Is College Worth The Cost It's Experience

Is College Valuable? Is college worth the cost? This essay will give answers to this the most frequently asked question both for future college students and their parents. There will be an attempt to give answer based on argumentative statements. 

College is what many of us are told to go to for our futures . It creates more open choices for being employed as college basically trains you to be satisfactory at that specific career. The rate of pay would be significantly higher than working a minimum wage job. A very important thing that is hardly mentioned is getting the social aspect of interacting while in college. Prerequisites in school lets students take courses that are requirements to further advance to the next one. Going to college is valuable because after graduating, an individual can get more options to become employed, have a decent living income, let’s students learn about different courses by taking prequestitues. and the exposure to society.

Going to college will increase individuals opportunities to become employed in something they like to do .Working for somewhere that you have no interest in, except to be paid, does not make a good environment for the employee and the employer. It can cause the work being done to be poor and having no motivation to keep doing it. Suzzane Fields in the article There’s More To Learning Than A Job Search says “Employers would be assured that the prospective employee had achieved a certain level of “cognitive competence”. Fields is basically saying college is a certification telling employers that a person is trained , qualified , and understands how to do things in that specific career. It will have great impacts on the basis of being hired in the job that one is applying for. An employer will look for people with experience or is qualified in that field, and not hire someone they will take a lot of time to train also having no understanding how things work. Study has shown attending schooling for the future of one teaches them crucial skills that can be used to get a superior job.

After graduating highschool people that do not go to college have lots of important things they miss out on. Of the many things one key component is socializing. Piyush Manguskiya In the article Is College Worth the Cost? Absolutely says “It is also a meaningful social experience, where people develop friendships and long-term relationships”. Manguskiya lets us know being social in college can also have long term outcomes. Not only having a good time by hanging out with friends and taking part in class activities, such as discussions, but It may lead to students finding a spouse that has the same interests in themselves. Talking and interacting physically helps us learn to socialize, instead of texting behind a phone or screen which is much simpler to do. There are many perks of being socially active while attending college. One of the many advantages it provides is that it allows one to be much more self confident when faced with social situations. Doing presentations in front of a huge crowd of people, or even just a small room of students would be much easier to do. Another would be having more friends. They are a huge part of being socially inclined allowing one to express how they feel or just talk to each other. Interacting with others is also good for one’s health as it provides a better feeling of well being and lessens the chance of depression.

Attending school itself is a must if wanting to get an income that is much higher than the minimum wage is what is needed. General high school graduates are paid at a minimum even though they can be paid much higher. A high school diploma lets people now you have the basic general education, but with a college degree it shows you have been taught about a career Eventually if one works adequately in their position there are able to get a better pay, but it takes them a much longer time. Having a college degree lets them start at a way higher hourly or salary pay. According to Trade Economics, The average pay in 2019 is $22.73 , and the minimum wage is $12.00. Those who attended and graduated college are being paid at that average or higher , there is no reason to pay an employee less than what there are qualified to do. Thus making is less stressful to employers who do not need to spend too much time on training or teaching basic ideas of how items work in that field. Getting an education and obtaining a degree really does pay off.

Prerequisites are also a very valuable thing in college. Picking a major and going to only those classes will not get a student a degree. These classes are what a student must take and pass with a valid grade before they are able to get into a course that is needed in their major. The result of that allows all college students to have an understanding of english , and math. It may also be used if another course requires a different one to be competed first. For example, an automotive safety course must be taken before one is allowed to continue to the next course of intro to automotive. It teaches college level programs, instead of high school general education level. High schools do have requirements such as having four years of english or math to get into classes in college, but if an individual has not passed than they must take those courses in college.

Going to college and paying for college is much less harder on the student now than before. In the article 83 Seconds: How Fast-Paced Standardized Testing Has Created a New Glass Ceiling by Andrew Hacker states “Debt concerns are affecting more than alumni’s attitudes about their undergraduate experience’. Hacker says college students are in debt and do not think it is worth the cost to go to college. Students have several different options to pay for their classes. There is the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FASFA), which grants them money to pay for classes and there wellbeing. That money does not need to be paid back to the state, because grants are not loans. An option that colleges provide is on campus jobs that allow students to work in several different departments and get paid hourly. These jobs would be based on the major or occupation that is being taken to further prepare the student. With the option of taking online classes it gives time to get a part time job that will also allow them to get income.

In conclusion, college is what provides the means of having a good living. Doing something you love to do in a career is very important, as It creates motivation to keep doing that work. College qualifies you, which in turn allows a much more stable income than a minimum wage job that will pay only if you had a high school diploma. Being able to apply and have the option for employers to give you a chance to work in a career you want is greatly increased. The time you spend to socialize has its own positive outcomes , which create less anxiety, more self esteem and control over your life. College is valuable as it provides more employment opportunities, much higher wages and allows students to be successful in there futures. 

Works Cited

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3. Carnevale, A. P., Smith, N., & Strohl, J. (2013). Recovery: Job Growth and Education Requirements through 2020. Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce.
4. Fields, S. (2019). There's More to Learning Than a Job Search. Education Week, 39(5), 20-21.
5. Hacker, A. (2019). 83 Seconds: How Fast-Paced Standardized Testing Has Created a New Glass Ceiling. The New York Times.
6. Manguskiya, P. (2018). Is College Worth the Cost? Absolutely. Forbes.
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8. Reisberg, L. (2019). The College Admissions Scandal. Inside Higher Ed.
9. Trade Economics. (n.d.). United States - Average Hourly Wages.
10. Vedder, R. (2019). Restoring Common Sense to Higher Education. The Independent Review, 23(3), 349-364.