Studer Community Institute

Is a college education the only answer?

April 19, 2015
/ Reggie Dogan
/ education

It’s the time of the year when high school seniors anxiously check the mail hoping to find that life-changing acceptance letter to the school of their dreams. All their young lives, parents, teachers and guidance counselors have drilled into them the idea that going to college is a must. It has been made crystal clear that if they don’t get good grades and attend a four-year college, the rest of their lives will be a colossal failure. But not every one of them is paying attention to the mailbox. Some teenagers are making plans to join the workforce, the military or seek vocational or job-training skills. Despite an unequivocal message that college is important – and pervasive desire among young people to attend college — only about 30 percent of Americans earn a bachelor’s degree by their mid-20s, with another 10 percent completing an associate’s degree by then. Almost every measure of economic well being and career attainment indicate that young college graduates outperform their peers with less education, according to the Pew Research Center. When today’s young adults are compared with previous generations, the disparity in economic outcomes between college graduates and those with a high school diploma or less formal schooling has never been greater in the modern era. These assessments are based on findings from a new nationally representative Pew Research Center survey of more than 2,000 adults, along with a Pew Research analysis of economic data from the U.S. Census Bureau. The economic analysis finds that today’s college graduates age 25 to 32 who are working full time earn more annually — about $17,500 more — than employed young adults holding only a high school diploma. The pay gap was significantly smaller in previous generations. College graduates also are more likely to be employed full time than their less-educated counterparts (89 percent vs. 82 percent) and significantly less likely to be unemployed (3.8 percent vs. 12.2 percent). Obviously, some careers demand a rigorous course of study, generally best done in college and post-graduate environment. But of other jobs, the assumption is that a college degree is necessary when it’s actually not even helpful. The reality is, college is not for everyone, but work is — or should be. And preparing the next generation for success in the workplace should be just as important as, or even more important than, preparing students for college. One way is to bridge gaps between high schools and jobs through, for example, apprenticeship programs that train people for trades like high-skilled manufacturing. The rap against technical or vocational schooling is that it traps the poor and minorities into dead-end jobs. But the harsh reality is if we don’t train many of our students for jobs that don’t require a college degree, they’ll likely end up in dead-end jobs anyway or with no job at all. In the April edition of The Atlantic, an education report talks about a new study that looks at whether or not a college degree can chip away at income disparities. Read “What Education Can and Can’t Do For Equality” to find out if education can significantly reduce the income disparity in the U.S.

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Is a college education the only answer?

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