The Value of College Education

1. The Value of College Education In 1636, Harvard University was founded, which was claimed to be the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States . Gaining a college degree was not very common and popular until recent decades. There were only 2.7 million students enrolled in colleges and universities in 1949, but the number increased to 7.9 million in 1970, 13.5 million in 1990, and reached 19.9 million in 2013. College education does not belong to the compulsory education system, and people attend colleges according to their preferences. When people have an opportunity, they tend to choose to attend college and obtain a college or a higher academic degree for pursuing a better future. However, there are increasing doubts regarding the value of college education due to some concerns such as the high tuition cost and overwhelming student debts. A college degree does not equal to “highly competitive” anymore, and people start doubting whether a college education is worth obtaining it. This paper argues that although there are numerous problems associated with college education in the United States, it is worth pursuing as potential benefits derived from it outweigh the associated costs and risks. This survey was carried out according to the essay professor data. College creates additional opportunities for students, as the foundational purpose of a college or university is pursuing a higher education. Almost all the curiosities and questions that people grow up with could be learned in university. They can also become pioneers in finding the answers. The charm of a university is to enlarge one’s acknowledgement to the world. In many universities, there are categories of students called “access student” or “senior students”; they are generally over 60 years old, and this could be regarded as an encouragement for learning on a lifetime basis. College education gives people an opportunity to learn more than just academic topics. Students can also learn interpersonal and career-related skills; they might also get a chance to study in another country, or start a real research under the instructor’s supervision. They may as well encounter so many diverse people and ideas. At the same time, the networking value that college has carried with it is enormous. Being an alumnus of a university or a member of the popular fraternity may become useful in the modern society. In general, the college degree is associated not only with better career opportunities, but also with a broader life views and a better understanding of the existing natural and social laws. The major objective of college education is not to provide students with the maximum possible scope of information, but rather to allow them to develop the independent critical thinking skills for assessing the external world and formulating some practical implications. Although college education does not guarantee the successful future, it offers a variety of additional opportunities and problem-solving tools. The college degree is required by a larger number of job positions, since the degree becomes a way of evaluating a person’s market value. Although this indicator is not universal, it still allows

2. obtaining the general understanding of the skills and knowledge possessed by a given individual. A college degree is not only about one’s educational level, but also his/her future potential. Thus, the vast majority of employers prefer selecting ambitious employees who may contribute to the substantial development of their companies in the future. Therefore, both the current employees’ qualification level and their potential for the future development are critical for employers and their strategies. One of the indicators that demonstrates the potential value of college education refers to the rate of unemployment observed among different groups. The report released by the Pew Research Center has indicated that the unemployment rate of college graduates was 3.8, but the high school graduates suffer from a rate of 12.2 percent, which is much higher than the general unemployment rate of 6.6 in the United States. This means that the existing demand for college students is still very high, and college graduates do not experience substantial problems with finding decent employment opportunities. In fact, the growing demand for college education both from young people and employers also proves that the general public’s assessment of it is highly positive. Although the phenomenon of college graduates being over-qualified for some jobs exists, a higher education leads to better employment opportunities and higher financial remuneration. According to Carnevale, Rose and Cheah, , people who obtain a bachelor’s degree earn one million dollars more during their careers than those who have a high school diploma only. Besides, college graduates earn around $436,400 more during their lifespan in comparison with high school graduates. People without a college degree earn only around $30,000 per year. The average annual earnings of college graduates are around $10,000 higher than those of individuals with a high school diploma. This shows a substantial improvement of an individual’s financial potential with obtaining a college degree. College education not only pays off to the students themselves, but also contributes to the society. As people are social beings, they interact with each other on the basis of the obtained knowledge and skills. Therefore, other individuals can also benefit from communicating and interacting with more educated people. It also leads to the emergence of new forms of social organization that are more flexible and consistent with the modern challenges. In the long run, the societies that have a more educated population are more productive and can solve the existing problems in more rational way. For this reason, there is a global tendency of strengthening the role of education in the modern world. In most cultures, a college degree is a latent representation of one’s social status. Knowledge has been admired since ancient times, and people tend to show more respect to those who have higher educational background, which can be also seen as a credential of one’s ability. At the same time, college graduates have better health conditions and health plans. As more educated people have a higher financial potential and can assess the existing health risks in a more objective way,

3. their health standards are also systematically higher. The next generation also benefits from their parents’ college education. Some sociological and psychological researches take into consideration the education level of the participants’ parents, as the environment that fosters a child and the parenting style that corresponds to parents’ social class and economic conditions may determine one’s future path. In some cases, people may succeed even without a college degree. The examples are Charles Culpepper, the owner and CEO of Coca Cola, Michael Dell, the founder of Dell, Inc., Walt Disney, the founder of Disney Corporation, Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, Steve Jobs, the co-founder of Apple, and Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook. All of these successful people never enrolled in college, or never graduated from it. However, their success is not a mere coincidence. For instance, Zuckerberg started programming in the middle school, and he was excellent enough to attend Harvard. Even though did not finish his bachelor’s degree, his outstanding intelligence and hard work has already beaten most of common people. The similar situation is observed in relation to Bill Gates, who demonstrated outstanding intellectual achievements although he did not finish his college. The success that these people achieved even without attending a college can be attributed to their efforts and a high professional level. Thus, the successful entrepreneurs mentioned above were able to outperform the majority of other people with the help of a more consistent implementation of their professional knowledge and innovative ideas. In general, it seems that one’s professionalism and creativity are even better predictors of the potential financial success than a college degree. However, this does not mean that a college degree does is not significant. Forbes revealed that approximately 85 percent of 400 richest people in America do have a college degree. This proves the idea that success without a college degree is hard and rare. Therefore, many individuals prefer obtaining a college degree to maximize their potential for the future career growth. Other factors being equal, it will serve as a serious advantage for facilitating the progress in the professional sphere. Although it also requires a certain level of self-organization and additional efforts, the range of opportunities created by college education is still very high. It is also important to consider the counter-arguments in order to arrive at objective conclusions regarding the role of a college degree for modern people. The major concern in this context is the cost of attending college. The tuition fees in colleges and universities are rising rapidly from year to year and are sometimes unaffordable for many students and their families. The high tuition has limited the independence of the students while also bounding their families. This means that individuals should be responsible while making their decision to obtain a college degree, as it is always associated with high cost. After graduation, students still need to pay their loans, which may become a barrier in terms of pursuing their personal or career goals. The growing student debts not only create financial

4. problems for students and their families, but also present a big problem for the entire US economy, as they distort the normal flow of economic processes in the country as well as reduce the amount of savings. From a national perspective, it makes the capital investments more risky and insufficient in terms of the needs of the modern economy. Although these issues are important, they should not be interpreted as a reason for abandoning plans to pursue a college degree. Rather, the government and private institutions should consolidate their efforts to reduce the level of student debts without lowering the access to higher education. Additional concerns may refer to the current availability of various online learning programs and courses that may be viewed as substitutes to the traditional colleges. It may be claimed that it is possible to obtain the high-quality education with minimal costs. However, this interpretation seems to be incorrect. Although online courses are helpful and allow facilitating the learning process, they are not the adequate substitutes to the traditional colleges. They do not provide the whole range of skills and knowledge needed for modern professionals, and almost all students recognize the dominant role of traditional learning. To summarize, the value of college education continues to rise. The empirical facts demonstrate that college graduates receive much higher earnings during their lifespan in comparison with the people without a college degree. This difference is around $10,000 for annual earnings, which is a considerable amount for the majority of individuals. Although a college degree does not guarantee the success in the future, it maximizes its likelihood. Thus, it is reasonable to develop new programs at the national level that will allow reducing the existing students’ debts and make college education more accessible for the general population. The existing online courses cannot substitute the traditional colleges. Thus, college education is worth obtaining it, and its benefits exceed any related costs or risks.