essay on why college is not worth it

Is a College Education Worth It?

• History of College Education

The American debate over whether a  college education  is worth it began when the colonists arrived from Europe and founded “New College” (later renamed  Harvard University ) in 1636. In spring 2023, there were over 17 million college students in the United States, and over 43 million borrowers owe a collective $1.75 trillion in total student debt. 

Colonial America produced nine colleges that still operate: Harvard University (1636), the College of William & Mary (1693),  Yale University  (1701),  Princeton University  (1746),  Columbia University  (1754),  Brown University  (1764),  Dartmouth College  (1769),  Rutgers University  (1766), and the  University of Pennsylvania  (1740 or 1749). These universities were funded by the colony or England and usually catered to a specific religious denomination such as Congregational or Presbyterian (Puritan). Primary and secondary school systems were not yet established so “college students” were sometimes boys as young as fourteen or fifteen years old and were admitted to receive preparatory education with the assumption that they would matriculate to college-level courses

Pro & Con Arguments

Pro 1 Jobs increasingly require college degrees and college allows students to explore careers and earn better job placements. Only 34% of American jobs required a high school diploma or less in 2017, compared to 72% in the 1970s. 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. According to researchers at Georgetown University, 99% of job growth (or 11.5 million of 11.6 million jobs) between 2010 and 2016 went to workers with associate’s degrees, bachelor’s degrees or graduate degrees. [ 13 ] [ 104 ] [ 105 ] Colleges offer career services, internships, job shadowing, job fairs, and volunteer opportunities in addition to a wide variety of courses that may provide a career direction. Over 80% of college students complete internships before graduation, giving them valuable employment experience before entering the job market. Colleges provide networking value. [ 27 ] Harvard Business School estimates that 65 to 85% of jobs are acquired through networking. College students can join fraternities and sororities, clubs, and teams as well as participate in a variety of social functions to meet new people and network with possible business connections. Internships offered through colleges often lead to mentors or useful contacts within a student’s preferred field. Many colleges offer social media workshops, networking tips, career-related consultation, and alumni networks. [ 30 ] [ 31 ] Meanwhile, college graduates have more and better employment opportunities. 85.2% of college freshmen said they attended college to “be able to get a better job.” The unemployment rate for Americans over 25 with a bachelor’s degree was 1.9% in Dec. 2019, compared to 2.7% for those with some college or associate’s degrees, 3.7% for high school graduates, and 5.2% for high school drop-outs. Underemployment, meaning insufficient work, is lower for college grads (6.2%) as compared to high school-only graduates (12.9%) and people without a high school diploma (18.7%). 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. [ 11 ] [ 101 ] [ 106 ] [ 116 ] Thus, college graduates make more money. The average college graduate makes $570,000 more than the average high school graduate over a lifetime. Career earnings for college graduates are 71% to 136% higher than those of high school graduates. The Federal Reserve Bank of New York calculated a 14% rate of return on a bachelor’s degree, which constitutes a good investment. College graduates earn an average of $78,000, a 75% wage premium over the average $45,000 annual earnings for workers with only a high school diploma. 85% of Forbes’ America’s 400 Richest People list were college grads. [ 12 ] [ 122 ] [ 126 ] [ 128 ] And, because college graduates are more likely to have better jobs with better salaries, they are also more likely to have health insurance and retirement plans. 70% of college graduates had access to employer-provided health insurance compared to 50% of high school graduates in 2008. 70% of college graduates 25 years old and older had access to retirement plans in 2008 compared to 65% of associate’s degree holders, 55% of high school graduates, and 30% of people who did not complete high school. [ 11 ] [ 15 ] All of that means a college education has a high return as an investment. Return on investment (ROI) is calculated by dividing the gain from an investment (here the money earned as a result of a college degree) by the cost of the investment (the money spent on a college degree). A college degree has a return of 15% per year as an investment, larger than the stock market (6.8%) and housing (0.4%). Completing some college, but not earning a degree, resulted in a 9.1% return on investment. If a student spent $17,860 (the average cost of tuition and room and board in 2012-2013 for four years at a public university), that student could expect a 15% return of $2,679 each year. According to a 2011 Pew Research survey, 86% of college graduates believed college was a good personal investment. [ 8 ] [ 25 ] [ 32 ] [ 33 ] Read More

Pro 2 Because they learn interpersonal and other skills in college, graduates are more productive as members of society. Students have the opportunity to interact with other students and faculty, to join student organizations and clubs, and to take part in discussions and debates. 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. Students ranked “interpersonal skills” as the most important skill used in their daily lives in a survey of 11,000 college students. Vivek Wadhwa, technology entrepreneur and scholar, states, “American children party [in college]. But you know something, by partying, they learn social skills. They learn how to interact with each other…They develop skills which make them innovative. Americans are the most innovative people in the world because of the education system.” [ 7 ] [ 16 ] [ 18 ] Students live, go to classes, and socialize with other students from around the world and learn from professors with a variety of expertise. The community of people on a college campus means students are likely to make diverse friends and business connections, and, potentially, find a spouse or mate. Access to a variety of people allows college students to learn about different cultures, religions, and personalities they may have not been exposed to in their hometowns, which broadens their knowledge and perspective. 70.7% of college freshmen in 2015 said they expected to socialize with someone of another racial or ethnic group while in college, while 59.1% said college would help improve their understanding of other countries and cultures. [ 106 ] Henry Bienan, President Emeritus of Northwestern University, argues that a college education results in “greater productivity, lower crime, better health, [and] better citizenship for more educated people.” A 2009 study found 16 to 24 year old high school drop-outs were 63% more likely to be incarcerated than those with a bachelor’s degree or higher. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, from Sep. 2008 to Sep. 2009, 43% of college graduates did volunteer work compared to 19% of high school graduates and 27% of adults in general. [11] In 2005, college graduates were more likely to have donated blood in the past year (9%) than people with some college (6%), high school graduates (4%), and people who did not complete high school (2%). [ 21 ] [ 22 ] [ 23 ] College graduates attract higher-paying employers to their communities. A 1% increase in college graduates in a community increases the wages of workers without a high school diploma by 1.9% and the wages of high school graduates by 1.6%. [ 21 ] Finally, people who do not go to college are more likely to be unemployed and, therefore, place undue financial strain on society, making a college degree worth it to taxpayers. Young people “not engaged in employment/education or training,” AKA NEET, are more likely to receive welfare than youth in general, they are more likely to commit crimes, and they are more likely to receive public health care, all costing the government extra money. In total, each NEET youth between the ages of 16 and 25 impose a $51,350 financial burden on society per year, and after the person is 25 he or she will impose a financial burden of $699,770. The total cost of 6.7% of the US population being NEET youth is $4.75 trillion, which is comparable to half of the US public debt. [ 28 ] [ 29 ] College graduates have lower poverty rates due to their lower unemployment rates. The 2008 poverty rate for bachelor’s degree holders was 4%, compared to a 12% poverty rate for high school graduates. In 2005, married couples with bachelor’s degrees were least likely to be below the poverty line (1.8%) compared to 2.7% of associate’s degree holders, 4.6% of couples with some college, and 7.1% of high school graduates. According to the US Census Bureau, 1% of college graduates participated in social support programs like Medicaid, National School Lunch Program, and food stamps compared to 8% of high school graduates in 2008. [ 11 ] [ 21 ] Read More

Pro 3 College graduates and their children are healthier and live longer. 83% of college graduates reported being in excellent health, while 73% of high school graduates reported the same. A University of Southern California study found that adults over 65 with college degrees spent more years with “good cognition” and fewer years suffering from dementia than adults who did not complete high school. In 2008, 20% of all adults were smokers, while 9% of college graduates were smokers. 63% of 25 to 34 year old college graduates reported exercising vigorously at least once a week compared to 37% of high school graduates. College degrees were linked to lower blood pressure in a 30-year peer-reviewed study and lower levels of cortisol (the stress hormone) by a Carnegie Mellon Psychology department study. In 2008, 23% of college graduates aged 35 to 44 years old were obese compared to 37% of high school graduates. College graduates, on average, live six years longer than high school graduates. [ 11 ] [ 15 ] [ 19 ] [ 20 ] [ 120 ] A medical journal study from 1970 to 2009 shows college graduates had lower infant mortality rates than high school graduates. Mothers with only a high school education are 31% more likely to give birth to a low-birth-weight baby than a woman with a college degree. Children aged 2 to 5 years old in households headed by college graduates have a 6% obesity rate compared to 14% for children in households headed by high school graduates. 18% more children aged 3 to 5 years old with mothers who have a bachelor’s degree could recognize all letters compared to children of high school graduates. In 2010, 59% of children in elementary and middle school with at least one college graduate for a parent participated in after-school activities like sports, arts, and scouting compared to 27% for high school graduate parents. [ 11 ] [ 15 ] [ 21 ] Read More

Con 1 College is not a guarantee of a job or better life. Many college graduates are employed in jobs that do not require college degrees. According to the Department of Labor, as many as 17 million college graduates work in positions that do not require a college education. 1 in 3 college graduates had a job that required a high school diploma or less in 2012. 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. [ 5 ] [ 6 ] [ 40 ] Too many students earning degrees has diluted the value of a bachelor’s degree. Rita McGrath, Associate Professor at Columbia Business School, stated “Having a bachelor’s used to be more rare and candidates with the degree could therefore be more choosy and were more expensive to hire. Today, that is no longer the case.” A high unemployment rate shifts the supply and demand to the employers’ favor and has made master’s degrees the “new bachelor’s degrees.” According to James Altucher, venture capitalist and finance writer, “college graduates hire only college graduates, creating a closed system that permits schools to charge exorbitant prices and forces students to take on crippling debt.” [ 68 ] [ 69 ] College degrees also do not guarantee learning or job preparation. Many students graduate from college with little understanding of math, reading, civics, or economics. In 2011, 35% of students enrolled in college reported they studied 5 hours or less per week and there was a 50% decline in the number of hours a student studied and prepared for classes compared to a few decades ago. 36% of students demonstrated no significant improvement on Collegiate Learning Assessments after 4 years of college. In 2013 56% of employers thought half or fewer of college graduates had the skills and knowledge to advance within their companies. 30% of college graduates felt college did not prepare them well for employment, specifically in terms of technical and quantitative reasoning skills. A Pew Research survey found that 57% of Americans felt higher education did not provide students with good value compared to the money spent. [ 25 ] [ 56 ] [ 57 ] [ 58 ] [ 59 ] [ 60 ] The market glut and lack of job preparation, means many recent college graduates are un- or underemployed. The unemployment rate for recent college graduates (4.0%) exceeded the average for all workers, including those without a degree (3.6%) in 2019. The underemployment rate was 34% for all college graduates and 41.1% for recent grads. The underemployment (insufficient work) rate for college graduates in 2015 was 6.2% overall: 5.2% for white graduates, 8.4% for Hispanic graduates, and 9.7% for black graduates. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, 44% of recent college graduates were underemployed in 2012. [ 42 ] [ 101 ] [ 129 ] Under- or un-employement also translates into fewer workplace benefits. In 2013, 68.9% of employed new college graduates did not receive health insurance through their employers and, in 2011, 27.2% received retirement coverage (down from 41.5% in 2000). [ 41 ] The total cost of going to college means more than tuition, fees, and books; it also includes an opportunity cost which equals at least four years of missed wages and advancements from a full-time job–about $49,000 for a 4-year degree and $20,000 for a 2-year degree. [ 8 ] Read More

Con 2 Student loan debt is crippling for college graduates, their families, and society. Tuition has risen quicker than income, making college unaffordable for many and forcing students to take out loans. A Mar. 2017 study found that 14% of community college students were homeless and 51% had housing insecurity issues (inability to pay rent or utilities, for example), while 33% experienced food insecurity (lack of access to or ability to pay for “nutritionally adequate and safe foods”), though 58% of the students were employed and 42% received federal Pell Grants. From the 1986-1987 school year to the 2016-2017 school year, the average cost of one year of college (including room and board) increased for 4-year private schools (109.6%) and 4-year public schools (125.7%), while median family income only increased 10.0% between 1986 and 2015. From the 1976-1977 school year to the 2016-2017 school year, annual tuition rates rose for community colleges (173.1%), 4-year public colleges (271.2%), and private 4-year colleges (213.5%). [ 111 ] [ 112 ] [ 113 ] In spring 2023, there were over 17 million college students in the United States, and over 43 million borrowers owe a collective $1.75 trillion in total student debt. 45% of people with student loan debt say college was not worth it. 10% of students graduate with over $40,000 in debt and about 1% have $100,000 in debt. In Feb. 2018, undergraduate college graduates had an average of $37,172 in loan debt. According to the US Congress Joint Economic Committee, approximately 60% of college graduates have student loan debt balances equal to 60% of their annual income. Missing late for loan payments leads to lower credit scores and additional fees, worsening the debt problem. [ 36 ] [ 37 ] [ 107 ] [ 123 ] [ 133 ] [ 134 ] Further, student loan debt often forces college graduates to live with their parents and delay marriage, financial independence, and other adult milestones. 20% of millennials are homeowners, and most millennials say their student debt has delayed home ownership by seven years on average. Student loan borrowers delayed saving for retirement (41%), car purchases (40%), home purchases (29%), and marriage (15%). Fewer than 50% of women and 30% of men had passed the “transition to adulthood” milestones by age 30 (finishing school, moving out of their parents’ homes, being financially independent, marrying, and having children); in 1960, 77% of women and 65% of men had completed these milestones by age 30. [ 38 ] [ 39 ] [ 121 ] Student debt also overwhelms many seniors. Whether they co-signed for a child or grandchild’s education, or took out loans for their own educations, in 2012 there were 6.9 million student loan borrowers aged 50 and over who collectively owed $155 billion with individual average balances between $19,521 and $23,820. Of the 6.9 million borrowers, 24.7% were more than 90 days delinquent in payments. Almost 119,000 of older borrowers in default were having a portion of their Social Security payments garnished by the US government in 2012. [ 51 ] [ 52 ] Student loan debt may not be forgiven in bankruptcy and may not have the same borrower protections as other consumer debt. A study found 60% of people attempting to discharge student loan debt in bankruptcy were unsuccessful. Medical, legal, credit card, loan, and even gambling debt can immediately be discharged in bankruptcy, but getting student loan debt discharged is much more difficult and rare. Private student loans often do not have the same protections as federal loans like income-based repayments, discharges upon death, or military deferments. [ 61 ] [ 70 ] [ 71 ] College graduates aren’t the only ones overwhelmed by debt. Many students do not graduate and waste their own and their government’s money. About 19% of students who enroll in college do not return for the second year. Students who drop out during the first year of college cost states $1.3 billion and the federal government $300 million per year in wasted student grant programs and government appropriations for colleges. Overall, 41% of students at four-year colleges and universities did not graduate within six years: 41% at public schools, 34% at private non-profits, and 77% at private for-profits. Students who did not graduate within six years accounted for $3.8 billion in lost income, $566 million in lost federal income taxes, and $164 million in lost state income taxes in one year. [ 50 ] [ 117 ] Finally, student debt could cause another financial crisis. As of 2012 student loan debt was over $1 trillion dollars, and more than 850,000 student loans were in default. According to the National Association of Consumer Bankruptcy Attorneys, student loans are “beginning to have the same effect” on the economy that the housing bubble and crash created. Former Secretary of Education William Bennett, PhD, agrees that the student loan debt crisis “is a vicious cycle of bad lending policies eerily similar to the causes of the subprime mortgage crisis.” On Feb. 3, 2012, an advisory council to the Federal Reserve also warned that the growth in student debt “has parallels to the housing crisis.” As of Jan. 2013, the rate of default on student loans hit 15.1%–a nearly 22% increase since 2007. [ 61 ] [ 62 ] [ 63 ] [ 64 ] [ 65 ] Read More

Con 3 Many people would be better served learning a trade or pursuing work right out of high school. Trade professions are necessary for society to function, require less than four years of training, and often pay above average wages. The high number of young adults choosing college over learning a trade has created a ‘skills gap’ in the US and there is now a shortage of ‘middle-skill’ trade workers like machinists, electricians, plumbers, and construction workers. One survey of US manufacturers found that 67% reported a “moderate to severe shortage of talent.” “Middle-skill” jobs represent half of all jobs in the US that pay middle-class wages. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, “middle-skill” jobs will make up 45% of projected job openings through 2014, but as of 2012 only 25% of the workforce had the skills to fill those jobs. [ 53 ] [ 54 ] [ 55 ] Many people succeed without college degrees. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, of the 30 projected fastest growing jobs between 2010 and 2020, five do not require a high school diploma, nine require a high school diploma, four require an associate’s degree, six require a bachelor’s degree, and six require graduate degrees. The following successful people either never enrolled in college or never completed their college degrees: Richard Branson, founder and chairman of the Virgin Group; Charles Culpepper, owner and CEO of Coca Cola; Ellen Degeneres, comedian and actress; Michael Dell, founder of Dell, Inc.; Walt Disney, Disney Corporation founder; Bill Gates, Microsoft founder; Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple; Wolfgang Puck, chef and restaurateur; Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple; Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook. [ 43 ] [ 44 ] Read More

Our Latest Updates (archived after 30 days)

ProCon/Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. 325 N. LaSalle Street, Suite 200 Chicago, Illinois 60654 USA

Natalie Leppard Managing Editor [email protected]

© 2023 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved

• College Education – Pros & Cons
• Pro & Con Quotes
• Did You Know?
• Median Incomes v. Average College Tuition Rates
• Student Loan Debt Compared to Other Household Debt
• Highest and Lowest Tuitions of Ranked US Colleges & Universities
• Top Wealthiest Americans with and without College Degrees
• College Educations of US Presidents

Cite This Page

• Artificial Intelligence
• Private Prisons
• Space Colonization
• Social Media
• Death Penalty
• School Uniforms
• Video Games
• Animal Testing
• Gun Control
• Banned Books
• Teachers’ Corner

ProCon.org is the institutional or organization author for all ProCon.org pages. Proper citation depends on your preferred or required style manual. Below are the proper citations for this page according to four style manuals (in alphabetical order): the Modern Language Association Style Manual (MLA), the Chicago Manual of Style (Chicago), the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA), and Kate Turabian's A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations (Turabian). Here are the proper bibliographic citations for this page according to four style manuals (in alphabetical order):

[Editor's Note: The APA citation style requires double spacing within entries.]

[Editor’s Note: The MLA citation style requires double spacing within entries.]

Experts discuss whether college is still worth it

Subscribe to the center for economic security and opportunity newsletter, gabriela goodman gabriela goodman senior research assistant - economic studies , center for economic security and opportunity.

December 13, 2023

This is a summary of an event held on December 7, 2023. You can watch the full video of the event here .

Higher education has historically been seen as the most reliable path to economic mobility. However, with uncertainty around student loan programs, high sticker prices, and growing distrust in institutions, Americans are increasingly questioning whether college is still worth it.

On December 7, 2023, the Center for Economic Security and Opportunity (CESO) hosted a virtual panel moderated by Sarah Reber, a CESO senior fellow, to discuss the value of higher education and returns to obtaining a college degree. Below are some key takeaways.

Attitudes toward higher education have shifted.

Paul Tough, a contributing writer at the New York Times Magazine where he has written about these trends, started the discussion off by summarizing changing attitudes toward higher education: Ten years ago, 74% of young adults agreed that higher education is very important, down to only 41% today. This shifting perspective is manifesting in declining college enrollment, explained Tough. The number of U.S. undergraduates has declined to 15.5 million from 18 million in 2010.

Tough attributed this trend to two primary causes. First, trust in institutions is falling, and higher education is no exception. This is particularly the case among conservative voters who perceive colleges as pushing a liberal political agenda. Second, people are worried about the financial risk associated with high college costs and low completion rates.

Research suggests that average returns to college are still high.

David Deming, Harvard University Professor of Political Economy, explained that after increasing for decades, the college wage premium—the difference in average earnings between college graduates and non-college graduates—has plateaued, but remains around 65%. That is, the average four-year college graduate earns about 65% more than the average high school graduate.

Related Content

Online only

10:30 am - 11:30 am EST

Phillip Levine, Sarah Reber

December 11, 2023

The panelists also discussed the cost of going to college, noting that financial aid is available for qualifying low-income students, though it is not always enough to make college affordable. Stephanie Cellini, George Washington University Professor of Public Policy and Economics, pointed out that while the average posted “sticker price” of college has been rising, the “net price”—what students pay after subtracting out financial assistance that doesn’t have to be repaid—is lower than the sticker price that receives so much attention. She notes that the average sticker price has actually been decreasing in recent years. (See a recent discussion of that trend here .) Still, Cellini emphasized that many students have to take out loans to afford college and then struggle to repay these loans.

Denisa Gándara, Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy at UT Austin, added that higher wages are not the only benefit of college attendance. For example, there is a growing body of evidence suggesting that college graduates have better physical and mental health. Society also benefits when people go to college; college graduates tend to be more civically engaged, reported Gándara.

Returns vary by institution.

Cellini said that some colleges, particularly for-profit institutions, are riskier than others. For-profit colleges are generally more expensive than non-profit or public alternatives and don’t increase earnings as much. As a result, students who attend for-profit institutions tend to have higher debt and are more likely to default on their student loans. Gándara expanded on this point, saying that for-profit institutions enroll a disproportionate number of low-income, veteran, and older students. This disparity means that it is often students from more disadvantaged backgrounds that attend schools with lower returns.

Starting but not completing college can make students financially worse off.

Tough pointed out that about 40% of students who start college don’t complete their degree. These students often end up in a worse financial position than their peers who chose not to attend college in the first place.

Our college institutions are in desperate need of reform. David Deming, Harvard University Professor of Political Economy

Deming agreed that completion is too low and suggested that lack of resources at many colleges is a major part of the problem. Student support services are particularly important. As Gándara mentioned, public and other less well-funded schools enroll more low-income students—exactly the types of students who could benefit more from stronger support systems.

Community colleges have limitations but can be an affordable alternative to four-year institutions. 

Panelists pointed out the value of community colleges, an oftentimes more affordable option than traditional four-year colleges. Students can start at community college and transfer to a four-year college. However, as Deming noted, transferring from community college to a four-year college is not necessarily a smooth process. Additionally, he added that short-term programs often lead to shorter-term benefits and fewer transferable skills. Both Deming and Cellini touched on potential benefits of “stacking” credentials, meaning using multiple educational programs such as vocational training and traditional degrees to build a more comprehensive skillset and knowledge base.

Where do we go from here?

The panelists described a number of approaches to increasing the returns to college and improving college completion rates. Cellini mentioned initiatives to hold schools accountable for their students’ outcomes. Both Cellini and Tough proposed efforts to make information about financial aid and college choices more easily accessible and digestible, though Tough argued that some policy discussions have over-emphasized helping individual students navigate a too-complex system at the expense of more systematic change that would make higher education fairer. Deming suggested expanding government subsidies to make college more affordable. The panelists agreed that community colleges require more funding.

So, is college still worth it?

The consensus among the panelists: College is worth it for most people, with some caveats. Institution type and area of study both impact the returns to college, as do academic preparation and risks associated with not completing a degree. “The system is not fair,” Tough added.

There are actions society can take to make college pay off for more people. “Our college institutions are in desperate need of reform,” concluded Deming. As reiterated throughout the panel, the U.S. college system disadvantages low-income students, often leaving them with substantial debt while providing insufficient support systems to help them succeed.

The Brookings Institution is financed through the support of a diverse array of foundations, corporations, governments, individuals, as well as an endowment. A list of donors can be found in our annual reports published online  here . The findings, interpretations, and conclusions in this report are solely those of its author(s) and are not influenced by any donation.

Education Access & Equity Higher Education

Economic Studies

Center for Economic Security and Opportunity

Adam Looney, Constantine Yannelis

September 17, 2024

Phillip Levine

September 3, 2024

Zachary Billot, Annie Vong, Nicole Dias Del Valle, Emily Markovich Morris

August 26, 2024

• Skip to main content
• Keyboard shortcuts for audio player

When College Isn't Worth It

Anya Kamenetz

Save up your pennies ... but shop wisely. Doram/iStockphoto hide caption

Save up your pennies ... but shop wisely.

The New York Times highlighted new data yesterday that once again beats the drum: Despite skyrocketing costs, a college degree is a good investment. In fact, MIT economist David Autor writes in the journal Science that the value of a degree is rising . College grads made almost twice as much per hour in 2013 as workers without a four-year degree. And the lifetime value of a diploma is now around a half-million dollars, even after you factor in tuition.

Well, we here at NPR Ed thought we'd play the skeptic and ask: When is college not worth it? Because, lo and behold, sometimes it isn't. Here are the three broad cases in which a college education, in fact, does not pay.

If ... You Don't Graduate

Lots and lots of people who enroll in college just don't finish. And, to get an honest accounting of a diploma's value, these noncompleters (that's the term of art in the research --"dropouts" is a bit too judgmental) need to be part of the math. Otherwise, it's like the latest fad diet touting "befores" and "afters" without counting those who didn't stick with it.

Only 59 percent of people who begin a four-year degree, with all good intentions, actually finish within six years. How many people are we talking about? Some 34 million American adults attended college but have no degree to show for it. That's huge, compared with the 41 million Americans who have a bachelor's as their terminal degree.

Keep in mind, noncompleters borrow student loans just as often as those who finish. And, unfortunately, raw knowledge picked up while in college doesn't do nearly as much to boost earning potential as a diploma does. Folks with some college earn less than those with an associate's degree. They're also more likely to be unemployed. In other words: results not typical for college graduates.

If ... You Pick the Wrong College

For-profit colleges enroll just under 10 percent of all college students, but they're notorious for relatively high tuition costs and low graduation rates. Research shows that graduates of these schools have higher unemployment rates and lower opinions of their education long after graduating.

The U.S. Department of Education has just drafted a proposed rule that's meant to crack down on the for-profits. It's called the "gainful employment rule" and would cut off federal aid to schools where a) too many students are defaulting on their loans or b) the debt burden of graduates is way out of line with their incomes.

But the for-profits are striking back , pointing out that — by the Education Department's own statistics — 26 percent of graduates from public four-year colleges and 39 percent of grads from private four-year colleges are not "gainfully employed." That's an awful lot of college graduates, across all types of institutions, who have reason to ask: Was college worth it?

If ... You Pick the Wrong Degree

What you study matters — a lot. The gap in average earnings by undergraduate major is just as wide as the gap between high school and college grads. They range from a high of $120,000 for petroleum engineers to a low of $29,000 for those who major in counseling psychology. Considering the average student debt burden is $29,400, that's a big group of graduates whose degrees may not pay off.

Now, we're not arguing that a college degree is a bad idea. It's not. Let's italicize that one: For most students, it's not . Our point is, when it comes to bold, blanket statements about the value of a college degree and whether it will pay off ... words like "always" and "never" aren't helpful. Or true.

• Editor's Pick

‘A Big Win’: Harvard Expands Kosher Options in Undergraduate Dining Halls

Top Republicans Ask Harvard to Detail Plans for Handling Campus Protests in New Semester

Harvard’s Graduate Union Installs Third New President in Less Than 1 Year

Harvard Settles With Applied Physics Professor Who Sued Over Tenure Denial

Longtime Harvard Social Studies Director Anya Bassett Remembered As ‘Greatest Mentor’

Is College Worth It? Not Necessarily, But a Higher Education Is

I just finished my first year of college at Harvard.

I would have been euphoric to learn this as a third grader, when my ambitions to attend a top college first sprung up. To me, college was the means to a high paying job, a stable career, and a contented life.

It seems that many others would disagree with my naivety.

Faith in our system of college education is falling. A recent study by the University of Chicago and The Wall Street Journal found that 56 percent of Americans feel that a four-year college degree isn’t worth it. High college tuitions, the competitiveness of obtaining a highly paying job, and long turnaround times for earning a degree may all be to blame.

But I view this study a bit more optimistically.

Americans may be losing faith in a traditional college education, but this says little about their faith in education as a whole. Instead, I believe this trend simply reflects an ongoing transition from formal education to novel forms of learning.

College is the ultimate formal educational opportunity, and many of the fields its graduates pursue, including medicine, academia, and law, require even further formal education. Though colleges may look different from each other, the way they operate is similar: Students must acquire certain levels of subject mastery and use it to meet academic and credit benchmarks to succeed.

However, there are many other avenues of acquiring this knowledge. The growth of open-access resources like Khan Academy has enabled educators to offer lessons that parallel ones you might find in an Ivy League classroom. Some popular Harvard classes, such as Stat110 and CS50, are in fact readily available on YouTube — some of them even with practice resources published online for the world to use.

Thus, a motivated enough student could obtain a Harvard-level education without actually setting foot on campus!

There is also something to be said about the distinction between education through action and education through theory. Harvard has some great exemplars among its dropouts: Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg. They evidently decided the constraints of a traditional college education couldn’t support their ambitions. Action suited them better. So why waste time and exorbitant sums of money on seemingly futile college courses?

Harvard’s liberal arts establishment might cringe at such a notion. Its goal is, of course, to develop a well-rounded understanding of the world we live in, “to navigate the world’s most complex issues, and address future innovations with unforeseen challenges.”

But, is this perspective worth its roughly $80,000 per year price tag?

This is where I might flip a coin.

Heads: Clearly, this is where I land. I’m not sure what my career will look like, and I am reliant on a college education for inspiration. Along with studying subjects like biology, chemistry and literature formally, I have gained new skills (for example, I can mount an ant on a paper chad for imaging) and intuitions that have fundamentally changed the way I think and view the world and my future in it.

My college education is also not limited to a classroom. I learn just as much from working with clubs, having spirited debates with friends in dining halls and library foyers, and writing for The Crimson. These experiences can’t be found on Khan Academy.

Tails: College may not be the best way to obtain specialized skill sets that some highly profitable and fulfilling careers require. Learning a trade, spending time honing coding skills, or dedicating one’s life to a sport are all careers for which a formal college education may be redundant and unnecessary.

Realistically, the prestige of a Harvard education opens doors to many careers — though it’s hard to distinguish the role played by a person’s own skills and that of their degree. Yet having a degree at all seems to matter. Many employers still prefer hiring college graduates, and college graduates still earn more on average than their counterparts.

However, as college remains inaccessible for many, educational institutions like Harvard must invest more resources into open-access educational tools, and we as a society must strengthen our system of K-12 education to set students up for successful careers right out of high school.

A formal college education may not be the right option for everyone. This shouldn’t discourage us; it should remind us to consider the myriad of ways education can empower and uplift.

Sandhya Kumar ’26, a Crimson Editorial Editor, lives in Winthrop House.

Want to keep up with breaking news? Subscribe to our email newsletter.

• The Big Think Interview
• Your Brain on Money
• Explore the Library
• The Universe. A History.
• The Progress Issue
• A Brief History Of Quantum Mechanics
• 6 Flaws In Our Understanding Of The Universe
• Michio Kaku
• Neil deGrasse Tyson
• Michelle Thaller
• Steven Pinker
• Ray Kurzweil
• Cornel West
• Helen Fisher
• Smart Skills
• High Culture
• The Present
• Hard Science
• Special Issues
• Starts With A Bang
• Everyday Philosophy
• The Learning Curve
• The Long Game
• Perception Box
• Strange Maps
• Free Newsletters
• Memberships

Is college worth it? 3 reasons it is (and 3 reasons it isn’t)

• A bachelor’s degree is widely considered a golden ticket to social mobility, yet ballooning tuition costs place it out of reach for many.
• Prescribing college as the default path simply won’t work for many people.
• Is college worth it? There are three major factors for you to consider. 

Is college worth it? For many, the answer is a no-brainer: Of course it is! 

The college degree has become the totem of the middle class and a prerequisite for social mobility . To not earn one, the common knowledge goes, is to throw your life away. Even asking the question aloud is enough to send starchy parents and career coaches into fits of worry.

But as with any prescription, treating college as a universal cure-all has its dangers. College isn’t for everyone, and discovering that it isn’t for you can be an expensive and time-consuming lesson. Thirty-six million Americans have some college education but no degree, and those that borrowed money to attend, as many do, must still pay back their loans. Universities do not come with a satisfaction guarantee, let alone a money-back one. In fact, the opposite is true . 

That makes college a sort of gamble — especially for low-income students who lack the familial safety net of their upper-class peers. Given that a quarter of low-income students leave by the end of their second year, it’s also not a bet one wants to make haphazardly.

So, it’s not contrarian to wonder if college is worth it for you. Answering that question can be a difficult task, one that requires you to carefully consider your present situation and future goals.

To help you start that discussion — either for yourself or with your parents or a loved one — here are three reasons why college is absolutely worth it: the money, the investment, and the education. And, incidentally, those are the same three reasons you may want to avoid college.

College is (not) worth it for the money

Let’s start with the stressor supreme of college life: the price tag. Rising tuition costs have been outpacing the median income for decades. The reasons for this are numerous but include state funding cuts, a massive increase in demand, the bankrolling of new student services, and bloating administrative compensation. The outcome is that today’s students are making up the difference. And they are doing so by taking on debt.

Outstanding student loan debt in the U.S. stands at $1.7 trillion spread across 43.4 million borrowers . Those large numbers have generated frightening headlines in the vein of 30-somethings shouldering six-figure debt, predatory loans targeting vulnerable families, and the endless cycle of fraud and abuse charitably called the for-profit college sector .

Now, it’s worth taking a breather here and remembering that headline writers feast on the most sensational (and therefore clickable ) samples of reality. If you place those large numbers into their much larger context, the crisis is a little more subdued.

Yes, some graduates will wrestle with exorbitant loans throughout their lives, but the mean student debt across all borrowers comes to about $39,000. Many graduates cover a bill of less than $20,000 , and states such as California, Washington, and Utah maintain low student debt averages . That makes the cost of a bachelor’s degree comparable to — if not less than — a new car on average. And while that $1.7 trillion figure is eye-catching, it’s but a pothole compared to America’s debt chasm: mortgages, which account for a stupefying $15 trillion of outstanding debt.

Even so, you’re probably worried about college debt for the same reason you don’t have a shiny new WRX GT parked outside. The monthly payments are a financial strain. The average monthly student loan payment sits at several hundred dollars , and meeting that means sacrificing more than the occasional night out. For college graduates who haven’t established themselves in the labor market, it can be the difference between making ends meet or not.

Yes, there’s a scrum of payment options, each sporting an obliging name such as deferred payments and income-driven repayment plans . But it can take years to cement oneself in a quality position in the best of job markets. All the while, if you aren’t paying down those loans fast enough, they may be ballooning with interest.

As the Department of Education concluded in a recent fact sheet : “Today, college remains the greatest driver of socioeconomic mobility in America, but if we don’t do more to keep it within reach for middle-class families and those striving to get into the middle class, it could have the opposite effect.”

College is (not) worth it for the investment

For the money, you receive an education and a degree. More than that, you get an investment in your future, and like any investment, there’s an associated risk. According to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York , roughly 34% of college graduates are underemployed, meaning they work jobs that typically don’t require a college degree.

Again, it’s worth reading that figure in context. It’s not saying these jobs lack dignity or a livable wage. They may be professional gigs that pay well. But those graduates may have secured such employment without spending the time or money to acquire their degrees. 

However, as far as investments go, college is hardly buying penny stocks through Jordan Belfort. College is one of the safest bets you can make, one that delivers across a lifetime. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics , bachelor’s degree holders are twice as likely to be employed than those with only a high school diploma. They also earn more money, taking in median weekly earnings of $1,305 in 2020 (compared to $781 for diploma earners). And that adds up over a lifetime . Men with a bachelor’s degree will earn roughly $900,000 more than their peers holding only a diploma. For women, the difference is $630,000.

Of course, your choice of major influences those numbers a lot. Degrees in engineering, science, computer science, and economics tend to earn significantly more than those in the arts, education, literature, and psychology. But even those degrees beat a high school diploma on average.

Outstanding student loan debt in the U.S. stands at $1.7 trillion spread across 43.4 million borrowers. 

Let’s take a moment to squash the billionaire dropout myth. Yes, outliers like Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg dropped out of college to earn billions. But beyond being talented and capable self-learners, both men came from well-to-do families, went to Harvard, and used their Ivy League networks to jump-start their businesses.

For the vast majority of college dropouts, the back-of-the-book blurb is far less rosy. “Someone in this group is 70% more likely to be unemployed and over four times more likely to default on their loans. On average, this group also earns 32% less than college graduates. Far from tipping the scales of outrageous wealth, college dropouts are barely getting by,” Mike Colagrossi reports .

College is (not) worth it for the education

So far, we have taken the narrow view of college’s value proposition: money. But the third reason college is (or isn’t) worth it is not so material: education and the value it brings to your life. 

Many colleges design their undergraduate curriculum toward a liberal education, one that samples from a range of disciplines such as the humanities, sciences, and social sciences. As described by Mark Montgomery , founder and CEO of Great College Advice, the purpose of a liberal education is to introduce “students to a wide variety of academic subjects and materials to help them make connections among diverse phenomena, and also develop some expertise in a single field. It is meant to ‘liberate’ the mind and move beyond mere professional training.”

But many students go to college searching for something far more specific. According to Pew Research data , half of Americans believe the main purpose of college is to teach the skills and knowledge people need to find a job. If this sounds like you, then you may find the college curriculum as frustrating as it is numbing. After all, if you’re going to be an ultrasound technician, why do you need to sit through classes in ethics, evolutionary theory, or Romantic poetry? Such subjects would not only feel like a waste of time and money; they become barriers to your engagement and learning. 

Ryan Stowers , executive director of the Charles Koch Foundation, summed up this view when he wrote: “The current approach to postsecondary education is not working for everyone. We shouldn’t be surprised. The two- and four-year degree models that define our postsecondary education system were built for a different time and place, and our failure to innovate in anticipation of learners’ evolving needs and interests has set up millions of people for disappointing life outcomes.”

On the other hand, 35% of those surveyed by Pew believed the purpose of college was to help students grow and develop, personally as well as intellectually. From this perspective, a class in ethics may not show up on your resume, but it can endow you with a greater sense of social responsibility. A class in evolutionary theory can give you a richer appreciation of life’s history on Earth and the discoveries of science. And analyzing the symbolism of a Romantic poem such as “ Ode to a Grecian Urn ” can help you better appreciate art and its place in culture. 

Yes, your time in college will offer classes that teach more marketable skills, but the point isn’t to be a worker placement program. It’s to broaden your perspectives, enrich your knowledge, instill the value of thought, and develop the habits of — and passion for — lifelong learning.

Johann N. Neem , author of What’s the Point of College? , sums up this view: “A college education is valuable in the labor market precisely because it cannot be reduced to one set of skills. What makes college graduates desirable is their ability to think broadly about the world and their capacity to use language and numbers well. These outcomes are achieved by immersing people for a portion of their lives on campuses devoted to thinking as an end in itself.”

So, is it worth it then?

It would be nice to have a pat answer, but saying everyone should go to college is as genuine a response as Peter Theil calling higher education a bubble and bribing students to drop out. Neither is true nor beneficial. The best answer is that, on average , a college degree is worth the cost. But in those two words — on average — lies a continuum of lives, plans, and desires. To determine where you fall in that continuum, you’ll need to deeply consider your circumstances.

The above three considerations can kickstart that discussion: Can you handle the debt? Is it an investment worth making? Is the college experience something you desire intrinsically? That’s only the beginning, though. You also have to consider things like:

• What are your life goals? 
• Will you have to hold down a job while attending? 
• What family obligations must you fulfill? 
• Does the job you want require a degree? If so, what kind? If not, how else might you fulfill any education requirements? 
• Are you looking to college because it’s expected of you, or do you not know what else to do? 

You should also deliberate on the many post-secondary education paths — of which college is only one.

Vocational and trade schools offer more direct job skills training and are often paired with on-the-job training and networking opportunities with employers in the area. Certificate programs are easier than ever to access online, and many fields still employ apprenticeships . Community colleges provide the opportunity to earn a degree, sample the liberal education experience, and discover your passions at a discounted rate compared to four-year universities — any one of which can be accessed at different times in your life, not just the four-year window between ages 18 and 22.

All these variables need to be entertained when pondering college. Maybe that answer will point you toward going; maybe it won’t. Regardless of your decision, thoroughly weighing the pros and cons of your educational future will help you develop your talents and help bring a sense of meaning and fulfillment to your life.

Choose Your Test

• Search Blogs By Category
• College Admissions
• AP and IB Exams
• GPA and Coursework

Is College Really Worth It? Expert Cost-Benefit Analysis

Financial Aid

With tuition rising every year, more and more students are asking themselves, "Is college worth it?" Many people believe that getting a college education is an important part of becoming a successful adult. Others, however, find it difficult to justify the increasing investment necessary to earn a degree. There’s no one path that’s right for everyone, and it can be difficult to think critically about the decision to go to college when you’re feeling pressured one way or another.

There’s no simple answer to this question, but  there is a rational way to think about whether college is the right path for you . Just as with any investment, you want to think about the relationship between what you put into it (like money, time, and effort) and what you get out of it (like education, networking, and career opportunities). The more you get out of it as compared to how much you put in, the better the investment.

In this post, I'll go through all the potential benefits and drawbacks of pursuing a four-year bachelor's degree so you have all the information to decide for yourself whether college is worth it. 

A Bit of Background on the Value of a College Degree

Before we get started, I want to fill you in on the how the worth of a college degree has changed over time. This way, you'll have a better framework for understanding whether a degree may (or may not) be worth it for you. 

Since the mid-20th century, the US population has become increasingly educated - simply put, more people are getting bachelor's degrees. In this graph from the US Census Bureau, you can see how the percentage of people with BA degrees has increased from 4.6% in 1940 to 32% in 2015 :

There are many reasons why we've seen these educational attainment changes over time, including:

• The decline of manufacturing jobs , especially for unskilled workers.
• Employers seeking college graduates for positions that didn't previously require a bachelor's degree.
• Government subsidies in higher education, making college more affordable (until costs rose to meet demand, thereby making college more expensive ).

Overall, there are a lot of financial and political factors that have influenced this significant and prolonged shift in how people view college degrees: now, it's often considered difficult to get a well-paying job (or any job, really) without a college education . 

That doesn't mean, however, that going to college is always the smart thing to do. It's a big decision, and it's one that warrants some critical thought. To help you think about whether college is worth it for you specifically, let's jump right into the good stuff: the possible investments you have to make to get a college education and the possible benefits you reap as a result. 

What You Put In: The Costs of College

If you're thinking about pursuing a college degree, you'll have to make some sacrifices. The following factors are what I consider to be investments in a post-secondary education. The extent to which these investments affect you depends on your own unique situation , so I'll explain how to think critically about these issues in each section. 

Overall, the major investments you would have to make in a college education are money, time, and effort. Let's see exactly how these might affect whether college is a worthy investment. 

The amount of money that you invest in your education depends on so many factors: your specific school, your financial need, your academic strength, potential scholarship winnings, etc. 

In general, the less money you have to pay for school, the better an investment your education will be . However, even an expensive degree may be well worth it if it pays out in the long run (I'll talk more about that in a bit). 

Tuition is the most obvious cost associated with attending college, but you also have to worry about room, board, books, personal expenses, and transportation. For more information on all the nitty gritty details of educational expenses, check out our college costs guide . 

The financial investment you'll make in pursuing a bachelor's degree is perhaps the most important investment to consider . The average US college grad leaves school with a pretty significant amount of debt - debt that's sometimes very difficult to overcome. There are ways to make your college education more affordable , but sometimes it's tough (or even impossible) to get those expenses down to a comfortable amount. 

Most people take four years to complete a BA degree. Depending on your career goals, this may represent an opportunity cost - basically, you might be losing out on other valuable opportunities (to gain job experience, make money, or both) because you're spending these four years in school and out of the work force.  

A college education is definitely valuable to many employers, and it's correlated with higher earnings later on in life (I'll talk more about this soon). But building work experience in a particular field, in addition to building wealth, is also valuable - giving up on those opportunities is an investment (or a sacrifice) that you make in order to get a degree. 

It’s easy to sleep in and skip classes once you have the freedom and independence of a college student. But you’re already investing time and money into your education, so it’s important to make the most of it while you’re there.

Building a strong educational background and making professional and personal connections (important benefits of getting a degree) doesn’t just happen - it takes work, and it can sometimes be stressful . It also may involve doing things you don't necessarily want to do, like taking required courses or completing uninteresting assignments. It's important to honestly consider these challenges (and whether you're up to them) before committing yourself to school, especially if it comes with a hefty price tag. 

What You Get in Return: The Benefits of College

You might be feeling a bit iffy about pursuing a degree at this point, but don't stop reading just yet. There are so many potential benefits that come with a college education.

The major benefits I see that come with a BA degree (although there can be many more) are increased employment opportunities, higher income, networking opportunities, personal development, and learning experiences. 

Employment Opportunities

Colleges and universities are recruiting hubs for many industries. When you study at a college or university, especially one that's well ranked, there are often opportunities to  meet with corporate employers who come directly to your school to hire students. There are also  internship opportunities during summers for that could lead directly to full-time employment post-graduation. 

Employment opportunities offered through colleges and universities extend beyond the corporate world and into academia and professional fields.  Any profession that requires a graduate degree ( e.g. law, medicine, sometimes business) or is centered around research (basically any job in academia) requires a BA degree first and foremost . 

Higher Income

On average, people with college degrees make more than people without college degrees . E ven though you may sacrifice income opportunities in the short term by seeking a degree, you’ll likely end up making more in the long run. T his is especially true for people who go into STEM fields . 

Employers may also assume you’re better qualified for higher-paying jobs if you have a degree. Some jobs may require a BA even if your degree isn’t related to what you’d be doing on the job.

Networking Opportunities

In a college or university setting, you’ll build a network of friends, but you’ll also develop a network of acquaintances, instructors, staff, and alumni. With these networks, it’s a lot easier to get personal and professional help.

These connections can serve you in many different ways, especially after you graduate. Here are some ways that a college or university network may come in handy: 

• You move to a new city and need to find a roommate.
• You’re exploring a career change and want to chat with someone in a particular field.
• You need some professional guidance or a letter of reference. 
• You’re looking for a new job.

Harvard Business School estimates that 65-85% of jobs are obtained through networking  - if nothing else, it's a huge help when it comes to getting your foot in the door. 

You don't even have to know very many people personally to benefit from a college or university network - alumni networks are a great example of this. 

Personal Development

This benefit is a bit more subjective than some of the other ones I've mentioned so far, but I think it's just as important. People's experiences will definitely vary based on where they go to school and the extent to which they participate in student life - in general, though, here are the ways you can expect to grow and develop on a personal level with a college education: 

• Get exposure to diverse people and ideas . Meeting people with different backgrounds and perspectives results in greater open-mindedness and a more flexible worldview. One study showed that when people have BA degrees, they're more likely to believe that it's  “very important to try to understand the reasoning behind others’ opinions."
• Meet long-term friends . You, of course, don’t have to be at college to make good friends. What’s special about a college environment, though, is that you’re living and working with hundreds or even thousands of people who are around your age, probably for the first and only time in your life. It’s sometimes more difficult to make friends as you get older - a college is a pretty golden opportunity to meet people.
• Develop personal and professional interests. Many  students head off to school with no idea what they want to do with their lives. College gives you a chance to try out different fields, especially if you attend a school with a flexible curriculum.

Many schools (especially liberal arts colleges and universities) work to produce global citizens: well-rounded students who can be thoughtful and active participants in an increasingly globalized society. You can, of course, learn about things on your own, but college is really an ideal environment to do this - you have a structured learning environment, you're surrounded by intellectually curious peers, and you have access to experts in many fields. 

There’s a lot to learn out there besides what you’ve studied in high school, and  colleges offer courses on topics that you wouldn’t otherwise have access to . For example, you might want to explore world languages, niche humanities subjects, or specific and advanced STEM fields - all things that are difficult to study outside of a college campus. 

The thing I see as the biggest educational benefit to attending college is the access to professors, people who have dedicated their lives to research and teaching in a very specific field.  Access to these faculty members is especially helpful for students who are considering an advanced degree. 

When College May Not Be Worth It

If you have any desire to go to college, I strongly encourage you to consider it. Overall, I believe that a college degree comes with more benefits than drawbacks. Of course, there will be many exceptions and individual differences - here, I'll go over some situations where getting a college degree may not be worth it. 

I t's OK (important, even) to consider whether college makes sense for you, even if you've always assumed that you would go to college no matter what.

If a Degree Won't Lead to Professional Success

College offers a lot of professional, personal, and intellectual benefits. Even if you’re not sure what you want to do after college, a degree will afford you some flexibility. But you don’t have to go to college in order to be successful - depending, of course, on what career options you’re considering ( budding entrepreneurs , for example, may benefit more from real-world experience than from a college education). Some people argue that you can be just as successful with self-directed learning as you can be with a college degree. 

If you know you can graduate from high school and immediately start working towards your chosen career path, college might not be the best choice for you. Alternatively,  if you’re interested in a career that requires trade or vocational school, it might be smarter to apply to those programs instead of applying to a four-year program . This way, you can work toward building professional experience earlier rather than later.

If You Can't Afford It

The total Cost of Attendance at private colleges can come to over $200,000. If you’re responsible for that entire cost and you’re not sure if you can recoup the investment post-graduation, a degree may not be worth it.

If the expense is preventing you from looking into a college education, however, there are some options you should consider before making a decision:

• Not all schools charge $200,00 for a four-year degree. Many institutions are much less expensive (for example, public schools tend to offer subsidized tuition to state residents).
• There are many federal financial aid programs available for students attending almost any college or university in the US, and you only need to submit one (free) application . Learn more about the Pell Grant program and Perkins loans .
• If you're a high-achieving student, you might qualify for generous merit aid if you apply to particular schools. Learn more about colleges and universities that give great merit aid .
• If you think you might qualify for need-based financial aid , you can seek out schools that provide generous funding for lower-income students. Read more about schools with top need-based financial aid  programs. 
• You can apply for scholarship awards , which are great sources of education funding for many students. Learn more about finding and winning local awards , and check out the top scholarship programs for high school juniors and seniors . 

If money is the only thing holding you back from getting a degree, I urge you to check out these other funding options. You don’t have to be rich to go to college, and a degree doesn’t have to mean crippling expenses. To read more about paying for college, check out these guides: 

• The four different kinds of financial aid 
• How to pay for college: complete guide  
• How to pay for college without your parents' help
• How to pay for college without loans

If There Are Other Things You Want to Do First (or If You're Unsure)

College is a big commitment - if you want to pursue a degree full-time, you’ll be hitting the books for nine months out of the year. Y ou may want to do other things with your time after you graduate from high school before heading off to college,  like get professional experience, travel, or volunteer. 

The bottom line is that you can always postpone the college application process if you have other priorities or even if you want to take time to decide whether college is right for you. You don’t have to go to college right out of high school . 

Keep in mind that many schools allow you to defer acceptance . It might be easier to work through college applications when you have the support of a guidance counselor and when it's easy to ask teachers for letters of reference. Even if you decide to apply while you're in high school, it's possible to postpone attending the school of your choice for a year or two (or even forever, if you decide it's not right for you). 

Conclusion: Is College Worth It?

Overall, college is a pretty good investment - many students who pursue a bachelor's degree end up reaping the benefits, whether they're financial, professional, or personal. But many others pursue a degree without spending some serious time thinking about whether it's a smart choice. 

You may feel that you should go to college if you want to be successful. As I mentioned earlier in this post, there are many circumstances where a college degree doesn't exactly make professional, financial, or personal sense (at least not at this very moment). It's important that you know it's okay to postpone such a big decision if you remain unsure.

If you do decide to take time to pursue an alternative path, remember that it's important to use your time wisely (else you're subject to the same types of opportunity costs that I mentioned earlier in the post). Building professional experience or engaging in self-directed learning are definitely not easy alternatives to a college education - they're just different. 

Whatever you decide to do - good luck! 

What's Next?

One big part of the college application process is standardized testing. If you're researching whether college is a good choice for you, it may be helpful to learn more about whether these tests in any way predict future income . Some people even think that the ACT and the SAT have the power to predict success more broadly. 

If you're worried more about what the whole college application process will look like and you hope to plan around that, we've got you covered - check out our complete timeline for applying to college .

Trending Now

How to Get Into Harvard and the Ivy League

How to Get a Perfect 4.0 GPA

How to Write an Amazing College Essay

What Exactly Are Colleges Looking For?

ACT vs. SAT: Which Test Should You Take?

When should you take the SAT or ACT?

Get Your Free

Find Your Target SAT Score

Free Complete Official SAT Practice Tests

How to Get a Perfect SAT Score, by an Expert Full Scorer

Score 800 on SAT Math

Score 800 on SAT Reading and Writing

How to Improve Your Low SAT Score

Score 600 on SAT Math

Score 600 on SAT Reading and Writing

Find Your Target ACT Score

Complete Official Free ACT Practice Tests

How to Get a Perfect ACT Score, by a 36 Full Scorer

Get a 36 on ACT English

Get a 36 on ACT Math

Get a 36 on ACT Reading

Get a 36 on ACT Science

How to Improve Your Low ACT Score

Get a 24 on ACT English

Get a 24 on ACT Math

Get a 24 on ACT Reading

Get a 24 on ACT Science

Stay Informed

Get the latest articles and test prep tips!

Francesca graduated magna cum laude from Harvard and scored in the 99th percentile on the SATs. She's worked with many students on SAT prep and college counseling, and loves helping students capitalize on their strengths.

Ask a Question Below

Have any questions about this article or other topics? Ask below and we'll reply!

Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World

Read our research on:

Full Topic List

Regions & Countries

• Publications
• Our Methods
• Short Reads
• Tools & Resources

Read Our Research On:

• Is College Worth It?

Table of Contents

• Chapter 1: Overview
• Chapter 2: Trends in College Enrollment, Completion, Cost and Debt
• Chapter 3: Public Views and Experiences
• Chapter 4: Views of College Presidents
• Chapter 5: The Monetary Value of a College Education
• Appendix 1: Survey Methodology

Executive Summary

This report is based on findings from a pair of Pew Research Center surveys conducted this spring. One is a telephone survey taken among a nationally representative sample of 2,142 adults ages 18 and older. The other is an online survey, done in association with the Chronicle of Higher Education , among the presidents of 1,055 two-year and four-year private, public, and for-profit colleges and universities. ( See a description of our survey methodology. )

Here is a summary of key findings:

Survey of the General Public

• Cost and Value. A majority of Americans (57%) say the higher education system in the United States fails to provide students with good value for the money they and their families spend. An even larger majority—75%—says college is too expensive for most Americans to afford. At the same time, however, an overwhelming majority of college graduates—86%—say that college has been a good investment for them personally.
• Monetary Payoff. Adults who graduated from a four-year college believe that, on average, they are earning $20,000 more a year as a result of having gotten that degree. Adults who did not attend college believe that, on average, they are earning $20,000 a year less as a result. These matched estimates by the public are very close to the median gap in annual earnings between a high school and college graduate as reported by the U.S. Census Bureau in 2010: $19,550. A more detailed Pew Research Center analysis ( see Chapter 5 ) shows that this gap varies by type of degree and field of study.
• Student Loans. A record share of students are leaving college with a substantial debt burden, and among those who do, about half (48%) say that paying off that debt made it harder to pay other bills; a quarter say it has made it harder to buy a home (25%); and about a quarter say it has had an impact on their career choices (24%).
• Why Not College? Nearly every parent surveyed (94%) says they expect their child to attend college, but even as college enrollments have reached record levels, most young adults in this country still do not attend a four-year college. The main barrier is financial. Among adults ages 18 to 34 who are not in school and do not have a bachelor’s degree, two-thirds say a major reason for not continuing their education is the need to support a family. Also, 57% say they would prefer to work and make money; and 48% say they can’t afford to go to college.
• Split Views of College Mission. Just under half of the public (47%) says the main purpose of a college education is to teach work-related skills and knowledge, while 39% say it is to help a student grow personally and intellectually; the remainder volunteer that both missions are equally important. College graduates place more emphasis on intellectual growth; those who are not college graduates place more emphasis on career preparation.
• For Most College Graduates, Missions Accomplished. Among survey respondents who graduated from a four-year college, 74% say their college education was very useful in helping them grow intellectually; 69% say it was very useful in helping them grow and mature as a person; and 55% say it was very useful in helping them prepare for a job or career.
• Above All, Character. While Americans value college, they value character even more. Asked what it takes for a young person to succeed in the world, 61% say a good work ethic is extremely important and 57% say the same about knowing how to get along with people. Just 42% say the same about a college education.

Survey of Presidents

• Right or Wrong Direction? Six-in-ten college presidents say the system of higher education in this country is headed in the right direction, but a substantial minority—38%—say it is headed in the wrong direction.
• Declining Student Quality. A majority of college presidents (58%) say public high school students arrive at college less well prepared than their counterparts of a decade ago; just 6% say they are better prepared. Also, 52% of presidents say college students today study less than their predecessors did a decade ago; just 7% say they study more.

Interactive

Explore the attitudes of the public and of college presidents about the value, cost, quality, mission and payoff of higher education.

• We’re Not Number One. Only 19% of college presidents say the U.S. system of higher education is the best in the world now, and just 7% say they believe it will be the best in the world ten years from now. Most presidents —51%—describe the U.S. system as one of the best in the world.
• Doubts about Achieving Obama’s Goal. Nearly two-thirds of college presidents (64%) say it is unlikely that, by 2020, the U.S. will achieve the goal set by President Obama to have the highest share of young adults with a college degree or certificate of any country in the world.
• Who Should Pay? Nearly two-thirds of college presidents (63%) say students and their families should pay the largest share of the cost of a college education. Just 48% of the public agrees. An equal share of the public would prefer that the bulk of the cost of a college education be borne by the federal government, state governments, private endowments or some combination.
• Split Views of College Mission. Presidents are evenly divided about the main role colleges play in students’ lives: Half say it is to help them mature and grow intellectually, while 48% say it is to provide skills, knowledge and training to help them succeed in the working world. Most heads of four-year colleges and universities emphasize the former; most heads of two-year and for-profit schools emphasize the latter.
• Measuring Grade Inflation: Just over a quarter (27%) of college presidents say that the faculty at their own institution grades students too leniently. Only 1% says they grade students too stringently. The vast majority (73%) says students are graded about right.
• Scant Enthusiasm for Faculty Tenure. Only a quarter (24%) of presidents say that, if given a choice, they would prefer that most faculty at their institution be tenured. About seven-in-ten say they would prefer that faculty be employed on annual or long term contracts.

About the Surveys

This report is largely based on findings from two Pew Research Center surveys conducted in the spring of 2011.

The general public survey (GP) is based on telephone interviews conducted with a nationally representative sample of 2,142 adults ages 18 and older living in the continental United States, including an oversample of 336 adults ages 18-34. A total of 1,052 interviews were completed with respondents contacted by landline telephone and 1,090 with those contacted on their cellular phone. The data are weighted to produce a final sample that is representative of the general population of adults in the continental United States. Survey interviews were conducted under the direction of Princeton Survey Research Associates International, in English and Spanish. For more details, see Appendix 1.

• Interviews conducted March 15-29, 2011
• 2,142 interviews
• Margin of sampling error is plus or minus 2.7 percentage points for results based on the total sample and 4.5 percentage points for adults 18 to 34 years old at the 95% confidence level.

The college presidents survey (P) is based on a web survey conducted with 1,055 college and university presidents in the U.S. The survey was designed by the Pew Research Center in association with the Chronicle of Higher Education. Overall, 1,022 interviews were completed online and 33 interviews were completed by phone (for the presidents who requested being interviewed by phone). The college and university presidents surveyed are from four major sectors: 1) private four-year colleges and universities; 2) public four-year colleges and universities; 3) two-year public and private colleges; 4) four-year and two-year for-profit colleges and universities. The data were weighted to correct for disproportionate non-response that might bias sample estimates. The weighting accounts for both the institution type and geographic distribution of the colleges and universities eligible to take part in the survey. Survey interviews were conducted in English under the direction of Princeton Survey Research Associates International. For more details, see Appendix 1.

• Interviews conducted March 15-April 24, 2011
• 1,055 interviews
• Margin of error is plus or minus 2.8 percentage points at the 95% confidence level for results based on the total sample, 4.8 percentage points for presidents of four-year public universities, 3.8 percentage points for presidents of four-year private universities, 4.6 percentage points for presidents of two-year colleges (public or private), and 11.3 percentage points for presidents of private for-profit colleges and universities.

Notes on Terminology

Unless otherwise noted, “college graduates” refers to those who graduated from a four-year college and hold a bachelor’s degree or higher.

In referring to institutions of higher education, the terms “school,” “institution,” “college” and “university” are used interchangeably, except that “university” does not apply to two-year institutions.

“Private college” refers to private (as opposed to public) not-for-profit (NFP) colleges and universities. This term is not intended to apply to private, for-profit colleges.

Sign up for our weekly newsletter

Fresh data delivery Saturday mornings

Sign up for The Briefing

Weekly updates on the world of news & information

• Business & Workplace
• Higher Education
• Student Loans

A look at small businesses in the U.S.

A look at black-owned businesses in the u.s., 2023 saw some of the biggest, hardest-fought labor disputes in recent decades, do you tip more or less often than the average american, diversity, equity and inclusion in the workplace, most popular, report materials.

• The Value of College
• Higher Education/Housing

901 E St. NW, Suite 300 Washington, DC 20004 USA (+1) 202-419-4300 | Main (+1) 202-857-8562 | Fax (+1) 202-419-4372 |  Media Inquiries

Research Topics

• Email Newsletters

ABOUT PEW RESEARCH CENTER  Pew Research Center is a nonpartisan, nonadvocacy fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world. It does not take policy positions. The Center conducts public opinion polling, demographic research, computational social science research and other data-driven research. Pew Research Center is a subsidiary of The Pew Charitable Trusts , its primary funder.

© 2024 Pew Research Center

• Entertainment
• Environment
• Information Science and Technology
• Social Issues

Home Essay Samples Education College Education

Why College Is Not Worth It: the Cons of College Education

Table of contents, escalating student debt: financial burden, evolving employment trends: demand for skills, potential benefits of alternative options: vocational training and entrepreneurship.

• Caplan, B. (2018). The Case against Education: Why the Education System Is a Waste of Time and Money. Princeton University Press.
• Smith, A., & Reynolds, J. (2012). Is a College Degree Still Worth It? Brookings Institution Press.
• Carnevale, A. P., Smith, N., & Strohl, J. (2013). Recovery: Job Growth and Education Requirements through 2020. Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce.
• Stephens, H. E., & Schaben, C. (2017). Alternatives to College: Vocational Education in the 21st Century. Palgrave Macmillan.
• Wadhwa, V. (2015). The U.S. Job Market Is Broken: Here's How to Fix It. Inc.

*minimum deadline

Cite this Essay

To export a reference to this article please select a referencing style below

• Critical Thinking
• College Tuition
• Environmental Education
• Starting School Later
• Academic Dishonesty

Related Essays

Need writing help?

You can always rely on us no matter what type of paper you need

*No hidden charges

100% Unique Essays

Absolutely Confidential

Money Back Guarantee

By clicking “Send Essay”, you agree to our Terms of service and Privacy statement. We will occasionally send you account related emails

You can also get a UNIQUE essay on this or any other topic

Thank you! We’ll contact you as soon as possible.

• Share full article

Advertisement

Supported by

Weighing the Value of College

To the Editor:

Re “ College May Not Be Worth It Anymore ,” by Ellen Ruppel Shell (Op-Ed, May 17):

As the first in my family to go to college, I know from experience the tendency of guidance counselors to steer low-income students toward short-term gains versus long-term dreams. Advising low-income students to sidestep higher education in favor of direct entry into the job market is shortsighted, because there is ample evidence that higher education levels the economic playing field.

Every college needs three strategies in its playbook. Colleges should 1) aim to partner with organizations like the Posse Foundation , the American Talent Initiative and the Coalition for Access, Affordability and Success to recruit, support and graduate talented students from all backgrounds; 2) provide paid internships to prepare students for first jobs; and 3) invest in financial aid.

Demography is not destiny. If it becomes so, it will be the end of the American dream.

KATHLEEN MCCARTNEY NORTHAMPTON, MASS.

The writer is the president of Smith College.

When last I checked, my plumber was making more than $100,000 a year (his license plate reads “FLUSH”). He takes one four-week and one two-week vacation every year. He has only a high school degree. A two-year apprenticeship gave him the tools he needed to open his own business.

His son graduated from high school a few years ago. He immediately went to work for his father, and by the fourth year there was earning $40,000 a year. His cumulative earnings for those four years were roughly $90,000. Had he attended a four-year college, it would have cost his father somewhere in the neighborhood of $60,000 to $200,000. Instead, his son has money in the bank and is supporting himself instead of owing payments on student loans that could drag him down forever.

His father has insisted that he go to a community college to take courses in accounting and marketing that will be helpful when he takes over running the business.

We are having trouble retrieving the article content.

Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and  log into  your Times account, or  subscribe  for all of The Times.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

Already a subscriber?  Log in .

Want all of The Times?  Subscribe .

Sample Essay: Is College Worth It?, with Outline

Published by gudwriter on November 23, 2017 November 23, 2017

Is College Worth It Example Essay

Is college worth it? Here is a sample essay that discusses whether college education is worth it in the long run or it’s just a waste of money and time.

Elevate Your Writing with Our Free Writing Tools!

Did you know that we provide a free essay and speech generator, plagiarism checker, summarizer, paraphraser, and other writing tools for free?

This question on whether college is worth it or not can be answered in either way and with the help of a competent admission essay writer you are assured of a quality paper crafted using brilliant ideas.

Essay Outline on Whether College is Worth it

Introduction.

Thesis: While there are arguments that college education is not worth it in the current society, this paper contends that college education is indeed worth it irrespective of the prevalent economic conditions.

Paragraph 1:

College education is worth acquiring because those with a college degree earn substantially higher as compared to their counterparts who have secondary school education.

• The earning gap between the two groups only continues to become wider even as the economy transforms.
• “High school graduates earn about 62% of what those with four-year degrees earn, according to a Pew Research Center study.”

Paragraph 2:

College education also adds on to the market value of college graduates making them more valuable than non-college graduates.

• College degree is highly valued by the job market of today and prospective employers view it as the minimum educational requirement for employment.
• In comparison to high school graduates, college graduates would easily secure job opportunities.

  Paragraph 3:

It is also worth pursuing college education because with it, one gets into a better position to acquire and enjoy the benefits of health insurance and develop their pension plans.

• “In 2011, the percentage of full-time workers offered pension plans by their employers who chose to participate ranged from 77% for those without a high school diploma to 94% for those with an advanced degree.”
• Higher levels of educational attainment put one in a better place to have a health insurance cover that is provided by their employer.

Paragraph 4:

College education further helps students in multiple other ways than just monetary returns.

• According to a survey, 74% of students said they had achieved invaluable intellectual growth by attending college while 69% believed college had helped them attain higher personal maturity levels.
• Thus, apart from employment, college makes students become better prepared to face life and the challenges that come with it.

Paragraph 5:

One argument against college education is that it plunges students into huge debt burdens.

• The argument holds that the $400 average monthly wage that fresh college graduates get is not enough for servicing their student loans.
• This argument ignores the fact that as they continue to work, college graduates develop professionally and continue earning more than their starting salary.

Paragraph 6:

Opponents of college education also front an argument that the market value of students does not benefit from college education.

• Apparently, this explains why people with college education may find themselves in odd jobs such as being hotel attendants.
• This argument is off the mark because college education indeed increases the market value of students and that is why they earn more than high school graduates.  

College education is worth it given the many benefits it sires. One should pursue college education at all costs even if it means running into debts. Deliberately failing to acquire college education is akin to deliberately settling for less in life. For an in-depth analysis of Candide, please read our Candide analysis essay.

Is College Worth it Example Essay

College education is one area that many people in the United States of America have invested and continue to invest in. It is widely believed that with college education, one has a better chance at life in terms of professional and personal development. College education has long been seen as a good avenue through which one may access and effectively exploit economic opportunities both domestically and internationally. However, the cost of acquiring college education has risen in the recent past and continues to rise even at present. A debate has thus ensued as to whether college education is really worth its cost in the prevailing economic situations. While there are arguments that college education is not worth it in the current society, this paper contends that college education is indeed worth it irrespective of the prevalent economic conditions. In college that’s where you may find worthy and important friendship , it’s where you mold relationship since you have a better understanding of yourself.

College education is worth acquiring because those with a college degree earn substantially higher as compared to their counterparts who have secondary school education. The earning gap between the two groups only continues to become wider even as the economy transforms. As pointed out by Weston (2015), “High school graduates earn about 62% of what those with four-year degrees earn, according to a Pew Research Center study.” In the year 1979, those with high school education used to earn 77% of what college graduates earned; a proof that the earning gap is indeed increasing (Weston, 2015). It would thus not be advisable to forego college education and settle for high school education because in effect, that means settling for lower earnings. Under normal circumstances, an investment that attracts higher returns on investment is worth considering or pursuing and so is college education.

College education also adds on to the market value of college graduates making them more valuable than non-college graduates. As clearly stated by Selingo (2015), college degree is highly valued by the job market of today and prospective employers view it as the minimum educational requirement for employment. This then implies that in comparison to high school graduates, college graduates would easily secure job opportunities. With college education, one thus opens more economic opportunities for themselves. This is why Weston (2015) advises that in the current economy, everybody should “consider some post-secondary training if they do not want to fall down the economic ladder.” Irrespective of the program one undertakes in college, they would enhance their market value by amassing as much professional experience as possible and thereby command better earnings.

It is also worth pursuing college education because with it, one gets into a better position to acquire and enjoy the benefits of health insurance and develop their pension plans. “In 2011, the percentage of full-time workers offered pension plans by their employers who chose to participate ranged from 77% for those without a high school diploma to 94% for those with an advanced degree” (Baum, Ma & Payea, 2013). It is further noted by Baum, Ma & Payea (2013) that higher levels of educational attainment put one in a better place to have a health insurance cover that is provided by their employer. With a health insurance, one can be sure of medical attention whenever they need it while with pension plans, one is sure to live a dignified life after they retire. Therefore, one would suffer less financial burden if they have these two provisions, both before and after retirement. As is evident here, the benefits would far outweigh the cost at which college education is acquired.

College education further helps students in multiple other ways than just monetary returns. According to a survey, 74% of students said they had achieved invaluable intellectual growth by attending college while 69% believed college had helped them attain higher personal maturity levels (“Is College Worth It?,” 2011). Thus, apart from employment, college makes students become better prepared to face life and the challenges that come with it. A more intellectually strengthened person is likely to approach life with an open mind which would enable them develop well-thought solutions to various life problems. Similarly, a high level of personal maturity helps one in developing meaningful relationships both at personal and professional levels. Thus, college education generally prepares a person for better life. It would be less meaningful to earn a lot of money and spend it unwisely.

One argument against college education is that it plunges students into huge debt burdens. Selingo (2015) argues that the $400 average monthly wage that fresh college graduates get is not enough for servicing their student loans. The scholar contends that with such little earnings, college graduates may end up repaying their loans for long. Supporters of this opinion hold that being in debt overshadows the value the students might have got from the education given that it is costly to acquire. However, this argument ignores the fact that as they continue to work, college graduates develop professionally and continue earning more than their starting salaries.

Opponents of college education also front an argument that the market value of students does not benefit from college education. Apparently, this explains why people with college education may find themselves in odd jobs such as being hotel attendants. According to Selingo (2015) ,““Looking at the actual return on the costs of attending college, careful analyses suggest that the payoff from many college programs — as much as one in four — is actually negative”. However, this argument is off the mark because as revealed herein, college education increases the market value of students and that is why they earn more than high school graduates.

College education is worth it given the many benefits it sires. One should pursue college education at all costs even if it means running into debts. It would be satisfying to service the loan knowing very well that afterwards, one would continue reaping the benefits of the education. Increased market value, higher earnings, health insurance cover, and retirement plans all make college education a necessity. Deliberately failing to acquire college education is thus akin to deliberately settling for less in life.

Baum, S., Ma, J., & Payea, K. (2013). “ Education pays 2013: the benefits of higher education for individuals and society” . The College Board. Retrieved from https://trends.collegeboard.org/sites/default/files/education-pays-2013-full-report.pdf

Is College Worth It?. In Pew Research Center . Retrieved July 9, 2020 from https://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2011/05/15/is-college-worth-it/

Selingo, J. (2015). “ Is college worth the cost? Many recent graduates don’t think so”. Washington Post . Retrieved 21 November 2017, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2015/09/30/is-college-worth-the-cost-many-recent-graduates-dont-think-so/?utm_term=.d1c7eef76720

Weston, L. (2015). “ Why college is still worth it even though it costs too much” . Time . Retrieved 21 November 2017, from http://time.com/money/4061150/college-degree-worth-it/

Special offer! Get 20% discount on your first order. Promo code: SAVE20

Related Posts

Free essays and research papers, artificial intelligence argumentative essay – with outline.

Artificial Intelligence Argumentative Essay Outline In recent years, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become one of the rapidly developing fields and as its capabilities continue to expand, its potential impact on society has become a topic Read more…

Synthesis Essay Example – With Outline

The goal of a synthesis paper is to show that you can handle in-depth research, dissect complex ideas, and present the arguments. Most college or university students have a hard time writing a synthesis essay, Read more…

Examples of Spatial Order – With Outline

A spatial order is an organizational style that helps in the presentation of ideas or things as is in their locations. Most students struggle to understand the meaning of spatial order in writing and have Read more…

More From Forbes

Why college isn't worth the money.

• Share to Facebook
• Share to Twitter
• Share to Linkedin

I spent six figures on my college education, opting for a distinguished private school with a premium price tag instead of the cheaper state option. I cared about the prestige behind the name just as much as the quality of the education. And it wasn't worth it. At all.

As a millennial, I belong to the generation that was told we could do anything if we put our minds to it. We were all special. And if we wanted to  get high-paying jobs  worthy of our talents, we needed a good education.

Unfortunately, "good" was often interpreted to mean "expensive." There was little conversation around the reality of paying for that education. Today, the average student loan debt load for a 2014 college graduate has ballooned to $33,000, which according to The Wall Street Journal , is nearly double the amount students had to borrow 20 years ago, even after factoring in inflation.

"The growth of student loan debt is being compared to the recent housing crisis because of the significant growth of subsidized lending," said Bryon Spicer, president of Spicer Wealth Management in Dayton, OH. "Just as the mortgage lending boom pushed home prices up, student loan lending has put upward pressure on tuition."

Where You Earn Your Degree Doesn't Matter

Looking back, I wish I had opted for a less expensive school. It's not that I received a poor education by any means. Upper-division courses were limited to just 12 students. Tuesday evenings were spent discussing 20th-century Caribbean literature with some of the brightest minds in Los Angeles. But those things didn't help me get a job.

My employer could not have cared less where I received my degree — the important part was that I had one. In fact, a  survey conducted by Gallup  on behalf of the Lumina Foundation found that only 9% of business leaders consider where a job applicant went to school to be "very important." Rather, the amount of industry knowledge that person possessed was overwhelmingly most important, at 84%, followed closely by the candidate's job skills at 79%.

However, a corresponding survey of the American adult population found 30% of respondents believed where a degree is obtained is "very important" to business leaders. Clearly, a gap between perception and reality exists. And that's a major reason why more than 40 million Americans are burdened with student loan debt that totals over $1 trillion.

Does A College Degree Really Mean Higher Earnings?

College graduates with four-year degrees can expect to earn about $1 million more than high school graduates over their lifetimes, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. A graduate degree adds another $400,000.

A million dollars is certainly nothing to sneeze at, but earnings don't tell the whole story.

High school graduates not only have the benefit of a four-year head start in the workforce, they are blissfully free from any kind of student loan debt. Meanwhile, college grads must begin paying off the debt they've accumulated, regardless of whether or not they're able to find employment in today's competitive job market. And the higher the degree, the exponentially more students must borrow. About 15% of graduate and professional school students graduate with  six‐figure student loan debt .

What you study also makes a difference. An engineering graduate from the University of California, Berkeley can expect to earn close to $1.1 million more  than someone who never went to college over just 20 years, according to The Economist. Foolishly pursue the arts, and you might be disappointed. An arts graduate from Murray State University in Kentucky, for instance, can expect to make $147,000 less over 20 years than a high school graduate, once the cost of education is factored in.

"I believe the core reason families are willing to take on such debt is out of fear that their child will face diminished prospects in life if they don’t keep up competitively with their peers," explained Colin Drake, a personal finance expert and founder of Drake Wealth Management. "Ironically, saddling students with hundreds of thousands of dollars of debt may be the very thing which diminishes their prospects in life."

The Real Economic Impact of Student Loan Debt

When you examine the sacrifices college graduates must make in order to tackle their loans, it's apparent the true cost of college is not the inflated tuition or decades' worth of interest. It's in the precious time that is lost and major milestones deferred thanks to that debt.

"People in their 30s are finding that they can't qualify for a home because of the student loan debt they incurred," noted Cheryl Fields, founder of the Lifestyle Wealth Group. "They're graduating from college, and because of the economic woes in this country over the last eight years, are working for wages much less than the ones they had hoped when they got their degree."

The impact on the economy as a whole is massive. A recent study by the American Institute of CPAs found 41% of respondents have postponed contributions to retirement plans due to student loan debt. Forty percent have delayed car purchases, and 29% put off buying a house. Another 15% have postponed marriage. It's not unusual for millennials to put off having children or opt out completely for similar financial reasons.

Spicer warned that if things don't change, we'll likely reach a tipping point where families recognize the return on education is no longer compelling. "We may see more high school graduates taking more time to live in the 'real world,' better discover and refine their career ambitions, and then return to invest in education they more clearly believe will be worth it," he said.

Unfortunately, it's unlikely change will come soon enough. The growing student loan debt bubble is due, in large part, to the federal government's financial interest in student loans. The government pocketed more than $41 billion  during fiscal year 2013 alone — a profit higher than all but two companies in the world: Exxon Mobil and Apple. It should be noted that student loan debt is the only type of debt that can't be discharged through bankruptcy.

College, in most cases, is not worth its inflated cost any more, but that's not to say today's young adults should abandon the higher education system completely. Chris Alberta, CEO of Senior Benefits Group Retirement Advisors and president of Alberta Enterprises, Inc., recommended that anyone who does not have a very specific career specialty in mind consider community college first. "The low cost, along with the opportunity to be in the workforce part time, may open some doors and redirect that path," he said.

Alberta also advised it's never too late to consider a college education. Starting late can be a good idea, especially if it gives you time to gain valuable real-world work experience while you figure out what you really want to do. "Folks are getting degrees well into their 40s and 50s, starting a new life and pursuing a passion that they only just discovered," he said.  Just be sure that new life isn't founded on debilitating student loan debt .

• Editorial Standards
• Reprints & Permissions

Home — Essay Samples — Education — College Experience — Why Is College Worth It

Why is College Worth It

• Categories: College Experience

About this sample

Words: 618 |

Published: Aug 1, 2024

Words: 618 | Page: 1 | 4 min read

Table of contents

Career opportunities, personal growth, financial stability.

Cite this Essay

To export a reference to this article please select a referencing style below:

Let us write you an essay from scratch

• 450+ experts on 30 subjects ready to help
• Custom essay delivered in as few as 3 hours

Get high-quality help

Verified writer

• Expert in: Education

+ 120 experts online

By clicking “Check Writers’ Offers”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy . We’ll occasionally send you promo and account related email

No need to pay just yet!

Related Essays

3 pages / 1197 words

2 pages / 928 words

2 pages / 734 words

1 pages / 432 words

Remember! This is just a sample.

You can get your custom paper by one of our expert writers.

121 writers online

Still can’t find what you need?

Browse our vast selection of original essay samples, each expertly formatted and styled

Related Essays on College Experience

The specter of time management predicaments for students is far from insurmountable; instead, it morphs into an arena brimming with opportunities for evolution and expansion. By internalizing the profundity of time, enlisting [...]

Effective time management stands as a linchpin for students to unlock their academic prowess and realize personal growth. In a world besieged by mounting pressures and unrelenting distractions, students must cultivate an acute [...]

The concept of being a "doer" has become increasingly important. A doer is someone who takes action, demonstrates initiative, and gets things done. As a college student, I have come to embody the qualities of a doer through my [...]

College life is often portrayed as a time of newfound freedom, self-discovery, and social interaction. However, for some students, college can be a challenging environment, particularly for those who feel like outsiders or [...]

Brotherhood and sisterhood. Those two words have such a significant meaning. There is a difference between friendship and brotherhood or sisterhood. They create a bond that is completely different from others. If one needs help, [...]

Every student embarks on a unique journey through the educational system, a path filled with experiences that shape their character, values, and aspirations. My educational journey has been a remarkable one, characterized by [...]

Related Topics

By clicking “Send”, you agree to our Terms of service and Privacy statement . We will occasionally send you account related emails.

Where do you want us to send this sample?

By clicking “Continue”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy policy.

Be careful. This essay is not unique

This essay was donated by a student and is likely to have been used and submitted before

Download this Sample

Free samples may contain mistakes and not unique parts

Sorry, we could not paraphrase this essay. Our professional writers can rewrite it and get you a unique paper.

Please check your inbox.

We can write you a custom essay that will follow your exact instructions and meet the deadlines. Let's fix your grades together!

Get Your Personalized Essay in 3 Hours or Less!

We use cookies to personalyze your web-site experience. By continuing we’ll assume you board with our cookie policy .

• Instructions Followed To The Letter
• Deadlines Met At Every Stage
• Unique And Plagiarism Free

Importance of being a Resident Assistant

How it works

So, being a Resident Assistant (RA) at a college or university is a pretty big deal. It’s not just a job; it’s a huge responsibility and a chance for personal growth and leadership. RAs do a lot to help build a community and support students. They’re like the glue that keeps the residential life experience together, making sure students can do well in their studies and feel good personally. RAs help create a safe, inclusive, and fun living space, which ties into what higher education is all about.

First off, RAs are super important for building a community in the dorms. They’re usually the first people new students meet, helping them get used to campus life and making them feel at home. By setting up events and social gatherings, RAs get students to hang out and break the ice, helping them make friends and feel like they belong. This sense of community can really boost students’ mental health because feeling connected can keep feelings of loneliness at bay.

RAs also provide critical support for students, helping them with everything from schoolwork to personal issues. They’re trained to spot different student needs and know where to direct them for more help. This is especially key for freshmen who are just figuring out college life. By being there to listen and offer advice, RAs help students handle stress, overcome problems, and hit their goals. Having a dependable RA around can really help students do well in college.

But it’s not just the residents who benefit. Being an RA gives the RAs themselves some pretty useful skills and experiences. They learn leadership, conflict resolution, time management, and communication, all of which look great on a resume and help in future jobs. Plus, dealing with a diverse group of students helps RAs become more empathetic and culturally aware.

Another big part of being an RA is making sure the living environment is safe and inclusive. RAs have to enforce dorm policies and ensure everyone feels respected and valued. This means dealing with issues like discrimination, harassment, and substance abuse, and setting up programs that teach about diversity and inclusion. By doing this, RAs help create a campus culture that values diversity, which is good for everyone because it brings in a variety of perspectives and experiences.

In the end, being an RA is super important. They play a key role in building community, supporting students, and promoting a safe and inclusive living space. The skills and experiences they gain are priceless, helping them grow personally and professionally long after college. RAs are leaders, mentors, and advocates, making a big impact on their peers and supporting the goals of higher education institutions. It’s a tough but rewarding role, and RAs shape the college experience for many students.

Cite this page

Importance of Being A Resident Assistant. (2024, Sep 17). Retrieved from https://papersowl.com/examples/importance-of-being-a-resident-assistant/

"Importance of Being A Resident Assistant." PapersOwl.com , 17 Sep 2024, https://papersowl.com/examples/importance-of-being-a-resident-assistant/

PapersOwl.com. (2024). Importance of Being A Resident Assistant . [Online]. Available at: https://papersowl.com/examples/importance-of-being-a-resident-assistant/ [Accessed: 18 Sep. 2024]

"Importance of Being A Resident Assistant." PapersOwl.com, Sep 17, 2024. Accessed September 18, 2024. https://papersowl.com/examples/importance-of-being-a-resident-assistant/

"Importance of Being A Resident Assistant," PapersOwl.com , 17-Sep-2024. [Online]. Available: https://papersowl.com/examples/importance-of-being-a-resident-assistant/. [Accessed: 18-Sep-2024]

PapersOwl.com. (2024). Importance of Being A Resident Assistant . [Online]. Available at: https://papersowl.com/examples/importance-of-being-a-resident-assistant/ [Accessed: 18-Sep-2024]

Don't let plagiarism ruin your grade

Hire a writer to get a unique paper crafted to your needs.

Our writers will help you fix any mistakes and get an A+!

Please check your inbox.

You can order an original essay written according to your instructions.

Trusted by over 1 million students worldwide

1. Tell Us Your Requirements

2. Pick your perfect writer

3. Get Your Paper and Pay

Hi! I'm Amy, your personal assistant!

Don't know where to start? Give me your paper requirements and I connect you to an academic expert.

short deadlines

100% Plagiarism-Free

Certified writers