Why Does College Education Still Matter? 

The moment you take your first steps into college, you knowingly or unknowingly prepare yourself for what is to come in the next phase of your early adult life. College is a significant short phase of two to four years in a person’s life. It’s well known that colleges offer excellent education and research learning on various fields for students with all kinds of interests in different fields of knowledge, but a college environment also teaches a bunch of core values that students won’t necessarily come across in classroom teachings and interactions no matter how well or average they perform in academics.let us know Why Does College Education Still Matter?

Why Does College Education Still Matter?

Answer paragraph 

Colleges offer a platform for learning and performance to students. It teaches students some very significant industry-level skills, allows students to learn and improve their soft skills like communication, confidence, leadership, and time management, and provides scholarship opportunities for student-athletes so that they can improve on their sport of interest and further pursue a professional career. But most importantly, it exposes people to real-world experiences outside of their small, limited life and allows them to discover different cultures, traditions, and norms.

The importance of higher education in today’s society 

  • When talking about college education, we are talking about much more than the ability to read and write. High education deals with the idea of shaping information into realistic possibilities. 
  • When you have the merit and understanding of a subject matter along with years of experience and success, your reputation combined with the work done towards benefiting society and its inhabitants gets you more appreciated and valued. That’s the significance of higher education.
  • When we see successful economies of the modern world, it’s not just luck, it’s the citizens of those countries whose higher education allowed them to create successful and prospering economies.
  • Going to college for higher studies introduces you to a new world outside of the guardianship of your parents who took care of you and provided you with the necessary basic education. Outside of the faculty members who will assist you with your education, college life will ask you to be independent.
  • Higher Education provides you with the financial capabilities to become independent and able to look after yourself financially. It also provides students with the right knowledge and social capabilities to be better at your job. 
  • If you have a higher level of education you’ll get a better-paying job, and as a result, you will have a decent salary with an ample amount of disposable income which then allows you to have a better home, a nicer car, and luxuries like gadgets, holidays, and other things that interest you.

Without the benefit of high education, these items may not be easily affordable.

  • Facts and figures indicate that when female individuals have a better literacy rate and higher education the child mortality rates drop, showing that higher education has the capability of positively affecting significant aspects of our society. 
  • By studying and gaining a college education you become a more capable person. High education makes you capable of deciphering problems using critical thinking skills as well as working with others in managing information using logic and reasoning. 
  • Attending College and university allows you to develop your communication skills. When you interact with people around you daily, your ability to communicate with others improves the more you share ideas and listen to their rightful opinions, allowing you to form ideas independently. 
  • A country with a vast population and higher levels of education forms the basis for a successful economy. Jobs get created in wealthy tertiary sectors where a higher income can be made The income earned then gets pumped into the country’s economy through jobs, taxes, and products produced. 
  • High education allows you to live a prosperous life where you interact with high-level individuals. This promotes equality among individuals where people from different backgrounds get together and work towards better, productive objectives.
  • These skills are important on a day-to-day basis and are vital in developing a well-rounded human being. 

How does going to college benefit an individual’s career?

  • Higher education is a dream for kids who value the importance of knowledge. Many people consider going to college a necessary step toward securing successful well-paying jobs that require college degrees from recognized institutions for which parents are always ready to invest as it can help their kid progress towards a better life.
  • But does going to college help you in building yourself for a successful career down the line? This is the main question young people get faced with very often than not which is why we will be looking into the answers that suggest why going to college helps you with choosing a better career and more.
  • Firstly, choosing a college is all about answering why you want to go to college and what you stand to gain by going to college. For most young adults the answer simply is to find a good job which is why students must know the fact that the college they choose will play a huge role in their transition from a student into a professional. 
  • Therefore students should be conscientious when researching the type of college they would be comfortable spending their next four years.
  • Secondly, when talking about the importance of higher education from a 21st-century perspective, in today’s highly globalized information-oriented society you need a higher education degree so that you can stand out among the crowd of thousands who are just like you, have the same degree as you, but have not put in the effort to back it up.  
  • A good college has all the resources to create the best professional working man or woman of tomorrow. 
  • It teaches students how to be problem solvers, it teaches students how to coexist and function with other individuals as a team, it presents its students with real-world problems so that they can attempt to answer some of the obvious and complex issues that hold back certain economies from truly ever reaching their full potential. 
  • Furthermore, many colleges are a hub for creative minds that think alike and believe in achieving success with the efforts of teamwork and trust. This way a college works as a platform where aspiring entrepreneurs take their first steps toward success by coming up with creative business ideas and initiatives. 

Why college is not for everyone?

  • The argument of college isn’t for everyone is widely echoed by two types of individuals. The first ones are those who went to college and didn’t find stability despite gaining a college degree. The second ones are those who dropped out before they could finish their 3 or 4 years of education in their chosen fields.
  • But regardless of their difference in experience in college, their opinions are mostly similar. They argue that colleges today are just hubs for a bunch of people to gather at, revise, write exams, and hope that they don’t fail their exams.
  • Some famous college dropouts like bill gates and mark Zuckerberg are often used as examples to demonstrate that the path to success isn’t paved with college success. But back in the 70s and 80s, such a mentality was mainly avoided as it seemed a stupid idea that could be heavily criticized.
  • However, not everyone skips college by choice. Millions in the United States dream of going to premiere education institutions and Ivy League schools, but because of their poor economic status, their families do not possess the income to finance their college dreams.
  • As Alex Bernadotte, the founder and CEO of Beyond 12 elaborated while speaking at a TED event in 2018, only 9% of students from lower-middle and low-income families can expect to earn a bachelor’s degree before they turn 25 versus 77% of their higher-income peers. 
  • She further explained that African-American students earn their bachelor’s degrees at one-half and Latino students at one-third the rate of their white counterparts.
  • The rising cost of higher education is something that even middle-class communities worry about as arranging a huge sum of money for college fees for their kids who get accepted into top universities and colleges is a difficult process to get through. 
  • According to the College Board, the average cost of a four-year degree is between $100k and $250k which indicates that college has become much more about whether students and families can afford college as opposed to college is a necessary step towards individual success. 
  • As slightly hinted towards at the beginning of this topic, the system of higher education worldwide isn’t entirely equipping most students with the skills they will need to be successful in the workforce. 
  • To back up this claim, a survey by pay scale about 5 years ago discovered that even though 9 out of 10 fresh college graduates believed that they were prepared for the workforce, only 50% of the employers agreed with them. 
  • These few factors are just some of the reasons why many young minds look to other options like apprenticeships, vocational training, and online learning alternatives than choosing a college for career development.

The benefits of going to college

A fresh start

it’s an opportunity to completely rebrand yourself by adopting new habits and shedding old ones especially if you’ve had some less-than-savvy behavior in high school. For example, if you are a master procrastinator you can resolve to master some self-discipline when your classes start, and if you were a bully into a nice person.  

Making new friends

college is set in such a way that there are numerous opportunities for interactions among students including in classes, in the dormitory, at parties, and during sporting events. In these spaces, you get to meet people from literally all walks of life and this allows you to make new friends and acquaintances. 

Establishing professional connections

apart from providing the space for you to make friends, going to college also forms the basis for building your professional networks. 

People you used to sit next to in class will be in offices working as interns in a few years and after some decades they might have graduated from top management and being acquainted or even friendly to these classmates will help your career in the long run. 

Even your lecturers and other members of your faculty will also serve as a good source of mentorship and guidance since they’ve been in the field longer than you have. 

Better earning potential

research also shows that college graduates have higher earning potential than those who either couldn’t afford college or simply chose to avoid college. 

In one instance, the unemployment rate of those with a college degree was between 3.7% and 3.9% in late 2019. On the other hand, high school diploma holders had a 4.4% chance of not gaining employment.

Therefore, the higher your education level, the better your chances of landing a job that matches your skills.

The disadvantages of skipping college

  • It is no secret that a college education can be extremely beneficial, opening up doors to better job prospects, higher salaries, and more opportunities. However, some believe that not going to college is not a disadvantage at all.
  • There are many reasons why someone might choose not to go to college. Some people may decide that the cost of tuition is too high, while others may believe that they can learn more on their own or through other experiences. Still, others may feel like they don’t need a degree in order to achieve their goals.
  • Despite these reasons, there are many disadvantages to not going to college. First and foremost, non-college graduates tend to earn less money compared to their graduate counterparts. 
  • The difference in earnings can be quite significant – according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, workers with a bachelor’s degree earn an average of about $1 million more over their lifetime than those without one.
  • In addition, non-college graduates find it difficult for employment opportunities to come by and have higher chances of being laid off in dire economic situations, similar to the pandemic recession of 2020. 
  • Hence, new jobs might be far and few between for them under such circumstances. Finally, those without a college degree are likely to miss out on employment insurance, health, and early retirement benefits.
  • So, while there may be some advantages to not going to college, the disadvantages seem to outweigh them. If you’re thinking about skipping out on higher education, you might want to think again. 

Conclusion

A college education, in spite of its flaws, is still the currency of validation in our globalized society. More than 80% of employed individuals have had some college education to show for it. Going to college has allowed countless individuals to climb the ladder of career progress which led them to success and prosperity. Some even credit the college education they received as the sole reason why they were able to lift themselves and their families out of sub-standard livings into a life of prosperity and necessary privilege which they lacked for generations. With that being said, there exists a misalignment between what students are taught in college and the skills that are required for them in the workforce. A lot of these misalignments have to be matched so that colleges can produce successful individuals at a higher rate.