We Should Attend College, and Here’s Why;

Colleges are increasing in competition, as many parents send their children off to college, even more than before. Many colleges try to reduce the competition by making college acceptance extremely difficult to achieve. Now someone may ask if colleges are worth the effort, as they cost lots of money and don’t guarantee a job; however, this is far from the truth, and here’s why.

Going to college is going to provide you with way more money than not going to college. As William White writes in his essay “Even With Debt, College Still Pays Off”, “According to the study, a recent college graduate has median earnings of about $37,000, which is about $1,000 more than an experienced worker aged 35 to 54 who only has a high-school education. (White)” This is mind-blowing,  that a high school graduate who has worked about fifteen to twenty years in his life is still earning below a person who just got into a job from college. Also in the same essay by William White, he writes, “And for those recent college grads who majored in more traditionally-lucrative subjects, like engineering, earnings were 138 percent higher than those of their high-school only peers. Attending graduate school provides an even bigger boost, earning recent, advanced-degree graduates ages 25 to 34 between 92 and 229 percent more than peers without a college degree, the study found. (White)” The main point this quote is trying to make is that a college degree can boost your chances of earning a well-paying job, and life for high school graduates is not easy, as they have to pay for their families with a low salary. Lastly, sourced from Georgetown University, the graph “Median annual wages of college-educated workers by major supergroup (2013$)” shows a series of undergraduate degree groups and their average salary from acquiring one. Some of the majors that provide the top salary are architecture and engineering, computer, statistics, mathematics, and business. While some of the majors that provide the lowest salaries, are arts, psychology, and social work, and then Education. At the complete bottom in high school, I only earn about $36,000 annually. This graph proves that even the rare majors selected earn more annually than an average high school graduate person. Now a person might say what is the purpose of college because you still have that huge amount of debt with you. In an essay by Robert Reich “Why college isn’t and shouldn’t have to be for everyone” he states “Even if they get the degree, they're stuck with a huge bill—and may be paying down their student debt for years. (Reich)” However, people must remember that these high-paying jobs can easily pay off these debts in a year or two. In the essay “Even With Debt, College Still Pays Off”, William White explains how this claim is false. “ But even with those high loan totals, the value of a college degree still holds up, says Carnevale. “The truth of it is that college is still worth it. It's just that most people can't afford it.” When you add up the premium that college grads benefit from, which can amount to upwards of $10,000 each year, and multiply it by a career lasting 45 years, the cost of a college education is well worth it.” Overall, just four more years of extra education can help you acquire a pretty decent salary.

By getting a college education people are provided with better opportunities. According to an essay by Robert Reich “Why college isn’t and shouldn’t be for everyone,” he states that “A degree from a prestigious university can open doors to elite business schools and law schools—and to jobs paying hundreds of thousands, if not millions, a year. (Reich)” This shows how one simple college degree can provide opportunities for jobs that pay a tremendous amount of money each year to their employees. People pursuing a college degree are destined to have better success in their careers than a high school dropout. Also the essay “Even with debt, college still pays off”, by William White, shows that “According to data from the New York Fed, college graduates earn 80 percent more than their peers who didn't attend, or didn't finish undergrad—and they're also less likely to wind up unemployed than those who didn't go to college (White).” This shows how people who didn’t finish or even participate in getting an undergraduate degree have lower job opportunities. It makes sense that job opportunities are lower for high school graduates because they don’t have enough information or knowledge to be a part of the skilled workforce. In the same passage, there is also a graph, which shows the unemployment rates as per experience levels. It shows that all high school degree holders had an unemployment rate of 11.8%, the average for all workers was 8.9%, and all graduate degree holders had an unemployment rate of 3.3% (White). This shows that again only high school degree holders have lower job opportunities than the average bachelor’s degree holder. This also leads to the argument that most high school graduates are employed, as the rest of the 88.2% are working some job. In the passage “Why college isn’t, and shouldn’t be for everyone.” by Robert Reich, he says, “For example, the emerging economy will need platoons of technicians able to install, service, and repair all the high-tech machinery filling up hospitals, offices, and factories. (Reich).” While this is true that our future generations will need labor and simple workers, we also need to have advanced workers who work on cutting-edge technology, to sustain our world. To do this you must have at least a bachelor’s degree to learn the complexity of the topic. Even a master's degree is sometimes recommended. In all, having a college degree will open a new sea of opportunities for an individual, who opts to study just four more years.

In conclusion, just attending four years in college can make your life from close to miserable, to well sustained, by increasing your opportunities to get employed and higher paying jobs. So to all the high school students; do not drop out of high school or not go to college, as it will make your life easier, to pay for you and your future families.