College Education: Reasons For and Against Attending College - Essay Example

College education When a baby is born, the dream of most parents is to educate the child up to a level where the he or she can become independent. Most parents love to see their children reach college level as they consider it as the most appropriate. However, some people do not like college education and therefore, sometimes discourage their children never to attend college education. Such people do not seem to be interested in college education due to various reasons. Reasons for attending college: 1) There is guarantee for financial success due to increased job security Most people believe that attending a college would guarantee financial success. This was witnessed during the global recession when people without college education faced difficulties in securing jobs compared to college graduates. For example, during the 2007 – 2009 recession, individuals with a Bachelors degree were least affected since their employment rate dropped from 69% to 65% (Jeff, 1). However, among people without college degree, the impact was so great since majority of those affected by the recession lacked college education. 2) Little impact on wages due to economic factors such as global recession Consequently, in terms of wages people who did not attend college experienced huge impact as compared to those who attended college during the period of global recession (Jeff, 1). For instance, individuals with Bachelors degree saw their income shrink from $681 to $645 a week, while those with high school degrees had their weekly wage shrink from $ 438 to $ 394 during the period of recession (Jeff, 1). This demonstrates the advantage people who attended college have against those who dropped or never attended college at all. Therefore, it is advisable for a person to attend college in order to reduce the level or impact of negative events such as recession, which might affect the economy. 3) More access to well paying jobs and opportunities Moreover, there is a disparity in terms of jobs available for people who attended college against those who never attended (IRS, 2). Individuals who graduated from college have access to a variety of well paying jobs while people without college education have few jobs, which are low paying. For instance, college graduates serve as accountants, sales representatives, managers, software developers, doctors, registered nurses, schoolteachers among other high ranked professions. Such occupations are valued in many societies since they offer professional services, which cannot be provided by unskilled or untrained people. However, people who never attended college have access to limited jobs and serve as cooks, laborers, retail salespeople, cashiers, waiters or waitresses and secretaries among other low paying jobs (Charlene, 3). Such jobs do not require professional skills or proper training. 4) Reduced competition for jobs and opportunities College graduates have reduced levels of competition for jobs and opportunities since their jobs require expertise and skills, which are not easily accessible. However, those who never attended college and got a degree or diploma have access to few jobs. Consequently, most of the jobs are competitive since majority of people without college education seem to be on the rise as compared to college graduates. Due to their competitiveness, such jobs have minimal security; therefore, an individual can get dismissed any time (Richard, 4). Consequently, due to their low wages and high levels of insecurity, it is advisable for an individual to avoid them by attending college. Attending college will ensure that a person becomes an expertise and learn skills that can make him a professional who is trained and understands the knowledge. 5) High levels of job satisfaction and thereby increased productivity Furthermore, since people who had attended college education had the opportunity to choose what they wanted to do while at college, majority of them specialized in their respective areas of interests. This makes them do what they love and prefer, thereby ensuring they have high levels of morale in their work. This increases the level of job satisfaction and morale since a person gets engaged in activity that he or she prefers, loves, and enjoys most (Jay, 4). Moreover, a high level of job satisfaction ensures higher productivity levels among workers, thereby encouraging and promoting institutional growth. Therefore, most firms or institutions would prefer employing college graduates since they have the potential to initiate growth and development as they experience job satisfaction. However, people without college education have no capacity to enjoy their work since most of them never had the opportunity to choose their professions (Jay, 4). Therefore, they have low levels of morale thereby experience low satisfaction levels. 6) High standards of living Since majority of people with college education earn higher wages compared to individuals without college education, there is likelihood that college graduates lead a decent life because they have enough money to spend on their needs (Richard, 2). This increases their purchasing power, and thus translates to higher standards of living. Conversely, since people with no college education earn little wages, this translates into little income to spend. This limits their purchasing power, and therefore lowers their living standards. Moreover, since people who have attained college education earn higher wages compared to people without such education, and thus translating to high living standards. This leads to healthier and improved lifestyle and choices (Richard, 2). This ensures that most college graduates do not suffer from health related complications, and thereby to low living standards. These complications include stress and blood pressure, which are major causes of death among individuals. Therefore, people with college education are less prone to such complications and thereby most lead healthy lives. Reasons against attending college: a) No guarantee for better life However, people who lack interest in college education consider it as useless. For instance, some argue that attending college and attaining a degree or diploma is not a guarantee for better life, success, or riches. These people base their argument on the fact that a large portion of successful people never attended or completed college education. A good example is David Karp, a 26-year-old man who has risen to become a tycoon (Jeff, 2). Karp is the founder as well as CEO and of a social networking website known as Tumblr. His net worth exceeds $200 million, and he is considered the wealthiest man in Williamsburg, Brooklyn (Susan, 1). According to Forbes, Karp dropped out of high school and thus never earned a GED yet presently, he is considered the most successful man compared to most college graduates (Susan, 1). Therefore, attending college is not a guarantee of success since one can utilize the talent and entrepreneurial skills as well as drive rather than depending on the benefits of higher education to make a fortune. This is clearly demonstrated by the rise of Karp from an ordinary high school drop out to a wealthy, revered, and adored person irrespective of his education level (Jeff, 3). b) High costs of education In addition, people who are not interested in college education argue that it is costly. Most colleges charge relatively high fees for various courses. However, since not everyone is able to afford such fees, accessing education might appear impossible since finance becomes a barrier (Richard, 1). This is worsened by the fact that in some families even accessing basic needs such as food, shelter, clothing, medicine proves problematic, and therefore college education might a appear as a luxury to them, and thus no need to attend college. Such families would first strive to get their basic needs before thinking on the need to attend college. c) Opportunity costs Consequently, other people might consider college education rather expensive investment with little surety of success in the near future (Richard, 4). Therefore, in case they had little money, they would rather invest in alternative opportunities such as business that rewards relatively faster compared to college education. This is because of human nature, which normally expects quick results, and thus riches with the case of venturing in business rather than education. Moreover, in case one has limited funds to spend in education, and which cannot enable him or her complete the entire college education it, would be prudent for him or her to spend the money in quick rewarding ventures such as business rather than spend it in education (Richard, 3). d) High levels of uncertainties Further, most people who lack interest in attending college do not have a surety of being employed after investing their resources and energy in education (Richard, 5). According to majority of them, there is no guarantee that the wages earned will be worth the amount spent in pursuing college education. For example, many people are jobless after completion of their college degrees and spending huge resources in accessing college education. Therefore, majority of such people do not see the essence of educating their children up to college level, as they fear that they might end up just like them. Instead of educating their kids to college level, most of the people would rather invest their resources elsewhere where there is a surety of earning some profits instead of investing in college education (Richard, 5). Therefore, most of these people lack interest in attending colleges or sending their children or relatives for higher education in colleges. This is because they do not see the value for attending college, as there would be no difference between a person who never attended and that one who attended when it comes to the issue of unemployment (IRS, 2). With these two different views concerning the benefits of attending college education, it is the choice of every person to decide whether to attend college or not. This is because the destiny of a person lies on what he or she does and the steps taken in life. This is because there are people like Karp who have become successful, yet they never graduated from college. Contrary, some people have been successful in life by attaining college education. Therefore, the choice is up to an individual. Works Cited Charlene, Wilson. “Professors open up about the benefits of a college degree.” The Penn. February 19, 2013. Retrieved April 21, 2013 from http://www.thepenn.org/2010-11- news/2.20155/professors-open-up-about-the-benefits-of-a-college-degree- 1.2993983#.UXMl1axPDAn IRS. “Tax Benefits for Education: Information Center.’’. Retrieved April 21, 2013 from http://www.irs.gov/uac/Tax-Benefits-for-Education:-Information-Center Jay, Fitzgerald. College degree is costly, but pays off over time. Boston Globe October 7, 2012. http://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2012/10/06/investment-higher-still-pays-today- economy/GV7iVC5847KP7g6zUvziEM/story.html Jeff, Bercovici. “Tumblr: David Karp’s $ 800 Million Art Project.’’ Forbes Magazine. January 21, 2013. Retrieved April 20, 1013 from http://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffbercovici/2013/01/02/tumblr-david-karps-800-million- art-project/ Richard, Perez-Pena. “Education.” New York Times. January 9, 2013. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/10/education/study-shows-college-degrees-value- during-economic-downturn.html?_r=0 Susan, Adams. “It Still Pays To Get A College Degree.’’ Forbes Magazine. April 20, 2013. http://www.forbes.com/sites/susanadams/2013/01/10/it-still-pays-to-get-a-college-degree/ Read More