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| Yes | 48% | 110 votes | Total: 229 votes | |
| No | 52% | 119 votes |
Yes
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Add to FavoritesHaving a college education is cost effective only if the individual attending college uses the privilege of college to his/her advantage. A college education is meant to educate the mind in thinking outside the box. College is meant to teach students basic functionalities of the working world. It is meant to teach students the analytics, history, and logic behind a certain topic to help students move on to a career of his/her choice. In addition to learning from books, students are also learning communication and interpersonal skills from professors and other students. It is not to say that adults who do not attend college do not learn the basics, but it will take them longer to catch up to speed with those who have attended college.
In order for a college education to be fully effective students must take full advantage of college life. For example, colleges offer many extra curricular activities, groups, charity events, and honor societies for students to participate in. If students participate in different organizations within the college there are more chances for the students to network and achieve good interpersonal skills as well as get a feel for a career that they may like to pursue. Many companies when hiring people straight out of college look for specific qualities in prospective employees other than good grades and school rankings. Hiring managers look for well rounded individuals who not only went to class and learned from text books but also participated in other activities. This shows determination and hard work done by the student. This shows that the prospective employee is willing to work hard on many work related projects, can work well with his/her peers, and can also work independently to make deadlines.
Many will argue that in order to get a good job after graduating college an adult must have attended a "good" college or university. In my opinion I do not think that a student attending a high tuition private college is more successful than a student attending a low tuition City/State college. There are many successful people who have attended city colleges and are a lot more successful than those who have attended Ivy League Universities. While attending school to complete my MBA, I met quite a lot of people who are very successful in their career. One woman in particular from an accounting class graduated from CUNY York College. She was a member of the honor society and the president of the business club. After graduating, she worked her way up the chain of a few management positions within 5 years and is now the Director of the Technology department in a large financial institution. This shows that as long as the individual has attended college, taken advantage of the different programs of the college, and worked hard to achieve good grades, then the individual has a strong chance of achieving success which results in an effective cost of the education.
Learn more about this author, Reshmi.
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No
I have to reject the idea that a college education is always cost effective. That's simply not the point and never was. Often you are investing four years worth of lost salary, perhaps 40k a year. You are also paying tuition and associated costs often at about the same rate. Altogether, you may lose 320,000 over the four years in tuition and lost earnings at a highly sought after school. For the average state university, it's probably closer to 200,000 in lost salary and education costs.
Specialized degrees have the ability to re-capture that lost money in higher earnings. Clearly, some of those educational pursuits such as engineering and chemistry require a great deal of specialized education and training. However, when it comes to Liberal Arts, I doubt that a teacher will ever recapture those lost earnings. Perhaps. History, Political Science, English, Journalism, Philosophy are examples of majors that aren't exactly in high demand and usually land graduates in low paying jobs if they can find one. At least those students are doing what they love to do.
Universities love to keep students enrolled with worthless classes that students will never use or have very little interest in. I love to pick on the humanities here. I used to yawn all the way through those things. I took a philosophy class once that should have been marketed as a sleep aid.
The evolution of all occupations requires greater degrees of education as each occupation seeks out higher and higher salaries. In an effort to justify elevated pay scales and obtain credibility, ancillary pursuits are added to curriculum that have very little practical use.
Here's the best part. Is a college education still cost effective? They were never meant to be. A college education is a labor of love. Students should go to college if a particular subject intrigues them or if they have an obsession that has never left them. It doesn't matter what it is, history, art, music, or geology. The point of any education is not whether it's cost effective or not-it's trying to find an occupation that you will love for 50 years and enjoy working at it. We have become a nation obsessed with money as the only reason we do anything. That is a shame. Find something you love, irrespective of money. Love what you do. There will be others like you and if you love what you do, you might just rub off on another soul and fire a spark in them. That's what life and passion are all about. Let's hope the day never comes to pass when every student who enrolls in college is worried about nothing other than making money or getting a high rate of return on their investment.
Learn more about this author, Garrett Anderson.
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