Is College Worth It

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Is College Worth It?

Is a college education really worth the investment of time, money and energy? Is a college degree really worth going deep in student loan debts? Higher education is a considerable gamble. For many people it works out well, but many of the other college graduates have found themselves completely unable to get a great job in this economy with a huge amount of debt on their shoulders. The entire system encourages students to take out any kind and amount of loans they need without worrying how they will pay them back. For that reason these people also say that college education is a good investment. For the past few decades, a college education was actually an almost automatic ticket to a job and a middle class life but today, higher education does not guarantee anything. The only thing guaranteed for millions of people is that they will fall in a great amount of debt in student loans. According to Annie Lowery in Slate magazine's article "Is College a Rotten Investment? higher education is still a worthwhile investment. Lowery compares higher education to be very much like real estate and questions the argument that higher education is an economic bubble. Although there was no logical reason on why the prices on both homes and higher-ed have increased over a specific amount of time, Lowery mentions a reasonable analogy. Houses are like stock shares. They can be sold and bought but this method does not work with a college degree simply because it is not something you can trade in, or in other words, it cannot be inherited. Lowery describes a diploma as a very changeable and diverse investment in which a person is capable of doing many useful things. She also mentions that even though some may argue that colleges are overpriced, there are still many institutions that give you a higher

education without being too pricy. As a conclusion, Lowery still questions the cost of higher education but also give us an assurance that taking your education to a higher level is still worthwhile. Richard Vedder in the article Why Did 17 Million Students Go to College? states that with more increasing evidence and statistics, we are overinvesting in the higher education system. In the reports of the Bureau of Labor over 317,000 waiters and waitresses have some kind of a college degree and that goes along with 80,000 bartenders and 18,000 parking lot attendants. Coming down to a conclusion, Veddar says that about 17 million Americans are doing the sort of jobs that require a lot less levels of education skills accompanying a bachelor s degree. In the chart below you can see the ratio of the number of jobs to the percentage of the people who have at least a bachelor s degree but don t need to have that degree to be in the place they are:
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By: http://chronicle.com/blogs/innovations/files/2010/10/underemployment-chart.jpg

He also emphasizes on his belief that even though there is an escalating number of people who are attending college, many of these people do not have the intellectual abilities to necessarily have a successful outcome out of their higher education; therefore, the rates of drop-outs will rise or their effort and money to get a college degree will go down the drain. Veddar also points out the fact that he agrees that people enjoy going to college simply because they can socialize and take advantage of the benefits of being in that dimension but when the economy is in a shortfall, it may not be a good idea to subsidize for those whom are already suspected of an unsuccessful academic and vocational future. In the article Actually, College Is Very Much Worth It , Andrew Rotherham gives us a statistic that while only 40 percent of Americans felt that college provides an excellent value for the money, 86 percent of the college students thought their investment in higher education was still good for them. To understand the two views, Rotherham suggests analyzing a few ideas at once. First, there might be many colleges with poor quality or very high costs. Second, it is true that college is not for everyone since there are many other essential jobs that do not need a college education. Looking at those views, he still feels that college education is a good idea because graduates still have the likeliness to get a job and earn more money that those who do not go to college. He at last lays emphasis on how a college education leaves you with more choices. In a radio conference Is A College Education Worth The Debt , Korva Coleman interviewed Boyce Watkins, Richard Vedder, and Hunter Walker about their views on higher education and whether it is worth the investment or not? Watkins explains that college

education is certainly an important investment but only if the person entering to the world of higher education knows his plans and the way through it. Many students go to college for economic advances but then chose majors that do not fit their objective and end up with a huge amount of debt. He recommends that when you enter a field you should find out what it really takes to be successful. On the other hand Vedder argues that even he believes college is an investment but it is also consumption good for some people. He mentions that 45 percent of the people entering a 4 year college end up getting their bachelor s degree in six years and in the end their disappointed. Many other graduates have difficulties finding jobs and wind up in jobs that do not require a college degree. He then mentions that not everybody needs to go to college. There are many jobs created or already exist in our economy that does not need a college degree as a prerequisite; therefore, we need people to fill in for these kinds of jobs. Walker, a journalism student, applies to this discussion that after completing his undergraduate degree he was not in a very stable and secure condition so he saw grad school as the only way in his field to give him some stability and a living wage. He also comments that even though he is aware that he is going in to a very questionable job market, he is still willing to give it a try because the media is constantly changing and we need young educated journalist to produce high quality work. In conclusion, a college degree has long been a golden ticket to a successful life in this country but in this economy and the recession we are all dealing with is college education really worth going in debt for? Some argue that no matter what, enrolling yourself in higher

education is a very grand investment and it will be worth it in the end if you choose you re major wisely and put yourself on the right track. Others like Peter Thiel still claim that since a college education is in a bubble, it is not a very clever idea to invest in it. In the end the big question is should we go all this way to find out if the by-product of all the money and time we have put into this investment is going to pay us off at all or not!

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