Should everyone go to college essay

The past few decades, it has been widely argued that a college degree is a prerequisite to entering the middle class in the united states. We all know that, on average, college graduates make significantly more money over their lifetimes than those with only a high school education. What gets less attention is the fact that not all college degrees or college graduates are equal. While the average return to obtaining a college degree is clearly positive, we emphasize that it is not universally so. By telling all young people that they should go to college no matter what, we are actually doing some of them a rate of return on mobility bleak facts on black rodrigue and richard v. The main problem is one of selection: if the smartest, most motivated people are both more likely to go to college and more likely to be financially successful, then the observed difference in earnings by years of education doesn’t measure the true effect of chers have attempted to get around this problem of causality by employing a number of clever techniques, including, for example, comparing identical twins with different levels of education. If we apply this 10 percent rate to the median earnings of about $30,000 for a 25- to 34-year-old high school graduate working full time in 2010, this implies that a year of college increases earnings by $3,000, and four years increases them by $12,000. The cost of college matters as well: the more someone has to pay to attend, the lower the net benefit of attending. Furthermore, we have to factor in the opportunity cost of college, measured as the foregone earnings a student gives up when he or she leaves or delays entering the workforce in order to attend school. In this brief, we take a rather narrow view of the value of a college degree, focusing on the earnings premium. What’s more, the earnings premium associated with a college degree grows over a lifetime. Compared to the average up-front cost of four years of college (tuition plus opportunity cost) of $102,000, the hamilton project is not alone in arguing that investing in college provides “a tremendous return. Research fellow - economic studies, center on children and is always possible to quibble over specific calculations, but it is hard to deny that, on average, the benefits of a college degree far outweigh the costs. We emphasize that a 17- or 18-year-old deciding whether and where to go to college should carefully consider his or her own likely path of education and career before committing a considerable amount of time and money to that degree. With tuitions rising faster than family incomes, the typical college student is now more dependent than in the past on loans, creating serious risks for the individual student and perhaps for the system as a whole, should widespread defaults occur in the future. I’ve discussed this question with several people recently and many were quick to note that not everyone should go to college. In most of these conversations or interactions, people are attempting to point out that some people just don’t have the academic prowess or the disposition for a 4-year college education and that they are better off going the route of a skilled trade or something similar. The traditional 4-year college degree path serves as a valuable part of that journey for some people, but not for the majority of people in the world or even the united states. One is that they made their mark in the world, and a second is that they did it without a 4-year college degree. They took the dominant pathway, the non-4-year degree pathway, and it arguably paid off for is not an advertisement for skipping or dropping out of college. I’m just recognizing that there are many good and valuable paths in life, and that going to college is not a guarantee of the good life, a life of meaning and purpose, vocational clarity and calling, wealth, success, the self-examined life, a good paying job, or any other such aspirations. This is also an opportunity for me to honor the choices other than might protest that pointing this out is irresponsible, that the 4-year degree is a much better assurance of this list of grand aspirations than dropping out or skipping college. It is just important to note that college attendance and graduation is not the direct and only cause of many of these outcomes. I do not agree with confusing the facts by suggesting that college is the sure or only way to have a positive outcome in one’s to college doesn’t directly solve problems of meaning, success, citizenship or employment. College is a great place for learning but it is inaccurate and maybe even irresponsible to claim that it is the only place of great might add that my line of thinking is the sort of advice that we might share for other kids but not our own. I used the faces that i did because they are quickly recognizable but there are many others out there the beginning of the article, i referenced people who pointed out that not everyone should go to college, that not every person is cut out for college.

Should everyone go to college essay summary

By that i open the door to the conversation that college is not one pathway. At the same time, this recognizes the validity of alternatives to the college long as we confuse and equate college with the anecdote to curing some social ill, we risk going down a dangerous path with unexpected negative consequences. College is not the anecdote as much as the learning and connections that can happen in college. S big-name college graduation ss teen graduates as ated prom tradition yields to hing i need, i learned in music high-tech return of high school shop. His newest book is titled “back to school: why everyone deserves a second chance at education. Cnn) - college changed my life, so when i think about the question of who should go to college, i can’t help but consider it through my own experience. And we wrote and wrote, and he read every word - and he hooked overall academic record was dreary, but that teacher got me into a local small college on probation, where i stumbled my first year, luckily encountered some new mentors and eventually found my ing to data from the national center for educational statistics, people with a college degree, on average, will earn significantly more over a lifetime than people without a degree. This relation of higher education and economic advancement has been part of our cultural wisdom for generations and has contributed mightily to the nation’s increase in college attendance. We all know the stories of young people who are saddled with college debt and are working part time at jobs that do not require a college are good jobs available in midlevel technical fields, in the trades and in certain services that do require training but not a four-year or even a two-year degree. Why direct all our youth into a degree path that they might not complete (about 50%-60% of those who begin college graduate), that keeps them out of the labor market and that saddles them with debt? Granted the above, the college degree on average and over time yields labor market benefits. So just using an economic calculus alone, it seems that college is advisable, realizing that other good career options are open that do not require a bachelor’s degree. Researching those options would be the first order of business for students and parents looking for viable alternatives to college. Limitation of a strictly economic focus on the college question is that it doesn’t take into account the simple but profound fact of human variability. In a community college fashion program i’ve been studying, i see students with average to poor high school records deeply involved in their work, learning techniques and design principles, solving problems, building a knowledge base. So making the decision about college will have to blend both economics and personal interest. A young man i know in a welding program was employed in his community college’s tutoring center, and it transformed him. But historically, we’ve also demanded of our schools and colleges the fostering of intellectual, social, ethical and civic development. I come from a poor family, and college made my economic mobility possible, but i also learned how to read and write more carefully and critically, how to research new topics systematically and how to think cooperatively with other people. But i do believe in the individual and social benefit of all people having the opportunity to experience what college - broadly defined - can provide: the chance to focus on learning, to spread one’s intellectual wings and test one’s limits. We certainly can learn new things in the workplace, but both the bucolic college on a hill and the urban occupational program operate without the production pressure of a job and with systematic feedback on performance - which increases the possibility of discovering new areas of talent and that’s what education, at its best, is all opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of mike by schools of thought editors filed under: college • ff (88 responses). Think everyone should get a good amount of education and should be able to go to college because... Most jobs anywhere require having a college education and if not everyone could go to college they would not have a good r 18, 2012 at 4:17 pm |. Those who are prepared should matriculate into degree-seeking coursework in higher educations, otherwise it is a waste of resources and is a partial cause for the high cost of higher education. The vast number of emotionally immature students coming to college is the cause for a great number of programs and assistance aimed a aiding those students so they don't leave. When i attended college, the entire experience was a crucible to be endured by less than half who matriculated, because everything was graded on the curve and only the top 40 percent succeeded.

Now everyone is expected to get a degree or else funding is r 16, 2012 at 6:00 am |. Should go to college to further their education, and have a better lifestyle and r 15, 2012 at 11:58 pm |. You have a chance to get better education do it, i think everyone should go to college, so they can have better jobs and r 15, 2012 at 11:56 pm |. Everyone can afford to go to colledge and think about all the jobs that the average american today isnt going to do, you dont have to go o colledge to do those jobs and somebody has to do everyone can be an accountant or a docter or a proffeser,October 16, 2012 at 7:38 pm |. Think that you should go to collage becouse it gives you a better undestanding about your job. Yes, but, i don't think that every 17-18 year old kid should go to school right out of high school. Too many kids are going off to college only to drop out, or drift for 3 years without a major, or drifting 10 years switching majors every other year, with no direction. In the midwest, i think the kids who graduate and go get a 2-year degree at a community college are far better off than most students who attain 4-year degrees at any university. My classmates who entered college when they were in their late 20's or even 30's after either serving in the military or after working for 10 years and going back to school, had a much easier time of it, they were more mature, more responsible. Business feel that if you don't have that degree, you must not have been intelligent enough to go to college, so you are not someone they'd like to r 11, 2012 at 9:48 am |. Funneling more students to college can only result in an even greater oversupply of grads. For example if the country needs 20,000 new grad accountants a year and colleges graduate 25,000 of them then there will be 5000 would-be accounatnts who are not employed as accountants and are underemployed in some other capacity. Our society, the world is advacing, everyone has to have a basic grasp of technology aspects and new methods for our society to progress. Think if someone is 18 they should be considered an adult so they should not be forced to go to r 10, 2012 at 10:49 pm |. Should have the opportunity to try to go to college if they want to try it. This attempt to go to college is a gamble but no one can really know how it will turn out. The major thing is that it should not cost so much to to try it that the cost of the gamble is too high. So maybe the first quarter or semester or first year should be free in order to see if a person can do it without bankrupting r 10, 2012 at 4:11 pm |. First off college is not for everyone and even if they did alright in high school would be crushed in college. Second college degrees are a qualifing requirement for certain jobs, if everyone goes to college then those job requirements would be pushed to higher levels of education. In short a college degree in today's world would be equivelent to a high school diploma or less in the "everyone goes to college" would be the same as setting minimum wage to a million dollars a year per person. Yes everyone is now a millionare, but the money value is almost worthless since bread would cost thousands of dollars per loaf. In terms of every possible experience college is a narrow experience which isn't suitable for everyone. Better idea, for our well educated (12+ years) and well connected (internet) kids, skip college and…. Frankly, not everyone is cut out for college and the notion that there is a degree out there for everyone is part of the problem. Universities and colleges are a business and the notion of more opportunites/potential income perpetuates the problem.

Young people truly not "cut out" for college enroll into programs and attain degrees that are not even worth paper they are printed on. Why should we continue to lower our standards to ensure college is an option for all. I know this sounds very disheartening but the solution is not more colleges and educational opportunities; its is about having a defined path/goal and working towards more versatile degrees. This line, would be trying to erase the stigma that goes with not having a college degree. We all know someone that never went to college are are doing quite well (pick a career – the possibilities are endless). If these same people went to college they might not be doing what they are doing today. As i grow older and teach new college students, this is the thing i want them to learn, to think, research and make informed decisions. There was also a huge wave of people trying to get into tech because of the perception that it's easy money, and once you are in and have some real world experience that can start to become true, but for a fresh college grad trying to break into the field it can be very r 10, 2012 at 10:38 am |. It is unfortunate if a person finds them without work in their career of choice but that does not mean that college was a waste. However i do have a degree and me and most of my friends have felt like we have wasted 4 to 5 years of life in school because their are no jobs for new their are some degrees where you can find a job in no problem like the sciences but no everyone is drawn to them. I may be to jaded with my own failure due to economic times to see this clearly but i do not think college is for everyone when there the job number for those with degrees does not come close to the number of r 10, 2012 at 9:40 am |. I may be to jaded with my own failure due to economic times to see this clearly but i do not think college is for everyone when there the job number for those with degrees does not come close to the number of holders. During college, you were exposed to ideas and concepts that you would never have been exposed to in your life–no matter what job you'd taken or how many books you might have read in your spare time. Taking college courses makes you push past the point of frustration and tedium to get at least a cursory, temporary grasp of some broad concepts, and doing that changes your brain. How your college education changed you–and, far more importantly, the seedling capabilities it gave you to continue changing–are likely invisible to you. People can do studies that show how much more money college graduates make than people with only a high school diploma, but that's an extremely narrow and myopic way of trying to gauge something that will influence every single realm and moment of your life. Twenty years from now, remember to find some of your current peers who didn't go to college and ask them how they're getting along and what their prospects are for their future. See if you still feel you wasted those years you spent studying in college and getting that diploma, paying what you felt was an incredibly large sum for it. This creates the paradigm in which we discuss the question of why everyone should go to college. This left the decision as to what college they would or would not attend and how to ultimately pay for what it cost on r 10, 2012 at 9:25 am |. The 4 year choices would cost about 5 times as much as the 2 year, as it would be a local community college. College taught people how to evaluate information critically and make reasoned, sometimes creative, decisions based on the analysis. Isn't for everyone, but everyone who goes will learn how to think in a different way which will enhance how they live their lives. Sure, it's not for everyone, but i can see how it makes a person's more financially and enriched life. Let's also not forget – even if you don't go to college doesn't mean you can't learn something new every r 10, 2012 at 8:19 am |. For those not cut out for college there are options can pay a pretty good living.

Junior college is now training people for technical fields in which there are real jobs waiting. Many people use college as a holding pen for young adults to grow up and mature. I tutored many of college students in math during my college years, i found most of those on academic probation really didn't belong in college and were simply wasting their time and money. So then "why college was created" i think the goal of colleges are standardize and classify knowledge and sciences and of course educating international scientific language, for better life! M a retired (2006) gifted and talented chemistry and physics teacher, after a first career as an industrial process research chemist and no no no, college is not for everyone, even though no child penalizes schools that foster strong vo-tech programs. We have a shortage in the usa of certificated mechanics, masons, carpenters, and other careers and there are students who are not mentally geared toward college. But if the school system does so and the standardized tests don't show all students progressing toward a college career, the schools will lose federal education money, they will be penalized and required to spend tens of thousands per school to find out "what's wrong" even if they excel in every other category except those impacted by r 10, 2012 at 12:16 am |. They keep making college tuition higher, most degrees wont pay to medical school or dental school can cost upto $450k by the time you are done. Think it pays better to work a lot less hard and count on government g tuition that much challenges people from going to college. Some people that can't go to college either cannot afford it, or they just don't want to go. They should go to college so they will have successful jobs and a successful r 9, 2012 at 8:22 pm |. There are plenty of career options that do not require , there are people who lack the intellectual capacity to succeed in college. They should go to college so they will have successful jobs and a successful life. I myself, have never gone to college and i have a very successful career in it and a very successful "home" life with my wife and children. M a college graduate, divorced with two kids, and in credit card debt for the first time in my life as a results of all of that. I'm a successful mother, friend, daughter, neighbor, but none of that came from my college education! I know lots of people way more "successful" than me who did not go to college. Work ethic can't be learned in college and is often more of a predictor of success (in my opinion). That is being taught as a course at college,get the books/info/curriculum on it and immerse yourself in it. As for this business with 100 hours or 4:00 am or quantum mechanics i have no idea what is meant other than perhaps that college graduates are r 11, 2012 at 6:33 pm |. Answer is no, with the drop in jobs of today if a student would not like to go to college they don't have fact is some people would like to get jobs when others would rather stay g more empty jobs for the people who would like r 9, 2012 at 6:39 pm |. View is a collage should not prefer people of one color or culture they should look at the important things like personality. Hispanic people should oviosly go to collage and so should anyone else but the color of a person should not affect if they get into the collage or r 9, 2012 at 6:10 pm |. You need a job, so what you need to do is go to a college. Now this could mean military school, tech school or a college, but some kind of college for everyone is r 9, 2012 at 4:17 pm |. College and graduate programs are costly, it would be beneficial to the student as well as to the parents who are paying for their education to have a better idea in what direction they were heading prior entry into those higher education r 9, 2012 at 7:25 am |.

10 pm et january 19, @cnnmoney: i went to a for-profit college and my degree is /1wxthil via @blakeellis3 /1wxtjhz. 57 pm et october 30, topicsafter high school at home behavior bullying carl azuz college curriculum economy elementary school extracurricular graduation high school international education issues kids' health on air parents policy politics practice school safety stem students teachers teacher unions technology testing today's reading list video voices favorite videos coach overcomes adversity and inspires others best way to handle children's college debt? View: why i won't break up a school view: don't segregate boys and girls in atlanta high school features rifle the burka avenger, a fighter for female is a beta may opt-out by clicking 29, 2014 @ 07:09 everyone go to college? Re economists covering everything ns expressed by forbes contributors are their case for going to college remains strong. Now, with that basic understanding out of the way, there is a huge amount of overreach going on lately in the "case for college", as you might call it. David leonhardt in the new york times provides the latest example in a piece titled "is college worth it? According to bls data, around a third of 2013 high school graduates were not enrolled in college. The closer we get to universal, the more likely negative returns is another problem with applying estimates of marginal returns to education to a scenario of moving to universal college attendance: it's partial equilibrium, not general equilibrium. But if everyone attended college you would have an increase in the labor supply of college graduates and a decrease in the supply of high school graduates, which means the relative wages that determine the returns to a college education would shift. While college jobs and non-college jobs aren't immutable categories and entirely separate labor markets, there are certainly jobs you can do without a college degree, and the wages for these would be driven up if we tried to universalize college education. Recent report from john schmitt and heather boushey titled "why the benefits of a college education may not be so clear, especially to men" also has some useful evidence in it. They found that in 2009, nearly 20% of college graduates from age 24-35 earned less than the average male high school graduate. Leonhardt has this observation in his piece that you've probably seen many times before:"when experts and journalists spend so much time talking about the limitations of education, they almost certainly are discouraging some teenagers from going to college and some adults from going back to earn degrees. Those same experts and journalists are sending their own children to college and often obsessing over which one. Is almost always one of the most insightful economics writers out there, but this talking point about whether experts and journalists are sending their children to college is incredibly stupid and really needs to go away and never come back again. First off, a wide variety of cognitive and non-cognitive skills have hereditary components that make it less likely that the child of an expert or pundit who probably graduated from an ivy league school is going to be a student on the margin of attending college, or one who would not benefit economically from , and most importantly, if you go to a financial advisor you will receive different advice depending on your household income, and this is entirely appropriate. For example, many high-income households could afford to send their children to college purely as a luxury if they want. When your household income is $200,000 then spending the money so your kid can spend a few semesters in college, ultimately not finish, and drop out to do something else is hardly the end of the world. For the rich kids with the low probability of college success, these years sort of floundering around and not seriously looking for a career are also not going to be as big of a deal if you have parents who can support you. Overall, it is perfectly responsible for experts and journalists to offer advice that they would not necessarily follow; what would be irresponsible would be to assume if it makes sense for an ivy league educated new york times columnist then it must make sense for third, while i don't have children that i can keep out of college to win an argument with david leonhardt, i do personally know people for whom college would have been a sincere waste of money, and others for whom college was a sincere waste of money. I'm not trying to pull a quint from jaws here and accuse leonhardt of having city hands that have been counting money all his life, but if he really doesn't know people who wouldn't benefit from college he really should reconsider tossing out zingers about upper class , i want to emphasize that it really is true that college educated workers have higher wages on average, and i don't want to downplay the fact that on average people gain from going to college. Even many on the margin would benefit from going to college, and increasing college attendance is probably good public policy right now. But decent jobs that don't require college degrees exist, and so do college degrees that are really bad investments. We probably want more kids to go to college, but given the current jobs and colleges out there today, all of them going would almost certainly be a bad deal for many. We need more realism in this debate, and sending everyone to college now is a utopian fantasy that does not represent a true path to a better life for many. Pretending otherwise means understating the necessity of figuring out ways to help those for whom college is not the best choice.