I am about a year out from college and I continually ask myself, what did my undergraduate education teach me? I successfully graduated from a STEM field, got a few liberal arts classes in on the side, and luckily did well enough to continue to graduate school. Now, however, I am working about 65 hours a week, on a bad week, at three different jobs, trying to save as much money as I can. Two of these jobs I could have had out of high school. So what did my undergraduate education teach me? Should those of us not pursuing an advanced degree bother?
Admittedly, there are a select few undergraduate degrees that can provide a stable income upon graduation, and those of us that are determined enough to find full time employment will hopefully be successful one way or another. These full time employment opportunities, however, most times do not make up for the staggering amount of loans that we are faced with upon graduation. If a student goes to a private school, they are faced with upwards of 240,000 dollars of loans (about the worst case scenario) and, if they're lucky, can expect a job paying 50K a year (like I said, lucky). But oh, yeah, we just have to stop putting avocados on our toast, that will solve it!
So this is my question: in general, should the amount of people that are going to college today, really go to college? This is not a question about if everyone should have the opportunity to go to college. Obviously, if college were free and based upon merit only (assuming our high school system magically becomes equitable), most "millennials" would be more than well off with a 50K a year job. Unfortunately, that is not the reality of America, nor do I think it will be anytime within the foreseeable future (considering we can barely get access to health care). As I have begun to work more in the real world and have had access to many of the types of jobs that college graduates are given, my answer is starting to lean towards the -heck no- side.
First of all, there are many people in my life that have done extremely well with no college degree. They are in careers that range from engineering to coding to trades. Most of their success hinges on the fact that they have a skill that not many people have (since we are all going to college and neglecting the trades) and they have the ability to motivate themselves to learn new things outside of school. They are not burdened by hundreds of thousands of dollars in loans, and they are able to think at the high level that most people reserve for the ivory tower of university. Why are these trades not valued as much as a student who goes to college to be an engineer when, in the end, they are pretty much doing the same job?
The answer is, our culture. Going to college is so glorified that many people push their children into going when they shouldn't. Colleges are a business and take advantage of people basically needing to go to fit in with society and up the prices so high its almost criminal. Instead of relying on our own abilities that could get us to the same jobs without monstrous amount of debt, we have faith in a piece of paper that is basically more like a second high school degree in terms of pay grade.
Of course, I think college is a great thing, but our society has the wrong idea about what it's for. It's not something that everyone should just do because it's what everyone does. We should not neglect the trades for a piece of paper that barely means anything. Finally, we should not put ourselves thousands of dollars in debt for something that doesn't actually benefit our careers. So before you push yourself, or your child, into going to college, think about what you actually stand to gain from a four year degree.
