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Let’s pull the first two obvious arguments of money out of the college equation: whether it’s worth the money at face value and a wise investment. Instead, let’s skip to point three – is college worth the education?
A bachelor’s degree is widely considered a golden ticket to social mobility, yet ballooning tuition costs place it out of reach for many. Prescribing college as the default path won’t work for many people. Is college worth it? For many, the answer is a no-brainer: Of course, it is.
The college degree has become emblematic of the middle class and a prerequisite for social mobility. To not earn one, the common knowledge goes, is to throw your life away.
Even asking the question aloud is enough to send uptight parents and career coaches into fits of worry.
DON’T BOTHER KEEPING A RECEIPT
But as with any prescription, treating college as a universal cure-all has its dangers. We know college isn’t for everyone, and discovering it isn’t for you can be expensive and time-consuming. Thirty-six million Americans have some college education but no degree, and those that borrowed money to attend, as many do, must still pay back their loans. Universities do not have a satisfaction guarantee, let alone a money-back one. The opposite is true.
That makes college a sort of gamble — especially for low-income students who lack the familial safety net of their upper-class peers. Given that a quarter of low-income students leave by the end of their second year, it’s not a bet one wants to make haphazardly.
For the sake of conversation, we’re negating the narrow view of the college’s value proposition: money. But that third reason college is (or isn’t) worth it is not so material: education and the value it brings to your life.
FREE YOURSELF
Many colleges design their undergraduate curriculum toward a liberal education that samples from a range of disciplines such as the humanities, sciences, and social sciences. As described by Mark Montgomery, founder, and CEO of Great College Advice, the purpose of a liberal education is to introduce “students to a wide variety of academic subjects and materials to help them make connections among diverse phenomena, and also develop some expertise in a single field. It is to ‘liberate’ the mind and move beyond mere professional training.”
But many students go to college searching for something far more specific. According to Pew Research data, half of Americans believe the primary purpose of college is to teach the skills and knowledge people need to find a job. If this sounds like you, you may find the college curriculum as frustrating as it is numbing.
After all, if you’re going to be an ultrasound technician, why do you need to sit through ethics, evolutionary theory, or Romantic poetry classes? Such subjects would not only feel like a waste of time and money; they become barriers to your engagement and learning.
SETTING STUDENTS UP TO FAIL
The current approach to postsecondary education is only working for some. We shouldn’t be surprised. The two- and four-year degree models that define our postsecondary education system were built for a different time and place, and our failure to innovate in anticipation of learners’ evolving needs and interests has set up millions of people for disappointing life outcomes.
On the other hand, 35 percent of those surveyed by Pew believed the purpose of college was to help students grow and develop personally and intellectually. From this perspective, a class in ethics may not appear on your resume, but it can endow you with a greater sense of social responsibility.
A class in evolutionary theory can give you a richer appreciation of life’s history on Earth and the discoveries of science. And analyzing the symbolism of a Romantic poem such as “Ode to a Grecian Urn” can help you better appreciate art and its place in culture.
USE IT FOREVER
Yes, your time in college will offer classes that teach more marketable skills, but the point isn’t to be a worker placement program. It’s to broaden your perspectives, enrich your knowledge, instill the value of thought, and develop the habits of — and passion for — lifelong learning.
A college education is valuable in the labor market precisely because it cannot be reduced to one set of skills. What makes college graduates desirable is their ability to think broadly about the world and use language and numbers well.
These outcomes are achieved by immersing people for a portion of their lives on campuses devoted to thinking as an end in itself. And how will you know it’s worth it if you don’t?
This column is by Ritchie Lucas, Founder of The Student Success Project and Think Factory Consulting. He can be reached by email at ritchie@thinkfactory.com and on Facebook and You Tube as The Student Success Project.
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