Answering a Question

College Education; is it Worth it?

              In this economy, people are finding that it is not necessary to have a four- year college degree to get a good job.  Some education after high school may be necessary, but getting a bachelor’s degree now is not paying off in the long run.  Students with four- year degrees do not have more job opportunities, do not get better quality jobs and don’t make more money than those who have a high school diploma with some additional education. 

            College graduates with four year degrees do not have more job opportunities.  The unemployment rate for bachelor degree recipients between the ages of 20 to 24 is 5.9%, lower than the national unemployment rate but a discouraging statistic for those who assumed a degree would result in an immediate paycheck (Snider 58). More than half of all recent graduates are unemployed or in jobs that do not require a degree, and the amount of student-loans debt carried by households has more than quintupled since 1999 (McArdle 22).

            In addition, there are more opportunities for students who have a certificate or a two year degree rather than a bachelor’s degree.  “ Meanwhile, many good jobs simply don’t require a bachelor’s degree.  About half of all employment is in so-called middle-skill occupations---jobs that require more than a high- school diploma but less than a four-year degree,” according to a 2007 study by Robert Lerman, an economics professor at American University, and Harry J. Holzer, a professor at Georgetown University Public Policy Institute (Billitteri 984).  “For decades, only about 22 percent of jobs have required a baccalaureate degree or higher, and yet 75 percent of the jobs consistently require training beyond high school but below a baccalaureate.  “A lot of these middle-skill jobs are not going to get outsourced, whether the jobs entail working in factories, being welders, physician’s assistants, technicians at nuclear power plants or working for Intel, Cisco or Microsoft,” Arthur Rothkopf says. “There are lots of jobs that don’t require a four-year degree” (Billitteri 987).

            Better quality jobs are not evident for college graduates.  Between 1992 and 2008, the number of bachelor degrees awarded rose almost 50% from around 1.1 million to more than 1.6 million.  According to Richard Vedder, “60 percent of those additional students ended up in jobs that have not historically required a degree – waitress, electrician, secretary, mail carrier” (McArdle 25).  Richard Arum and Josipa Roaksa find at least a third of students gain no measurable skills during their four years in college (McArdle 24).  In fact, employers are planning to hire one-third more associate degree earners this year than last, according to the Michigan State University’s 2012-2013 “(Snider 60).  Richard Vedder said,”45 percent of people who go to four-year colleges don’t get a bachelor’s degree within six years.  Another group of people, he said, graduate but have trouble finding work and wind up taking jobs for which a college education isn’t required (Billitteri 1000).

            Professional certification is an affordable way to increase your employment potential or enhance your value to employers once you are on the job (Snider 59).  But with college costs soaring, skilled jobs such as welders and medical technicians in demand and millions of young adults ill-prepared for the rigors of a university’s education, some policy experts argue that while  post-high –school education is vital in today’s global economy, a four-year degree may be unnecessary for economic security---and perhaps even ill-advised (Billitteri 983).  What’s more, they assert while most teens say they want to go to college to get a good-paying job, few consider “that the economy will not generate enough jobs that pay them a college-level wage” even if they get a degree (Billitteri 986).

            Students who graduate from a university with a four-year degree do not make more money.  If you assume a working career of 40 years –ages 26 to 65- the return represents a $32,500 annual “bonus” over the earnings of a high school graduate but not necessarily a university graduate (Coates, Morrison 42).  For example, Bill Morrison, who co-wrote, The Million-Dollar Promise, spent more than 40 years as a university teacher and administrator.  After 35 years, his salary was about $120,000, an impressive sum.  His son-in-law Jeremy, a high school graduate, is a heavy-duty mechanic with on-the-job training who works for Finning, the big Canadian firm that services heavy machinery.  Three or four years ago, Jeremy’s salary was $5000 higher, due to overtime, than Bill’s (Coates, Morrison 42).   Also, employers are most enthusiastic about the class of 2013, but with provisos.  They want the most-qualified candidate who is also willing to start from the bottom.  The people who are getting jobs are the ones who held internships, and who are willing to work entry-level positions and those who are able to adapt to what employers want, Yates says (Graves 22).  Richard K Vedder, an emeritus professor of economics at Ohio University and a frequent contributor to The Chronicle says, “There are a million retail-sales clerks and 115,000 janitors with four-year degrees.  In 1970, just two tenths of 1 percent of taxi drivers had college degrees.  Fifteen percent of the taxi drivers have college degrees now, we’re told by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (Carlson A27). 

           Higher education-from vocational training to the most sophisticated methods of research, creativity, and experimentation-is the engine of American civilization’s national purpose.  The kind of education we need begins with the recognition that the crisis of global economy is first and foremost a crisis of values, ideas, perspectives, and knowledge, which make it a crisis of education, not one in education (Carlson A30).  Higher education comes in all shapes and sizes.  The roughly 4,500 degree-granting institutions in the United States include public and private, religious and secular, very large and very small institutions with a correspondingly wide range of missions.  Among public institutions the range includes community colleges that provide critical skills and knowledge and are often the gateway to more advanced studies and research –intensive universities that create much of our nation’s knowledge and technology (Carlson A31).  In the fall of 2011, approximately 13 million such students attended 1,132 community colleges around the country.  Almost two-thirds of those students were in programs to earn an associate degree and perhaps then transfer to a four-year university.  The rest were enrolled in courses that could lead to certificates or technical careers (Carlson A31).

          Some people believe that a person needs a four-year college education to have more job opportunities, to obtain better quality jobs and to make more money. However, research shows that jobs that require a four year degree are already dwindling and will continue to decrease in the future.  “And a bachelor’s degree is no guarantee of career success or upward mobility.  Much may depend on the field of study,” (Billitteri 984).  But some jobs in high demand, such as those in welding, don’t require four years of college.   About 30 million jobs in the U.S. pay $35,000 or more and don’t require a bachelor’s degree, according to the Georgetown Center (Billitteri 985).

Students who graduate with a bachelor’s degree are not able to find jobs any easier than those students who graduate with a two- year degree or obtain a certificate in a specialized area.  Job opportunities are just as plentiful for those with less than a four-year degree.  Quality jobs that offer advancement and benefits are readily available to people with an associate degree or a certificate.  Also, those graduating with professional certification and those receiving a degree from a two- year technical school or community college will command just as much money as a person with a bachelor’s degree. 

McArdle, Megan. "THE COLLEGE BUBBLE. (Cover Story)." Newsweek 160.12 (2012): 22-26. Academic Search Complete. Web. 1 Nov. 2013.

SNIDER, SUSANNAH. "Think Outside The Box." Kiplinger's Personal Finance 67.3 (2013): 58-60. Academic Search Complete. Web. 1 Nov. 2013.

Billitteri, Thomas J. "The Value of a College Education." CQ Researcher 20 Nov. 2009: 981-1004. Web. 1 Nov. 2013.

Coates, Ken, and Bill Morrison. "The Million-Dollar Promise." Maclean's. 09 Jan 2013: 42. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 02 Nov 2013.

Graves, Jada A. "A Flooded Job Market." U.S. News Digital Weekly 5.22 (2013): 22. Business Source Complete. Web. 2 Nov. 2013.

CARLSON, SCOTT. "How To Assess The Real Payoff Of A College Degree." Chronicle Of Higher Education 59.33 (2013): A26-A32. Academic Search Complete. Web. 2 Nov. 2013.