To Pay or Not to Pay...
The average student attends school for thirteen or so years; they are then faced with the choice of whether or not to sink 100,000 or more dollars to further their education. This large amount of money goes to college. Nowadays, college is truly an investment. The choice is up to the student and their family to make the investment or not. It is a tough decision to make, especially considering how many different voices there are out there about whether or not college is a good investment. According to an article written by Jacob McMillen, published last June by the HuffPost College magazine, college is a bad investment. The article claims that students are throwing away thousands of dollars every year to get their higher degrees; these claims are, however, inaccurate.
Read McMillen's article by clicking the button below.
Go to Class
One point made by the article is that “it’s debatable whether colleges even offer valuable information anymore.” McMillen says that outside of a job context, the information given to students in college courses has little value, however, young adults invest in college in order to get a higher paying job. Students are able to choose their own courses in college. McMillen’s article does point out that one-third of courses required in college is electives. On the other hand, he makes it sound as if electives are a total waste of a student’s time; they are not. Students could choose “useless” courses that do not further them in the skills related to their major or future jobs, however, they can also choose extremely relevant electives. As the bigfuture website says, One of the great things about being able to choose your own courses is that you get the opportunity to explore. You can try classes in a lot of different subjects, or you can dive right into a favorite subject. You may choose to begin training for a career right away. Or you may pick a major after taking some time to check out your options. Colleges offer classes and majors in subjects you’ve studied in high school — plus many more that you haven’t.
Give a Little, Get a Little
McMillen also claims “many kids are walking off campuses with expensive degrees and no jobs.” Although this may be true in some cases, many college graduates are getting jobs, and getting much better pay than their non-graduate piers as well. In fact, the overall average starting salary for Class of 2013 new college graduates currently stands at $45,327. Another study done by the National Center for Educational Statistics states, In 2011, the median of earnings for young adults with a bachelor’s degree was $45,000, while the median was $22,900 for those without a high school diploma or its equivalent, $30,000 for those with a high school diploma or its equivalent, and $37,000 for those with an associate’s degree. What this shows is that students with a bachelor’s degree earned “almost twice as much as those without a high school diploma or its equivalent (97 percent more).
Conclusion
Jacob McMillen was correct when he said that college is an investment, however, he was wrong in saying that it is a bad one. College offers young adults a chance for better jobs, more money over their lifetimes, new experiences, internships, new people, the opportunity to further their interpersonal relationships, and so much more.