Higher Education: Worth It?

In the eyes of many students and parents, higher education is a sacred opportunity and is required after high school. It is viewed as a rite of passage from the stage of childhood or teenage years to the responsibilities and establishment of adulthood. That ideology is being challenged in the 21^st Century as college tuition continues to rise to unforeseen levels. While many avenues have been made to help students achieve their higher education dreams such as scholarships or grants, most students and parents must take out student loans in order to cover the high tuition balance. Current estimates for American student loan debt are around $1.7 trillion, increasing by 91% in the past decade (Johnson Hess, 2021). Many initiatives are aiming to college more affordable, such as free community college or full-need scholarships. However, these initiatives are not widespread, as the documentary The Ivory Tower, explained full-need scholarships are only available in 1.25% of schools, with Harvard being one of them. With all of these factors, the question remains if higher education is worth its increasing cost. The answer is much more complicated as time goes on, though college does provide benefits otherwise harder to achieve.

Many professions now require degrees to enter the career at entry-level. Jobs see that or a record of experience as favorable for prospective employees. Many high school graduates do not yet have the length of experience to go beyond the minimum wage jobs. On the other hand, a specialized or nonspecialized college degree opens the door for a wide array of employers to have an interest in a person. In fact, a liberal arts degree is preferred by over 75% of American employers while 89% highly value communication and critical thinking skills (Ungar, 2010). With the liberal art skills taught in college, it creates well-rounded candidates who have the abilities necessary to work in multiple fields or try different career paths.

Though college does not guarantee a job, it does open the door to networking and connections. With these connections of those who may be in a student’s preferred career path, it possibly could allow them to get additional connections, internships, recommendations, mentoring, or employment. While it is possible to work for those things without college, the college benefit provides people to connect with and networking opportunities without extra hassle or stress that is possible by attempting alone.

The topic of higher education is very complicated, though it does have its benefits. When leaving college, students have become well-developed citizens of society to grow and flourish. College has been viewed as a chance at a better life. Parents see it as their child having greater opportunities and success than they have had. Especially in first-generation households, children going to college is seen as monumental. Students and parents alike of poor neighborhoods or low socioeconomic status see college as a chance to escape their area. These students aim for success to bring their whole family out of poverty or use their skills to bring change to their childhood neighborhood. Though it is possible to survive without college and the ideology towards it continues to change, it is impossible to ignore the benefits that higher education has in spite of the cost.

References

Ivory Tower: Is College Worth The Cost? (n.d.). Amazon Prime. Retrieved October 17, 2021.

Johnson Hess, A. (2021, September 9). The U.S. has a record-breaking $1.73 trillion in student debt-borrowers from these states owe the most on average. CNBC. Retrieved October 18, 2021, from https://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/09/america-has-1point73-trillion-in-student-debtborrowers-from-these-states-owe-the-most.html.

Ungar, S. J. (2010). The New Liberal Arts. In "They Say, I Say" (pp. 191–192). essay, W. W. Norton & Company.