When concerning college, many scholars have debated whether or not college is worth the expenses that it presents. In Dale Steven’s The Case against College, Stevens argues that by attending college, you are forced to pay for education that will not necessarily help you in the end. He continues to say that the way classrooms are run in a university further destroys the inner creativity that primary and secondary school attempted to destroy. He discusses in his passage that the best way to achieve a successful education in the world, one that will undoubtedly prove helpful to you in the future is to seek out mentors and scholars in the world outside of the university environment and use the knowledge learned from those people to base your education on. In the passage, Stevens states that in the case of bankruptcy, which can be a consequence of not being able to pay the bills of attending a university, “The bank can take away your house, but not your degree”. By saying this Stevens is suggesting that a degree is in effect a worthless possession in today’s society and that attaining one doesn’t necessarily guarantee you a positive future, in fact it might push you in the opposite direction. In short, Dale Stevens believes that college is not worth the price of admission and that one should seek out the lessons of the outside world if he or she wants to be truly successful.
In my opinion, Dale Stevens is wrong about college being unnecessary and not worth the money put into it. In today’s society, college seems to be the only way of obtaining a job that will provide a standard of living above the mediocre and low class. With the rising demand for jobs coupled with the rising prices of living, many desirable companies are only putting out job offers for those who have obtained an acceptable degree in their field. The only way to obtain this degree is to attend a university and study the field, even though one must risk investing thousands of dollars into a cause that might have no pay out. In most cases, if one pursues the degree of a field that has a high job percentage at the time, that particular student will see success and not drop into bankruptcy as Stevens described.
I read an article on why college is important published by collegeview.com, and one of the first lines of text it produced stated that “High school graduates today are unable to obtain the number of high paying jobs that were once available”. This means that without the college education, the opportunities for students fresh out of high school are significantly more limited than those of college graduates. Furthermore, it is showing a trend that as time goes on, the opportunities for high school students will continue to diminish until they are essentially unavailable completely. The article continues to explain that there are numerous ways to support the expenses of a college education. It discusses how there are state and federal grants and loans that can help “cushion” the blow of a tuition bill. It also discusses how many companies now days are providing money to students who are pursuing the degree’s needed to work for them. This is essentially providing a win win situation for someone who is looking to go into a particular field in that even if the person doesn’t stay with that company forever, he or she still has a solid college foundation at little to no cost to them. And when one company does something like that for a potential employee in the field, there are bound to be many other companies willing to do the same thing. This is an example of why the benefits outweigh the risks and that in some occasions those risks will be eliminated by the very company providing the potential benefits.
Professional Degree | $109,600 | |
Doctoral Degree | $89,400 | |
Master's Degree | $62,300 | |
Bachelor's Degree | $52,200 | |
Associate's Degree | $38,200 | |
Some College | $36,800 | |
High School Graduate | $30,400 | |
Some High School | $23,400 | |
Average Annual Earnings—Different Levels of Education. Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Current Population Surveys, March 1998, 1999, and 2000. | ||
The graph above shows the differences in salaries between high school students and college students. It shows that professional degrees have the potential to make 10 times more than those who only attend high school. This is an incentive to attend post-secondary school because you would be able to achieve a significantly better standard of living with 10 times the amount of annual income. When considering what Stevens said about bankruptcy, the more money you earn yearly out of college, the easier it would be to pay off your student expenses. You would most likely still be able to live a relatively decent life while paying off the bills and then it would skyrocket once the bills were completely paid off.
Many potential college students ask themselves why they should try to attend school when the only schools they can most likely get in to are low end state and private colleges and more likely, community colleges. I stumbled upon an article on the effect of community colleges on the average individual. The article stated that researches found that students who obtained an associate’s degree fared better than their high school counterparts and those who didn’t complete the required courses did no better financially and when concerning wages than those who only attended high school. This shows that even attending a community college and getting a basic degree was still significantly better than not getting a degree at all.
Furthermore one might want to consider that attending a community college is significantly less expensive than attending a state school or private school yet a community college still provides a solid degree in many cases that will help support the average to above average lifestyle. In an article I read on Collegeboard.com, studies showed that the average of a community 2 year college was just under 3000 dollars a year where as the cost of a four year public school was near 9000 dollars a year. This shows that there are colleges that are significantly cheaper than those that will have a higher chance of putting you in bankruptcy but they still have the resources and lessons needed to support a career in many fulfilling fields. This is combatant to the notion that Stevens brought that the money put into college is not worth it because there are many colleges that offer colleges at prices that are next to nothing in comparison to others. One must weigh out the risks of paying out such a small bill to the benefits of getting a college education.
In response to the growing unemployment rates and homeless population and also the decline in U.S economy, the government is sponsoring many organizations that are providing aid to students in need of it while they are pursuing education. The Federal Pell grant is an example of a United States sponsored grant that is completely devoted to helping students pay for undergraduate education, and in some cases, even post undergraduate education. This grant uses a formula that calculates the amount the student needs based on a wide variety of figures. Things like family income, size of the students family, students status of part time or full time, and many other numbers are pulled together to decide an amount that the government will pay to the students so they can more easily achieve their educational goals. The government would then send out a letter that awards the student up to 5500 dollars towards the needs of their education. And when considering the costs of community education, that’s almost two years of college paid for on the spot. This is huge for students who are debating if it is worth it financially to attend because it will eliminate half of what is needed for a four year degree therefore making the other half’s expenses significantly more manageable. The government doesn’t just stop at the Pell grant. The Federal Supplemental Opportunity Grant gives money to students who’s predicted parental and family support financially through college will be significantly lower than standard or rather what is needed to be effective financially. This grant offers up to 4000 dollars a year towards the payment of student bills. Here’s the most important part, it does not need repayment. This means that whatever the government decides to give you in response to your application is yours without the need to figure out how to repay it, which greatly reduces the financial and mental stress of a college graduate figuring out what they need to repay and how they need to repay it. That’s up to another half of a student’s community college education paid for leaving little to none left for the student to worry about paying off after obtaining the degree.
Dale Stevens argues that even with the aid of the government and the benefits of obtaining a degree, it is still not worth the cost of attendance and the risk of further losing your creativity in the process. In my opinion, I agree that with Stevens that the potential debt gained by obtaining a large number of post-secondary schools can be very expansive. In an article I read in the New York Times, it was recorded that the average debt of college seniors graduating from a university has risen 25 percent over the last four years. It now stands at approximately 23,000 dollars which can be a daunting task to pay off. I feel however that the government provides enough provisions in order to diminish and consolidate the debt to a manageable level. College can be expensive, but it is doable. Stevens argues that after obtaining the degree of choice, the outlook for jobs is extremely low making the degree itself seemingly worthless. I agree with his statement in that I see that there has been a downturn in the outlook of jobs for the American college graduate in recent years. However, recently I read an article on USnews.com that stated that the outlook of job is improving, even if it is only ever so slightly. The article states that there has been a 4% increase in the amount of students hired out of the class of 2011 when compared to those of the previous year. This shows that even though the job outlook is not as promising as it should be, it is still improving which makes it that much more worth attending college every year. I agree that the low job market could deter the average high school student from attending college as opposed seeking out a job with instant financial gratifications and little to no financial need, but I still feel that students should try to attend college because of the potential earnings and quality of life improvements that are possible. In my opinion, Dale Stevens is right that the benefits might not outweigh the risks of college in some majors, but in others such as the medical field which has a consistently growing job market, the college education needed to obtain a job in the field is most defiantly worth it. In short, Dale Stevens argues that college is an unnecessary evil and that many students should go out into the real world and attempt to find lessons from real world scholars without the huge financial burden. I agree that in some instances the costs outweigh the benefits of college due to certain majors having slim job markets, yet I still feel that students have the resources to battle those expenses and that the rewards of obtaining a college degree far outweigh the costs in particular majors that have big job markets. Furthermore, I feel that there are enough companies out in the job market attempting to obtain skilled workers by paying for their college expenses to help convince the average college student that they will have support in paying for college and more importantly, will have a job lined up for them once completing it.
