Having a conversation with a prospective college student is becoming more and more difficult. With college prices at an all-time high, and unemployment still prevalent in modern society, a growing number of prospective students are wondering whether or not college is right for them. It is not only the less fortunate who question the true value of a college education, though. For example, those who want to work in fields like coal mining in which prior experience is all that is required often forego a college education to work as soon as possible. College, while expensive, does provide students with the necessary social skills, academic skills, and work experience to become successful in their futures. Overall, those who go to college will have better lives, better jobs, and higher salaries than those who do not.

In order to best emphasize the importance of a college education, we must first understand the argument against it. Money is a factor for the overwhelming majority of college applicants; in fact, about fifty-eight percent of all students stay in-state for college, largely due to the reduced tuition (Chokshi 1). Many students find it difficult to finance college at all, leading them to choose to forego their college educations because they recognize the opportunity cost of going to college and taking out loans. For example, in the Appalachian Region of the United States, many students give up on their college dreams to work in the coal mines due to the fact that many of them are impoverished, uneducated, and desperate, and they see coal mining as a stepping stone towards better lives. In communities like these, coal miners are seen as successful individuals, but there is certainly a population in the United States that see coal miners as uneducated and unsuccessful, but for the people of Appalachia, no college education is necessary to be successful. Another main argument against college is that anyone can get a college education for free by reading textbooks at a local library, and that work experience is what really matters. The final argument against college is that many of the world’s most successful people do not have a college degree, such as Bill Gates, and Mark Zuckerburg. 

However, these opposing arguments can be discredited fairly easily. Firstly, for someone who cannot afford college, taking a loan out is the right choice. Taking out a college loan allows a student to go to college, and potentially earn a degree. According to the Huffington Post, the average college student who takes out a loan makes enough to pay it back almost ten times over. While being in debt is not an ideal situation, the chances of anyone paying the loan off, getting a degree, and becoming better off than the or she would have been without college are high. College is essentially an investment in oneself, and if the cost of a better life is owing a small percent of a paycheck for ten years, it is absolutely worth it. 

The next opposing argument, that a college education can be obtained in a library, and that work experience is what truly matters can easily be debunked as well. While reading textbooks can educate someone, it does not compare to that of a college education. A college education allows for face to face interactions with a professor who works in a specific field, and can answer any questions on the subject. College also provides students with a rigid structure that constantly pushes them, thus keeps their intellects sharp. Regarding the work experience dilemma, a college education is still the way to go. It may be true that many blue collar professions like coal mining do not require much in terms of education, but rather require work experience; however, and overwhelming majority of jobs require applicants to be both educated and experienced. Modern colleges offer both of these things. For example, many business-related professions require applicants to be both educated and experienced, and Northeastern University is aware of this. Northeastern has adopted a five-year co-op program, in which students take a year off to intern at a variety of different companies. This allows Northeastern’s business students to compete with ivy-league graduates for positions. This is true for all professions, too, not just business-related ones. The majority of colleges have career success centers that aid their students in finding internships, and jobs. Graduates will not only have work experience and longer resume, but a degree as well, which nobody can get from a library.

The final opposing argument, that some of the world’s most successful people do not have college degrees, is perhaps the easiest to expunge. On average, those who attended college make about twice as much on a weekly basis than those who did not (Bureau of Labor Statistics 1). Some may look at this argument and say that money does not equal happiness, and that happiness defines true success; however, these skeptics would be met with the fact that college graduates have higher rates of both job satisfaction and life satisfaction (Samuelson 2). Using this information, we can conclude that the cases of Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerburg are extreme outliers, and that a college education is very useful. 

Just by looking at the pro-college information in the paragraphs above, we can see that a college education is highly beneficial, but there are more positives to be heard. One such positive is that jobs are becoming more and more competitive, so college will matter even more. Perhaps unfortunately, it is becoming obvious that college is a very important asset. Because of this, almost everybody who can go to college does go to college. This theoretically should be a good thing; if everyone is educated, our country can advance. The problem with this arises when employers realize that having a college education is commonplace. If every single applicant for a job has a college degree, how does the employer decide who to pick? This leads some researches to suggest that the prestige of the college attended, as well as collegiate academic performance are of growing importance (Jung & Lee 286). Modern students should strive to not get into just any college, but to get into the best one possible, because college alone may not cut it anymore.

Another huge benefit of college is the environment it provides. Employers tend to look for well-rounded individuals, because those individuals know how to handle a variety of clients and issues (Daly 2). Most colleges provide students with an opportunity to “go Greek” or join a fraternity or sorority. Students who can say that they participated in Greek life in college can prove that they have good social skills, largely because entrance into any of the Greek organizations requires a decent set of social skills. College also provides students with the opportunity to join clubs. Clubs allow students to take part in an extra-curricular experience in something that they are interested in. Some clubs, like French Club, allow students to have extra time working with a field that interests them, whereas some other clubs, like Soccer Club, allow students to participate in an extra-curricular activity in which they are interested. Either way, joining a club gives students either more knowledge, better social skills, or a better skillset in something they enjoy. Any one of these options is appealing from an employer’s perspective. Another key thing that the college environment offers is an immersive experience with other intelligent people. All students at college had to get into the college in which they are enrolled somehow. For the majority of students, the reason they got into the college is their merit, meaning that they had good grades in high school. A college student is immersed in an environment in which there are a plethora of other students who are as, if not more intelligent than he or she is. This immersive experience keeps students on their toes, and sharpens their intellects. It puts pressure on students to perform and succeed. It is hard to be immersed in any environment and not adopt some of its culture. One final thing that the college experience offers is direct face-to-face interaction. In a college environment, students learn how to interact with other people. Many students will interact with a professor directly with a professor at some point in their college careers, and this is beneficial for a number of reasons. From this, students learn how to absorb information, interact with someone in a position of power, and present themselves. Anyone can read a book on this stuff, but they will be sorely out of practice. 

Even after taking the college environment out of play, college can be beneficial for numerous reasons. One such reason is social networking. In the modern world, social networking is of growing importance. The business world is becoming more about connections than about anything else. At this point it would be easy to question what college has to do with this, but here is why college helps with this aspect of life: if someone wants to work in a particular field, and his or her best friend becomes successful in that field, he or she is then well acquainted with that field. For example, if someone wants to be a businessman in New York City, and his or her best friend in college now owns a hedge fund in New York City, he or she is far more likely to get the job. This may be an extreme example, but the reality of the situation surprises most people. Part of the reason that an ivy-league education is held in such a high regard is because people recognize that they will meet many people who either are already successful, or will become successful. These connections help tremendously when trying to acquire a job. 

It is at this point that most people who would argue against a college education would cite the opportunity cost of attending college. For many of the less fortunate, college seems to hardly be an option in the first place. This is a legitimate point. For example, imagine a prospective college student living with a single mother and a baby brother. Single mothers are the single most impoverished group in the United States of America (Bureau of Labor Statistics 2). For the purpose of the argument, the mother in this scenario is unemployed. The prospective college student in this scenario now faces a trade-off. He must decide whether to go to college, or to give up on school and work to support his family. His or her job options will be very limited, but he could earn up to about sixty-thousand dollars per year. This would keep the family well above the federal poverty line, and would keep the family healthy and well-nourished. It is certainly not a surprise why this option is appealing to those in this type of situation. 

However, the unfortunate consequence of this way of thinking is that the pro-college argument is almost always overlooked. According to the National Center for Health Statistics, medical bankruptcy are the number one cause of personal bankruptcies in the United States of America. Also, according to the National Center for Health Statistics, the elderly account for about half of the medical payments in the United States. This issue is so prevalent that the elderly were genuinely dubbed “big spenders” in the National Center for Health Statistics’ database. If the mother in the scenario family above falls ill, or needs any type of perpetual medical assistance, an average salary will not be able to cover the expenses, and the family will go bankrupt, meaning that the mother will not get the care that she needs. It is because of this that I will restate that the average college graduate earns twice as much as those who did not graduate college. It is unfortunate that a trade-off has to be made in these circumstances, but the best option here is for the prospective student to disregard the current hardships, go to college, get a degree, and get a decent job so he or she can support his or her family even when the mother cannot do so anymore. 

There is so much variety is things that college can help with nowadays. For example, many public universities now have special education programs for those with disorders. Those programs help to get those people jobs and to help them function as well as possible in modern society. Also, there are too many programs to count. People who go to college can choose to major in anything from finance to dance to agriculture, but the thing that remains constant among the people with degrees in their respective fields is that they are better prepared. The purpose of going to college has changed dramatically over the years. All colleges used to be liberal arts schools, and people would go to college for the sole purpose of expanding their intellects. College now is much different. It is almost a requirement to go to college because of how competitive the modern work force is. Because of this, people major is these specific fields rather than concentrating in everything because they need to have an in-depth knowledge about the career path they want to take. Skeptics at this point might argue that many people work outside of their major anyways, so college was irrelevant for them. This could not be farther from the truth. Most colleges require students to complete general education requirements before moving onto major-specific classes. These general education requirements provide students with the basic requirements needed to succeed in any field. In addition to this, those who work outside of their major could be using the skills they used from their major in their field. For example, my father majored in sociology, and he worked in business for his entire life. When he talks about it, he says that sociology helps him a lot in business because he can read situations, emotions, and relationships quite well, which allows him to assess the situation and deal with it accordingly, no matter what the situation is. The same could be true for others working outside of their fields. The point is that every major provides students with skillsets that are highly varied and highly applicable to all fields. Finally, from an employer’s perspective, a college degree in a different field looks better than no college degree at all.

College is wildly expensive, and not everybody can pay for it, but if there is any chance to go to college, it is worth the cost. It is easy to see that those who went to college are better off in every way than those who did not, whether it be how much money they make, how satisfied with their jobs they are, or how satisfied with their lives they are. It provides students with improved social skills, a rigorous academic environment, opportunities for extra-curricular involvement, opportunities to get work experience, and a somewhat linear path to success. Not obtaining a college education can have devastating effects on the lives of those individuals, which is why college should be made more accessible to the public. First of all, educating the entire population will do nothing but allow us to improve our country, so it is in the best interest of everybody to make college accessible. Secondly, making college more accessible would increase the potential labor market, which would be beneficial to employers and workers alike. Finally, making college more accessible would improve the chances of success for lower-income individuals and families. There are a number of ways to make college more accessible to the public. The first way, which is perhaps the most obvious, is to decrease college tuition rates. This would allow more students and families to be able to pay tuition, and more people would go to college. Another way to increase college enrollment is to guarantee students a tuition-free year at a local university, and guarantee them admission if they meet the minimum academic requirements. In this system, colleges would give scholarships based on first-year performance (Kirp 2). One final way we could increase college enrollment is to increase the appeal of community colleges. Any education is a good education, and nowadays students can transfer from their local community colleges to any in-state four year university. In any case, this is an issue that must be solved, as the education of the American people has the potential to improve every aspect of the world around us.
