend college. Nevertheless; Vivek Wadhwa, MBA,
technology entrepreneur and scholar, stated that American teenagers party in college but they
learnt social skills and developed an interaction with each other by partying. Moreover, Barack
Obama, 4th President of the United States, said that education is the key to compete in the
global economy wherein attending college is the time where the student learn about the world,
engaged with new ideas, and discover the things you're passionate about and expanding horizons.
According to Casale (2013), he stated that the college experience educates the whole individual,
and helps developed the person’s values. Furthermore, Rebecca Mead, staff writer for The New
Yorker, even said that college teaches students "to nurture critical thought; to expose individuals
to the signal accomplishments of humankind; to develop in them an ability not just to listen
actively but to respond intelligently;" all of which "are habits of mind…from which a letter
carrier, no less than a college professor, might derive a sense of self-worth.” Based on the
statistical data gathered, 74% of students in 2011 said college helped them "grow intellectually"
and 69% said college helped them grow and mature as people.
Many college graduates are employed in jobs that do not require college degrees and
recent college graduates are un- or underemployed. What about college graduates who get
stuck in low-level jobs as baristas, sales clerks or waitresses? About a third of college graduates
spend much of their careers in jobs that do not require a bachelor's degree. In the US News
Article “Going to College is a Mistake for Many”, Richard Vedder, PhD, Director of the Center
for College Affordability and Productivity, stated that “About 40% do not make it through a fouryear bachelor’s degree program in even six years.” According to the Department of Labor, as of
2008, 17 million college graduates were in positions that did not require a college education.
More than 16,000 parking lot attendants, 83,000 bartenders, 115,000 janitors and 15% of taxi
drivers have bachelor's degrees.College graduates with jobs that do not require college degrees
earn 30-40% less per week than those who work in jobs requiring college degrees. In 2011, 50%
of college graduates under 25 years old had no job or a part-time job. According to the Federal
Reserve Bank of New York, 44% of recent college graduates were underemployed in 2012. And
in February 2013,the unemployment rate for recent college graduates was 8.8% down from
10.4% in 2010, but up from 5.7% in 2007; furthermore, the underemployment (insufficient
work) rate for the class of 2013 was 18.3%.
College graduates have more and better employment opportunities. The New York Fed
researchers find that college is worth the cost. The workers still tend to earn more than high
school educated workers and are less likely to become unemployed than their high school
educated peers, the study says. According to Julie Margetta Morgan, JD, PhD, Education
Counsel for Senator Elizabeth Warren, “College graduates make an average of 84 percent more
over the course of a lifetime than those who only attend high school. The unemployment rate for
young college graduates is under 5 percent, compared to more than 13 percent for young people
with only a high school diploma.” Michael Greenstone and Adam Looney showed their recent
reports that college graduates are more likely to receive on-the-job formal (22.9%) or informal
(17.2%) training, more access to technology, greater autonomy, and ability to enhance skills
compared to high school graduates. Moreover, 58% of college graduates and people with some
college or associate's degrees reported being "very satisfied" with their jobs compared to 50% of
high school graduates and 40% of people without a high school diploma. Despite the recent
struggles of college graduates, investing in a college degree may be more important than ever
before because those who fail to do so are falling further and further behind," the researchers say.
Nevertheless, during the recession between Dec. 2007 and Jan. 2010, jobs requiring college
degrees grew by 187,000, while jobs requiring some college or an associate's degree fell by 1.75
million and jobs requiring a high school degree or less fell by 5.6 million. Approximately 63% of
jobs will require some college education or a degree as calculated by Georgetown University in
2018. In the statistical data of the National Statistics Office in Philippines showed the result of
Labor Force Survey which portrayed an estimated 93.4% in 2015 and 92.5 % in January 2014
of the employment rate compared to the unemployment rate which was estimated with 6.6 % in
2015 and 7.5 % as of 2014. All in all, degree holders will have more opportunities than those
who have not.
In conclusion, despite of the tragic cost in attaining higher education, a journey of getting a
college degree is worthwhile after all. There’s no question that college has become more
expensive, as technology advances to a higher level and the economy is still aggressively weak,
which caused the students to developed some drawbacks in getting a college degree. College
education might put the students to the sea of grief and in the wintry forest of life, but most
studies and evidences indicate that it still pay off. College Education is a life where achievement
are landmarks and choices are crossroads that sets drawbacks among student’s decision like how
the student debt’s overwhelmed and crippled the college graduates, of which it does not give a
guarantee to learning and job preparation and that recent graduates are un- or underemployed.
Students should not depend their goals and dreams on numbers that were shown or even on
persons who have attained a higher degree for college is what students make of it. It is their
responsibility to make their life worthwhile and also their choice of whether they are going to
make their story or let other people's live dictate their autobiography. As they say, to every
disadvantages, there is always a corresponding advantage. According to Dan Rather, “A college
degree is the key to realizing the American dream, well worth the financial sacrifice because it is
supposed to open the door to a world of opportunity.” College Education may came with a hefty
price tag but it is an investment worth making where it gives you an access of higher-paying
jobs, provide more employment opportunities, helps students to acquire more knowledge and
broaden their horizon and an experience to live a better and stable life.
From Nada to Prada and from selling fish in the public market of Dasol to being a nanny,
Rebecca Bustamante became a founder and president of Chalré Associates, a multinational
recruitment firm for senior management executive positions through her hard work and passion
for education.
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Santos, M. (2013, January 11). Santiago wants College Degree enshrined in Constitution for
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Obama, B. (2015, January 9). Remarks at Pellissippi State Community College in Tennessee.
Retrieved from https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2015/01/09/remarks-presidentamericas-college-promise
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http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2011/05/15/is-college-worth-it/
Carnevale, A. (2011, November 17). College Graduates Earn Higher Pay.
http://www.usnews.com/debate-club/is-a-college-degree-still-worth-it/college-graduates-earnhigher-pay
Tapper J, Dabney S, Pam S. (2013, May 31). Expert: College is not Worth It. Retrieved from
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Loose, T. Is a College Degree Worth It? Retrieved from
http://www.university.com/is_going_to_college_worth_it/
Denhart, C. (2013, August 17."How the $1.2 Trillion College Debt Crisis Is Crippling Students,
Parents and the Economy.” Retrieved from:
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