Does College Education Ensures a Better Life?
A majority of people in the contemporary world consider that people could not reach their full potential without a proper college education. This particular statement also highlights that people assume that a person with no college education would face several problems. There is a common belief rooted in the society that the it gives people a golden ticket to a better life. However, does college education really make peoples’ lives much easier? While the question is not easy to answer, a lot of people argue that the economical and societal betterment of people is not necessarily dependent on colleges. This world is full of people with a better standard of living and luxury without any prior college education. College dropouts have turned out to be the CEOs of global billion-dollar companies impacting the society in a number of ways. Witnessing such cases makes it crystal clear that people emphasizing on the importance of a college degree have no proof to prove their argument. The idea that college attracts good jobs might actually be a major factor of increased student loans.
Status Symbol
Today, the society tends to focus more on the importance of college education ignoring the fact that a good percentage of students are dropping out. To make the students focused on study and academics, different kinds of techniques and methods are used by educational institutions and society. Students are subtly forced to take up college considering that the college education has become a status symbol in the society. In their article, Ali Ozdagli and Nicholas Trachter assert that “the dropout option accounts for 85 percent of the value of college enrollment” (Ozdagli & Trachter) indicating that students enrolling in colleges tend to hold second guesses about their options. When it comes to the role of society, its structure of prestige and expectation comes contributes principally in making people believe that people would experience many hardships and struggles in their lives with no college degrees in their hands. Such ideas have made college degree a compulsory achievement rather than something that a person acquires out of pure interest and passion. In fact, the idea of a college degree is forced on the young people. Hence, the college students are left confused and anxious as they have no plans or guidelines about their future interests and opportunities. Ultimately, the students decide to drop out. For a person who is more passionate about another field like music and arts, college education becomes a hindrance in making his/her career as the college education demands commitment, dedication, and of course time. The presence of a good number of institutions and organizations providing practical knowledge and experience in a short period of time saves both time and money. Such training and teachings are mostly cost-effective. The availability of such cost-effective training and learning, the college formal education seems nothing but a burdensome and imposed task.
Expensive Education
Furthermore, debt has become a menace for majority of college students as there has been a considerable increase in the tuition costs. Many students drop out of college due to their inability and lack of resources to pay off the hefty loans. The quality of learning also declines as many students take up multiple jobs to fulfill their economic need thus neglecting their studies.
A New York Times highlights that “In today’s America, the majority of college students do not graduate on time, racking up debt, and undermining the investment and potential that college is designed to offer” (“What’s the Biggest…”). Therefore, it is rather obvious that college tends to rack up debts making the lives of people more miserable rather than helping people get a better life. Even though the student might have the zeal and desire to study further in college, the economic problem could become a major hurdle in achieving one’s academic dream. Struggling on the financial side, the student might give up on the idea to continue his/her study and opt to choose a life without any burden of student loan. Even if the student completes his/her college degree, he/she has to worry most of the time about the economic burden imposed by the college education. Ultimately, the entire situation leads to the consistent efforts to make one’s ends meet along with returning the loans.
College Education does not Necessarily Provide Good Jobs
As discussed, a lot of people believe that college education will land them a good job, better house, and standard lifestyle. However, it never guarantees the achievement of the desired job and better lifestyle. Figueiredo implies that with the increasing number of graduates, the unemployment rate has also increased significantly, bringing inequality between graduates and decreasing their earnings (Figueiredo et al.). This statement implies that it does not necessarily provide good jobs to college graduates. Similarly, Xu indicates that college education has developed as a means of providing equality between rich and poor by eliminating the economic difference between them. Moreover, he defines that education helps people to overcome the disadvantages presented to them by striving upon the potential benefits provided by a college . A college education does not necessarily help people to mitigate the difference between two classes as it does not ensure that one would earn a relatively good income to support one’s family. Moreover, poor people are unable to afford the high tuition fee thus also finding it difficult to attain education in college.
College Education can boost Knowledge and Scope for a Particular Field
If the myth has to be debunked, college education actually serves as a ladder in someone’s career and good leverage to depend for their future employers. As long as it is the matter of success in life and career, it depends on one’s knowledge, skill, motivation, determination, and similar other crucial traits of success. Besides, the college educated graduates land jobs and get stuck in the 9 to 5 routine for the rest of their lives. Likewise, college education mostly pushes to adapt and adjust rather than enforcing the creative ideas and knowledge within the system. Also, the education-led jobs are structured in a way that the student’s career is developed to a certain point but remain fixed after reaching a marked level. For instance, a bank manager will only be a bank manager with no innovative ideas and opportunity to advance in his capacity. As the real-world success demands the practical knowledge and learning, education actually excludes knowledge that can be applicable in real life.
On the other hand, college education can boost one’s experience and knowledge of the respective field. As education is generally four-years long, its completion shows one’s effort, dedication, and determination for the achievement of goals. Also, the high-paying jobs require the basic educational qualification as their minimum standard. Therefore, college education might not be a job-landing and better lifestyle guaranteeing factor. However, it would be one of the crucial arsenals to keep in one’s resume. When given a chance and opportunity to choose between a college graduate and non-college graduate, most of the employers would choose the one with higher qualification. A large number of companies are still operating with college education as their main criteria for the job. This would lead the high-paying jobs to the college graduate and the hardworking and labor work to non-college graduates. With such an increase in pay, there would definitely be a huge difference between the lifestyle of people who went to college and those who did not. There is no doubt that college education would increase the scope and depth of one’s knowledge and acumen. Despite all the above-mentioned factors, a college education would help in glorifying one’s resume that can attract many high-paying jobs.
Self-Education and Experiences Increases the Creativity
However, there is never one way to learn or acquire knowledge for curious minds. Without any college education, people can gain knowledge from their own experience or listening to others’ experiences. In fact, the absence of college education can actually push for self-study – a golden opportunity to heighten one’s creativity and experience. Such self-studied people are more hardworking, diligent, and do not take the learned knowledge as granted. On top of that, self-study pushes for self-motivation to search for the required materials and information. Self-study is way more cost-effective in terms of college and the expensive fees. There is no danger of student drowning in debts and loans and spending his/her life to pay back. College education cannot guarantee the practical sides of real-world as the theoretical and practical sides are completely different phenomena.
Conclusion
All in all, a college education does not necessarily improve people’s lives as imposed by society. There are many other ways to do so besides only depending on college education. In fact, a college education has only attributed to higher dropout rate from colleges from spreading false advertisement. To the curious learners, the college has racked up huge amounts to debts and loans; becoming way too expensive to pay back throughout their lives. With the disguise of formal education, the college education is forcing young people of the society to attend the institution regularly for four years to achieve a certain degree. However, it never actually guarantees a better future. If the truth is told, better future and course of life are actually decided by fate, luck, and one’s own talents and desires. Finally, college never guarantees that one would get a better job than those without a degree. So, a college education does not ensure a secure and successful life.
References
Figueiredo, Hugo, et al. “Should We Start Worrying? Mass Higher Education, Skill Demand and the Increasingly Complex Landscape of Young Graduates’ Employment.” Studies in Higher Education, vol. 42, no. 8, Aug. 2017, pp. 1401–1420. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1080/03075079.2015.1101754.
Ozdagli, Ali, and Nicholas Trachter. “The Dropout Option in a Simple Model of College Education.” Economic Quarterly (10697225), vol. 100, no. 4, 2015 4th Quarter 2015, pp. 279–295. EBSCOhost, https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=111644893&site=ehost-live&scope=site.
“What’s the Biggest Challenge for Colleges and Universities?” The New York Times, The New York Times, 5 June 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/06/05/education/learning/biggest-challenge-for-colleges-and-universities.html.
Xu, Duoduo. “From Poverty to Prosperity: College Education, Noncognitive Abilities, and First-Job Earnings.” Chinese Sociological Review, vol. 50, no. 1, Jan. 2018, pp. 53–82. EBSCOhost, doi:10.1080/21620555.2017.1376581.