by Paula Mitchell-Bentley

Created on: January 19, 2009   Last Updated: January 27, 2009

There's a huge ongoing battle between what is a better use of time, energy and money - technical college or university. In these times of economic uncertainty, students no longer have time to reflect after high school. They are forced to make decisions immediately regarding their futures and their educations.

Many people just assume that university is the best decision. These people think that a university degree has more value than one from a technical college. They believe that there is more prestige associated with university degrees. Many other people think that the times are definitely changing and that education should be more about the prospect of finding a good paying job upon graduation.

One statistic that has been thrown around is that university graduates will earn $1 million dollars more than their lesser educated counter parts. Universities use this number as justification for the rising costs of tuition, books and housing. Students are going deeper and deeper into debt to obtain their degrees and many find job prospects scarce, underpaid or completely non existent upon graduation. The $1 million dollar claim often touted by universities has been completely debunked. They included the mega rich such as Bill Gates and the numbers have been totally skewed because of this.

Many university degrees have no real economic value in the job market. What do you become after getting a degree in English, for example? You would need to then get another degree in teaching to become an English teacher. Many university majors are very unclear as to what the job outcome for that degree will be. Bachelor of Arts degrees are incredibly common nowadays and no longer mean what they used to. Now to get a decent job, you need a Masters degree or even a PhD. These extra degrees mean extra years and extra costs associated with education.

Many technical colleges can be attended without getting a student loan at all because their prices are so much less expensive. Even if they do have to get a student loan, they are able to pay them off quickly because they are not in school for as long as it would be in a traditional university. Technical colleges teach you the skills that you need in the workplace for your chosen career. You don't have to take additional optional classes to fill out your curriculum. Just the classes that teach you the skills needed for your career of choice.

Most graduates from technical colleges are able to find careers in their fields quite quickly with or without help from their college. Theses graduates often have employers coming to them before graduation to try to recruit them. This does, of course, depend upon which field you are going into. This practice of employers recruiting before graduation is virtually unheard of in a university.

In the end, it depends on what sort of field you would like your career to be in to make the critical choice between technical college and university. Research carefully and find out what the average salary and employment rate that graduates have. If you plan on becoming a doctor, then university is of course the only option. Ensure that you are ready for the commitment, hard work, dedication, and most importantly, course load before deciding upon anything career wise. Be realistic of your skills and abilities when choosing. Remember that most people change career paths throughout their lives and try not to get too overwhelmed with your upcoming decisions.

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