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Nyamach Chuol

Professor Rosenfeld

English 115

01 March 2017

Is College Worth It?

According to the Department of Education as of 2012, only 59 percent of students

who attended four-year colleges were able to graduate, while the other 85 percent of American

students who attended college have signed up for some kind of financial aid and at public

institutions, 51 percent of those Students have taken out student loans. While there are other

alternatives to pay of the college tution such as earning a few scholarships, some students

may find jobs or other avenues of success before matriculation, more often resources and

patience run dry, leaving universities smaller returning student pools each semester and former

academics with debt sans a diploma. (Luxton). Jennifer Luxton in her article, The Fable of a

College Education has used those statistics in order to show that college is not for everyone.

She states that high school often pressure students to go to college and that from College is

perceived to be the best alternative to getting a good job for the right reasons: to become more

educated and to find a successful high paying career. Although, college is a great way to getting a

better career and to earn more income, there are also many downfalls to going through the four

year college path to achieving a successful career. The high cost of tuition leading to a life of

paying off student debt, not finding any available jobs after a degree, and the lack of hands-on

training in college that could be found in vocational schools and other institutions. Going straight

to college is not worth the dept and stress regardless of the social stigma surrounding not having

a college degree.
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Students who are currently in high school, or already have a high school diploma are

always told by their parents, teachers, and by colleges advertising themselves with fancy

brochures that going to a 4-year university will help them to succeed with a great career in the

long run. Are these people and institutions wrong for saying so? Not necessarily since a study

from an article Is it still worth going to college by Mary C. Daly and Leila Bengali calculates

individuals with a four-year college degree earned about 43% more on average than those with

only a high school degree.(48) for those who graduated in 1980s. This percentage between the

earnings of college and high school graduates has increased to 61 percent in 2011, making the

value of earning a degree greater than was decades ago. With such a large earnings gap between

college graduates and high school graduates, there is an understandable appeal for those certain

people who would want other high school graduates to get a higher education. For parents,

Seeing their children earn a Bachelors or Masters degree and getting a good paying job is very

beneficial for themselves and their family. While for teacher, high school counselors, and college

representatives that try to persuade other students to join their college, would also benefit from

students going to college because it would help with the schools reputation of having highly

educated and scholarly graduates. However, what may of these parents, high school counselors,

and colleges tend to not mention or even ignore is that the cost of tuition 4 year public and

private college is painfully expensive for students.

The biggest hurdle for going through college or earning a college degree is the high

expenses of tuition cost and the student dept. Over the years college has become much more

expensive for individual students to pay for. In an article, College graduates struggle to the

finish reports from MarketWatch that the average 2015 graduate is carrying about $35,000 in

student loan debt, $2000 more than a 2014 graduate.(Ramirez) And this is only an estimate
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average! There could be graduates with even high amounts of students dept that would take them

more than 10 years to pay off depending on what career path the average college graduate is

pursuing in. Since most graduates do have the perseverance to go through 4 years of college to

earn a degree, they have a better chance to pay for their debt than those who drop out of college

while still owing a large sum of money to the college and the loans they took out. Since Daly and

Bengali states that manyHigh school graduate consistently face unemployment rates about

twice as high as those for college graduates.(48). Since those how although student loans and

financial aid is available to everyone going to any college or university, the amount of time it

takes to fully pay off those loans

Another reason that having a college degree is not necessary is that even with a degree

getting the good job may not be guaranteed. It is true that graduates are able to earn more than

those who do not have a college degree; however, what is mostly not shown is which professions

earn more annually than others such as those who earned a degree in engineering or a science

related major vs those who earned a degree in sociology, history, or literature. Charles Murray a

W. H. Brady Scholar who has written the article Whats Wrong with Vocational School? states

that earning a bachelor's degree in

Lastly, going to college simply to get a better career may not be your best option when

vocation schools are available because it is much less expensive than most 4 year institutions and

universities and it focuses more with hands on training and skills made for the workforce. Many

High school students are always told that if they dont go to college or try to pursue in a highly

skilled profession, they may end up working at a low paying jobs or being more miserable

working at fast food restaurants. But with vocational schools

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With the high amounts of students dept making it harder for dropouts and graduates to

pay off, the competitive nature of finding a job with the same field with a bachelor's degree, and

the option of going to trades school to earn as much as other graduates in college that focus more

on physical and technical skills of the job, college all on its own is not the perfect option that

will guarantee a successful career with a high salary. College however is not a terrible

alternative, those who do strive to find to continue to strive for academic success, that want to

know more scholarly work or want to pursue in a high procession should of course go to an 4

year institution or university. The main issue is that many students in high school are always

pressured to take on 4 year colleges, some many want to go to while others do not.
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Work Cited

Daly, Mary C. and Leila Bengali. Is It Still Worth Going to College?Practical Argument 3rd

Edition, edited by Laurie Kirszner and Stephen Mandell, Bedford-St. Martin's, 2016,

Luxton, Jennifer. The Fable of a College Education. The Sundial. 2014 Sep 3. Web. 2017 Feb

15.

Murray, Charles.Whats Wrong with Vocational School? Practical Argument 3rd Edition,

edited by Laurie Kirszner and Stephen Mandell, Bedford-St. Martin's, 2016, pp 606

Ramirez, Raquel. College graduates struggle to the finish line The Sundial. 2016 Nov 6. Web.

2017 Feb 27.

Smith, Tovia. Opting Out of College for a Blue-Collar Life. NPR. 25 Feb. 2007. Web. 01

Mar. 2017.