Is Higher Education Worth It?

Higher education is a prestigious accomplishment that the majority of young adults in the United States accomplish after they graduate from high school. But is that a good thing? Higher education has become an industry and has changed its first priority from teaching young adults the professional and social skills their careers will require to making money. Higher education has become a contest amongst Universities who pride themselves on the number of students that attend and are happy being at that University, instead of focusing on producing good adults who will be productive in the work environment.

Andrew Hacker and Claudia Dreifus raise an important question in their article Are Colleges Worth the Price of Admission?, “So are colleges giving good value for those investments? What are families buying? What are individuals – and our society as a whole – gaining from higher education?” Hacker and Dreifus are questioning the value of a college education. Is it really worth going into the amount of debt that is required, to attend and graduate from a college or University? I believe profits for the universities and colleges have become more important than the education each student receives while attending.

There is a common theme in most high schools throughout the United States that pushes students towards attending a University. High school guidance counselors have become recruiters for the Universities. Guidance counselors used to, and are supposed to, help a young adult realize their potential and find their best path to go down once graduating high school. There is a stigma around

blue collar work that restricts blue collar jobs from being exciting or enticing to young adults. The problem is, if every young adult attends a University and graduates with a degree, our society will still need mechanics, commercial truck drivers, plumbers, electricians, contractors, welders, etc. Many students who would do well in the trades are pushed to take on thousands of dollars of debt to acquire a degree in a field that isn’t hiring. That same student could attend a trade school for less than fifteen thousand dollars, and quickly make between eighty thousand to one hundred thousand dollars. The stigma around the trades needs to change because they are essential to the success of our society, and a family can live comfortably on their salary, most notably because they will not have hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt.

I do think that there is value in higher education, I am currently enrolled in a University aren’t I, but I do not think college is the end all be all. However, there are ways to use a higher education. David Foster Wallace gave a real-world explanation of how to use a higher education in his Kenyon commencement speech. In his speech Wallace says, “The really important kind of freedom involves attention and awareness and discipline, and being able truly to care about other people and to sacrifice for them over and over in myriad petty, unsexy ways every day.” Wallace is sharing life experience with the graduates he is speaking too, which is not a common trend on University campuses. These are the kinds of lessons and messages that should be taught on campus. This is the kind of message that helps young adults grow and become good adults in our society. A society based solely on profits, is a selfish society that cannot advance and is cold and lonely place.