Have you ever asked yourself, in the long run, how much different a Centre education is from a University of Kentucky (UK) education?**
Well I have an answer for you, and you probably won’t like it.
In 2013, Pew Research Center asked a random assortment of 790 individuals with at least an undergraduate degree about their college experience. The questions focused on the divide between private and public schools and whether one resulted in a “better” population. Here are the stats, based on the 2013 survey and a 2014 article:
Satisfaction with:
Family Life
Private: 94%
Public: 93%
Personal Financial Situation:
Private: 79%
Public: 76%
Current Job:
Private: 72%
Public: 66%
Did your college experience pay off as an investment for the future (with regards to initial investment):
Private: 83% yes, 7% no
Public: 86% yes, 6% no
Did your education prepare you for a job or career:
Private: 61% yes
Public: 51% yes
Do you agree with this statement? “I found a job within three months after undergraduate graduation.”
Private: 42%
Public: 46%
The result? A private undergraduate degree barely reflects better life satisfaction than that of a public undergraduate degree. You may be thinking, “this article fails to consider the difference in quality of life between a public and private undergraduate.” I thought the exact same thing, and so I dug deeper. With an average wage disparity of nearly $30,000, surely the quality of life between the two groups is a huge factor when considering “satisfaction”.
Two Nobel Laureates, Daniel Kahneman and Angus Deaton, studied these two socioeconomic groups and, it turns out, quality of life does not greatly increase beyond an annual income of $75,000, and plateaus beyond an annual income of >$120,000. Two of the factors included in “quality of life” were stress factor and how frequently one experienced "sadness"
I asked a recent Centre graduate, who is currently in medical school, what they thought about this information. They said the following,
“I thought going to Centre would give me an edge over UK students applying to medical school. After all, a great deal of schooling is personal work ethic… but the job opportunities and alumni network at a university like UK would have been an invaluable resource such that, if I could do it over, I would have chosen not to attend Centre. That being said, I can’t emphasize how enjoyable my Centre experience was… I don’t regret staying all four years.”
Finally, next time you’re told “private education leads to a better quality of life,” you can tell this person that they’re wrong. However, if you want to get hubristic, you can always say, “I went to the best damn college in Kentucky.” And I won’t contest that.
Pew Information:
http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/08/10/5-...
http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/05/19/pu...
http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/files/2014/02/SDT-h...
http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2014/02/11/the-risi...
"Quality of Life" Kahneman & Deaton information:
Article: http://www.pnas.org/content/107/38/16489.full
Summary: http://ssla.edu.in/blog/entry/humanities-social/th...
Shout out to Dr. Benjamin Knoll for requiring me to understand polling statistics and, as a Sophomore, introducing me to the vast set of polling information that is available at the Pew Research Center website.
** I would invite you to remember that this is a generalization. None of the information presented here is my original work, nor is it specific to the University of Kentucky/Centre College. I'm writing an article for the Odyssey Online, not the UNHCR.
