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Anthony Strapp
Grant
UWRT 1103
11/5/14
The value of a college education
As more and more people go into college right after high school, college tuition is one of
the most important factors for many students. College tuition rates have steadily risen while
wages have become stagnant which leads to the question for many students is college worth it?
The general consensus is that in the long run college is worth it, but many people are turning to
trade schools where they can go for two years get a degree while getting on the job training,
making the turn around much faster and more profitable. The idea with traditional four year
colleges is that you will graduate and will be getting paid a higher wage then those with only a
high school degree and in no time at all you will have made up all the money lost by not working
those four years and you will have your loans paid off. But often times this seems like it isnt the
case because tuition is so high youre having to take out large amounts of loans to cover room
and board and tuition and books, and on top of that your job perspectives are not great right out
of college either. In Arizona, for example, parents have seen a 77 percent increase in costs. In
Georgia, it's 75 percent, and in Washington state, 70 percent (Sanchez). After the recession with
high unemployment, companies are looking to hire those with degrees and experience and with
some many out of work they can likely find someone with more experience than a new graduate.
These problems are also exacerbated by stagnant wages, while everything is costing more people
are on average getting paid the same. So then why do we all feel like we have to go to college?
The reason people are paying for it is because the return to the investment is so high." No

matter what a higher education costs them, most Americans think it will be worth it, she says
(Sanchez). But with the way trends are going while college degrees might be required for most
jobs the degree will not be worth it.
Where did the tradition of attending college come from? Before the 1940s only the
wealth went to colleg, but after World War II the United States government created the GI Bill.
The GI Bill was an unexpected success, Thelin says, enrolling just under 8 million veterans
10 times the number the authors of the bill had predicted. (Sanchez) This started a trend that
lead to an increasing number of young adults going to college instead of joining the work force
right away. The number of students who have attended four years of college has steadily risen
since the 1940s as shown in chart 1. This is important because as the number of students getting
college degrees increased companys had more options to hire graduates who most likely had
more knowledge and experience than those who did not have a degree. This leads to a cycle of
people only getting hired if they had a degree so everyone needs a degree which feeds back into
the loop because more people with degrees means it harder for people without degrees to get
hired. So our society came to devalue a high school diploma and replace it with a college degree.
If this tern continues into the future maybe one day a bachelors degree will be meaning less and
you job prospects will be bleak without a masters degree .

number of people with four years of college

completed
number of students

70,000
60,000
50,000
40,000
30,000
20,000
10,000
0
1 3 5 7 9 111315171921232527293133353739414345474951535557

year

Chart 1 shows the increasing tern of students attending college since 1940
(United states Census Bureau).

So as young adults are pushed towards getting a college degree or being looked down
upon and having poor job prospects yea are expected to bear the brunt of student loans. For most
students attaining a college degree is very pricy. Unless you are coming from poverty and having
much of you education pay for through financial aid or very wealth with parents who are willing
to pay for your degree, you are stuck under a mountain of debt. While attending college many
students find it hard to work full or ever part time jobs. So while accruing debt they are also
missing out on potential income. Thats about $34,000 (bureau of labor statistics) a year for four
years on top of another about $34,000 in student loans on average (national center of education
statistics). On average a college student is graduation 5 years behind their counterpart who
passed on college, and for what? With a bachelors degree the median yearly salary goes up to
about $58,000. Assuming no debt it takes over seven years for you to match your potential
income had you not gone to college.

To compound this problem wages have become stagnate. As inflation continues to

happen and the costs of goods rise Americans havent seen a pay raise in the last 15 years.
Accounting for inflation Americans today are making the same amount of money they were
making in 1998, while goods become more expensive. Between 1980 and 1990 adjusted for
inflation the cost of a college education would be right around $23000-$25000 but today the
same degree cost on average $10,000 more. Its not a problem of college tuition rise with
inflation, tuition cost are skyrocketing faster than inflation making it very difficult to pay for on a
salary that hasnt changed. College has gotten so expensive because of a change in the way
federal funding for colleges work. Federal and state spending cuts lead to less funding for
colleges, which caused them to raise their prices.
But a turning point arrived around 1970, Thelin says. With double-digit
inflation, an oil embargo and a sputtering economy, a perfect storm began
to build. College tuition and fees climbed as much or more than the
inflation rate. Private loans, heavily subsidized by the federal government,
gradually replaced federal grants as the main source of money for both
poor and middle-class college students.( Sanchez)
So the government sent less money to higher education while also changing the way it
helped students pay for their loans. Many students use to get grants that they did not have to pay
back but along with the budget cuts the government decided to subsidize loans. These loans have
the interest on them paid while you are in school and the first six months after you graduate.
While it is nice not to have to make payments while in school you are still faced with the loan
and interest just 6 months after graduation. In this job market it is difficult to find a job and
regardless of your employment standing you are expected to start paying back your loan.

Coming of the great recession unemployment is still high. It is likely that you know
someone who was wither laid off or has started looking for a job. Many people are unemployed
and many people feel underemployed, meaning they work a job that is beneath their skill level
and work experience. Unemployment in North Carolina right now is 6.8% and the national
unemployment rate is 6.1% (bureau of labor statistics). This is the highest unemployment rate,
excluding during the peak of the recession, since 2002 and before that, it has not been that high
since as far back as 1976.
All these factor together lead young Americans in a bad position. If you want a job then
you need to go to school. To go to school you need large amounts of money or face debt. Once
you graduate there is no promise of a well-paying job or any job for that fact. On top of all that
you will be making as much money as someone was 20 years ago. Life for our graduates is tough
and needs to be looked at and reevaluated. Whether the government needs to spend more money
on college education and cut somewhere else, or employers need to stop requiring a college
degree, or colleges need to spend less money on things like sports teams. There needs to be a
change to the system of our current and future graduates are going to be in a hole.