Is College Worth It?

There has been much concern in the media in recent years about college costs and student debt, and rightfully so.  The question then keeps popping up, is it worth going to college at all?  Some writers point to mounting student debt and argue that young people are delaying life events like getting married, starting a family, buying a house, etc.  According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics from 2014, adults with a bachelor's degree earn on average $22,516 more per year than those with a high school diploma.  College graduates are also less likely to be unemployed - the unemployment rate for adults with a bachelor's degree was 3.5%, compared with 6% for those who stopped their education after high school.  I would argue that living in poverty and battling unemployment and underemployment while scraping to make ends meet would also make it difficult to start a family or buy a house.

We've all heard the stories about college educated barristas and retail clerks, and horror stories about students enduring 4, 5, or 6 years of college, collecting large student debt loads, and then not finding a job after college.  While it was indeed a tough time for college graduates during the height of the recent recession, what these stories miss is that it was a tough time for everyone.  Unemployment and underemployment rates peaked in 2010, with an underemployment rate for those with bachelor's degrees hovering around 6.2%.  At this time, the underemployment rate for those with a high school diploma was 12.9%. It turns out the stories of unemployed college graduates are also a bit exaggerated.  While it is certainly true that some college graduates end up working in jobs that don't require a college diploma, the underemployment rate has dropped sharply since the end of the recession, and those with a bachelor's degree have benefitted far more from the recovery that high school graduates.  According to a recent study, even among the underemployed college graduates (those working in a field that does not require a college degree), most are employed in the higher-paid categories of non-college occupations, while those without a college degree are more likely to end up working as low-paid physical laborers or in low-skill, low-paid service occupations. Furthermore, many college graduates who initially work in non-college occupations move into higher-paying jobs that do require a college degree within a few years of graduation. For more details on the study, see this excellent article from Inside Higher Ed: Challenging the Barrista Myth.

The benefits of a college education are not only economic.  Developmentally, the late teens and early twenties is a time of great personal growth potential.  The exposure to new ideas and experiences, a widening of your perspective on your own and other cultures, development in analytical and critical thinking skills - these benefits cannot be quantified in an economic sense. A college degree also opens opportunities to a much wider array of career options.

So, the question remains, is college worth it?  With an average increase of income of $22,516 per year, it seems to me that a $200 student loan payment is not as much of a burden as it might seem. Even after a year's worth of payments, the net gain is still over $20,000 per year.  Of course, students should be savvy about financing college and explore all possibilities for avoiding loans altogether, including maximizing grants and scholarships, creative financing options, and thorough research on college costs to choose an affordable program in the first place, but current economic research indicates that the answer is a resounding YES!  There are also other factors in the modern economy that make a college degree worth more now than ever before.  Job growth in the economy is now almost exclusively in fields that require some training after high school.  Income for college graduates is rebounding well in the wake of the economic recession, but wages for non-college jobs are not rising at the same rate.  Thus, the income gap between high school and college graduates is getting even bigger.

A final rant on this recurring question of "Is college worth it?" - I've noticed that many of those publishing articles or making statements that college may not be worth the investment have themselves benefitted greatly from their own college education.  These aren't "I never went to college and I'm doing great" testimonials; rather they are "I went to college and am thriving, but you maybe don't need to" statements.  I, for one, would be wary of such advice.

Is it important as a nation to take action to control rapidly rising college costs?  Of course.  Should you try to minimize the amount of student debt you take on?  Certainly.  Even if you have to take out some loans and make some sacrifices, is college worth the investment?  Absolutely.