Do You Need the De­gree?

The U.S. De­part­ment of Ed­u­ca­tion re­cently re­leased a study from the Na­tional Cen­ter for Ed­u­ca­tion Sta­tis­tics, or NCES, that shows how im­por­tant it is to get a col­lege de­gree. Ac­cord­ing to the study, in­di­vid­u­als that re­ceive a bach­e­lor’s de­gree make nearly $25,000 more an­nu­ally than those who do not.

In­di­vid­u­als who only re­ceive a high school diploma earn an av­er­age of $24,000 per year. While those who grad­u­ated from a 4-year year col­lege earn an av­er­age of $49,000 every year. Over the past cou­ple of years, the wages for those with a col­lege de­gree have con­tin­ued to rise steadily, while the an­nual salary for those with only a high school diploma have de­creased. These sta­tis­tics show why it is so im­por­tant in mod­ern Amer­i­can so­ci­ety to grad­u­ate from col­lege. How­ever, some peo­ple still con­tinue to ar­gue that go­ing to col­lege is not al­ways the an­swer. Here are the top rea­sons why peo­ple do not de­cide to at­tend col­lege:

1. They want to or need to work right af­ter high school

In­stead of at­tend­ing col­lege some in­di­vid­u­als are drawn right into the pro­fes­sional world. Some peo­ple want to start mak­ing money as soon as pos­si­ble, in­stead of fo­cus­ing on tak­ing classes in col­lege. In ad­di­tion to want­ing to work right away, some in­di­vid­u­als need to work right out of high school. These peo­ple find them­selves in a sit­u­a­tion where they need to make money in or­der to pro­vide for them­selves or their fam­ily. Those that need to work full-time in or­der to pro­vide may find it dif­fi­cult or even im­pos­si­ble to take col­lege courses on top of their large work load. 

2. The cost of col­lege or po­ten­tial col­lege loans is too great

Ac­cord­ing to the Col­lege Board, the av­er­age price of tu­ition per year at a four-year pub­lic uni­ver­sity is around $10,000, while the price at a four-year pri­vate uni­ver­sity is around $30,000. Both of these num­bers are ex­clud­ing room and board. These sta­tis­tics show that col­lege is an ex­pen­sive lux­ury that not every per­son can af­ford. How­ever, it is im­por­tant to note that in­di­vid­u­als who re­ceive their bach­e­lor’s de­gree were found to make an av­er­age of $2.7 mil­lion over their life­time. This is about 85 per­cent higher than the av­er­age per­son makes with only a high school diploma. The high price of col­lege seems to be worth it when com­par­ing the earn­ing value of those with col­lege de­grees ver­sus those with­out de­grees.

3. Not pre­pared aca­d­e­m­i­cally

If some­one is not com­mit­ted to aca­d­e­mics in high school, then pur­su­ing a col­lege diploma might not be the best op­tion. Those who were dis­in­ter­ested in high school or had a dif­fi­cult time un­der­stand the con­cepts in high school might not be suited for col­lege life. Col­lege is a se­ri­ous time and fi­nan­cial com­mit­ment where an in­di­vid­ual must be pre­pared aca­d­e­m­i­cally.