After beginning to google “Why is college so”, the top four words completing this question are “expensive”, “hard”, “stressful”, and “important”. These four questions are ones which enter the mind of everyone, but are rarely ever properly answered. Skeptical students are given answers such as “you need a degree to be successful” and “you can’t get a real job without a degree. Expensive, anxiety-inducing classes have become the norm for the greater portion of this generation, and deemed a vital part in the transition from adolescent to adult. With students shoveling out money only to be a dropout statistic, the average student loan debt hitting $35,000, and a slew of important jobs which do not require a degree, why exactly are teens being so heavily pressured into attending college?
According to a CNBC weeklong series titled Debt by Degree, “In 2012, some 39 percent of young Americans were expected to graduate from college, compared with 60 percent in Iceland, 57 percent in New Zealand and 53 percent in Poland….As U.S. graduation rates have stagnated, a smaller share of the next generation is achieving the upward mobility that a college education has traditionally brought….” As the years go by, a lower percentage of young American adults are benefiting from the over-priced education being pushed on them. Even if they do not reach a higher degree, they are still left with high amounts of debt, and in turn, colleges are still making money off of their failure. With a depressing “20 percent of U.S. men and 27 percent of U.S. women hav[ing] more education than their parents”, less young Americans are reaching their parents’ level of education which means, less Americans will be blessed with higher incomes than previous generations. In addition, this also means they will not be as likely to afford a college tuition for their own children.
It is obviously up to the student to be dedicated enough to succeed in his or her’s higher education, but this college-oriented path is too often obstructed by absurdly high tuition rates. No matter how determined a student may be, it is hard to devote years of his or her life to something putting him or her in a horrendous amount of debt. While graduation rates are shriveling, tuition continues to soar. “This fall, Harvard’s annual tuition and fees (not including room and board) will set you back $45,278, more than 17 times the 1971-72 cost. If annual increases had simply tracked the inflation rate since 1971, next year’s tuition would be to just $15,189”. Because of ridiculous tuition prices such as Harvard, it is incredibly rare that a young student may work their way through college, unless they settle for community college. Society looks down upon settling for any college but the best, yet schools with outrageous tuitions make this goal of a prestigious education almost unobtainable.
Far too many people look down on maids/janitors, garbage men, and truck drivers (just to name a few occupations which snobbish, ignorant people ridicule), but where would this world be without said workers? Our hotels, schools, offices, etc. would be filthy, the streets would become one big dumpster, and none of our groceries, flowers, office supplies, etc would be delivered. Why must the snobbish portion of society look down upon hard workers, who complete the jobs others would never consider, and the very jobs necessary for our comfort? In addition to the previously mentioned jobs, tattoo artistry is also a wonderful career which only requires a high school degree and a license to tattoo the public. While all states order proper training for such a career, and some demand classes be taken and seminars on skin disease/infection prevention be attended, aspiring tattoo artists are NEVER asked to blow THOUSANDS of dollars on an education required to achieve their career goals.
