As modern society grows more and more diversified and niche-oriented, the value of a college degree has fallen under question. In a world where jobs are scarce, college education is becoming more expensive, and the utility of liberal arts and humanities education is increasingly in doubt, it can be easy for more pragmatic, conservative minds to say that college degrees no longer have a place in today’s America. However, when weighing the true benefit of a college degree outside of the realm of employment and financial solvency, the indirect and various benefits of higher education become clear. While a college degree may no longer be the guaranteed road to a high-paying career that was once promised, the ability to cultivate a population of highly educated people through colleges and universities provides the opportunity to help create a more well-informed and just society.
Current attitudes about college are becoming increasingly jaded and cynical, as many are advising students to focus instead on finding jobs and spending time cultivating their vocational skills. As Adams notes, “It's unlikely that any average student can develop a world-class skill in one particular area,” given higher education’s emphasis on a variety of disciplines, especially in the realm of liberal arts schools (Adams). In previous decades, college was touted as the means to getting a high-paying career, regardless of whatever discipline you majored in; many talk of the old chestnut that people who go to college make, on average, $1 million more than those who don’t. In fact, the reality is that students make slightly less than $280,000 more with a college education than those without (Schneider). While that is an improvement, it does not provide the kind of revolutionary gains in wealth and financial security that have been promised. In fact, “there is wide variation in the salaries that students earn as a function of their career choices” – someone getting a degree in Business will likely earn substantially more as a result of their degree than someone with an English major (Schneider). Because of these variations, and the exorbitantly high cost of education, today’s society is beginning to view college as an unneeded extravagance that is not worth how much you spend on it.
Instead, many claim that students should focus more on their careers than college, as real-world experience can teach them more about how to live and survive in the adult world than the insular safety of higher education. Adams, for instance, argues that “students should be taught that failure is a process, not an obstacle,” a value which the standardized testing and grade-based success of college ingrains within students (Adams). Formal higher education is not considered as necessary for a good job in today’s marketplace: “Eight out of the ten job categories that will add the most employees during the next decade—including home-health aide, customer-service representative, and store clerk—can be performed by someone without a college degree” (Mead). To that end, college education may not be worth it if the primary goal a student has is to find a good job, and they believe college is the path to that prosperity.
While it is true that colleges are not the guaranteed path to financial success as they may have been touted in the past, it is necessary to understand their alternative (and equally valuable role) in improving the education of society as a whole. Regardless of the financial applications of college education, the primary goal of education is “to nurture critical thought; to expose individuals to the signal accomplishments of humankind; to develop in them an ability not just to listen actively but to respond intelligently” (Mead). The benefits of this are twofold: college allows students to expand their minds, explore new ideas, and develop new sets of priorities and assumptions about the world that are valuable for a just and prosperous society.
This whole debate about the applicability of college relies greatly on the perspective and priority of the student going to college. For example, someone focusing on English literature would not make as much money as someone studying to be an accountant; however, if that person had a particular passion for English literature, and wanted to devote their time and resources to expanding their knowledge on that particular front, they would have a means to do so. By contrast, someone seeking an Accounting degree and focusing on that as a means of getting a job will not necessarily cultivate the same holistic skills found in the humanities. The latter student seeks to make themselves into a viable worker in a profitable field, while the former simple wants to expand their education. A clear-headed English literature student will not be under the mistaken impression that they will get a lucrative career based on their education as easily as an Accounting major will, and may simply hope to learn more about the world around them.
If one views college not as a means to produce viable workers in reliable markets, like STEM fields, but as an institute for higher learning and the exchange of thoughts and ideas to create more well-rounded citizens, the unambiguous utility of college becomes clear. Even if things like art history and political science do not allow students to leverage that education into an income, those who are inclined towards that field of thinking can find tremendous benefits that they can still leverage in the workplace. Not only will they become more well-rounded, open-minded and inquisitive human beings, the communication and critical thinking skills learned in any thoroughly-pursued college education can still pay dividends in whatever occupation that person ends up working. Furthermore, a college-educated public can have the effect of allowing more important communal decisions to be made with as much insight and thoughtfulness as possible – an entire population that has the benefit of a college education might vote in a more well-informed way than those who focused more on finding job-applicable skills.
The ultimate purpose of a college education is still up for debate, as many wonder what it is that college should exactly be for. When considering the differences between the more vocational-minded perspective (where college should just be a means for ensuring that students have the ability and resources to pursue a profitable career) and the liberal arts perspective (in which college is a means to help cultivate more universal learning skills and to expand critical thinking and knowledge of the world), the end result relies greatly on whatever priorities you yourself have as an individual. If you are more focused on getting a job and making money, it is absolutely reasonable to spend your time and money on that pursuit – particularly if you do not want to bankrupt yourself for years paying off student loans on a degree that will not ensure you that job. On the other hand, if you simply want to learn more and focus on studying a discipline that you find fascinating and fulfilling, college can absolutely be worth the expense for you. All of these priorities are valid, which means that a college education still has some utility for those of a certain mindset. To that end, the debate regarding getting a college education should not rely simply on whether or not you will get a job – college still provides a much-needed and extremely valuable resource for those interested in transformational experiences.
Works Cited
Adams, Scott. “How to Get a Real Education.” Wall Street Journal. April 9, 2011.
<http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052748704101604576247143383496656>.
Mead, Rebecca. “Learning By Degrees.” The New Yorker, June 7, 2010.
<http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/06/07/learning-by-degrees>.
Schneider, Mark. “How Much Is That Bachelor’s Degree Really Worth? The Million Dollar
Misunderstanding.” American Enterprise Institute, May 4, 2009.
<http://www.aei.org/publication/how-much-is-that-bachelors-degree-really-worth/>.
