How Students Think About College Selection

The choice of whether or not one should attend college has been a great topic of interest over the past few years with the increase of college tuition. This increase of college tuition questions whether attending college will pay off in the future since numerous amounts of students are left with an excessive amount of student loan debt. Stephanie Owen, a former research assistant at Brooking’s Center and current research associate at the Urban Institute, alongside Isabell Sawhill, co-director of the Center on Children and Families and a senior fellow in economic studies at Brookings, wrote Should Everyone Go to College? In an attempt to answer that question. In their report they breakdown the cost and benefits of going to college often relying on logos throughout the

David Leonhardt, the author of “Is College Worth It? Clearly, New Data Say,” makes the controversial argument that even with college debt increasing substantially in the United States it is still worth earning a degree. Leonhardt uses a variety of relevant figures and statistics to support his claim of the irreplaceable value of a college education. The majority of statistics used by Leonhardt concern the earnings advantage of college graduates as compared to their counterparts who decided not to attend college. Among the first issues Leonhardt addresses is the growing concerns prospective students and their parents have with attending college such as underemployment after graduation, debt, and unemployment (Leonhardt 33). To refute these arguments, he cites statistics from the Labor Department concerning inequality of income distribution; these statistics were

The article, “Should Everyone Go to College?” by Stephanie Owen and Isabel Sawhill disputes the widespread idea that attending college before joining the workforce is financially advantageous to everybody. The authors acknowledge that for some the investment of college results in a profit, but stipulate that several factors could result in a college degree costing more to obtain than the future benefits would reciprocate. They demonstrate that differences in factors such as major choice, school selectivity, and future job availability result in an enormous variation in the potential value of higher education. Owen and Sawhill state that the stereotype of an unconditionally lucrative outcome from college is inaccurate, misleading, and likely

Marty Nemko, in the article, “We Send Too Many Students To College,” acknowledges that colleges have become obscenely expensive and that it is possible to be successful without going to college. Arguing that too many students are sent to college without realizing that it is not imperative, Nemko targets parents in his claims that colleges focus on educating in the cheapest way possible and most importantly, that the advantage of past college graduates in the job market is declining. One of his main reasons is that even though the average college graduate makes more money, hundreds of thousands of students in the bottom half of their high school class do not succeed in higher education. Nemko’s article is the most persuasive article on whether college education still has value as he argues that college is not beneficial to everyone through demonstrations of hyperbole, and figurative language.

College is a dream that almost every American wants to come true, however, with the extreme rise in the costs of tuition it is a dream that has quickly turned into a nightmare. “Tuition at a private university is now roughly three times as expensive as it was in 1974, costing an average of $31,000 a year; public tuition, at $9,000, has risen nearly four times,” (Davidson). “For the average American household that doesn 't receive a lot of financial aid, higher education is simply out of reach,” (Davidson). That is why many students have begun questioning the worth of a college degree and if the amount of debt that is received upon exiting college is all for the better. And considering that costs have risen much faster than the rate of inflation, many are starting to believe that college just isn 't necessary any more. However, according to White, economically, the answer would still be a yes. “While unemployment rates for new grads and experienced workers alike have fluctuated throughout the recession and recovery, the earnings premium that college-and advanced-degree holders enjoy over their peers who didn 't attend college has remained relatively stable, and in some instances, grown, according to the report that was released this week,” (White). A study was shown that many college grads are able to get earnings that are significantly higher than those who did not get enough education or only hold a high school diploma (White). Even

In their article “Should everyone go to college?” Stephanie Owen, Senior research assistant, and Isabel Sawhill, former Vice President of the Brookings Institute, argue that many factors lead to individuals not being able to attend college. They go on to claim these factors to be school choice, career field, graduation, and area of study. The article states that while on average the rate of return is usually positive, there are cases in which it is negative. One of their focal points is what it cost to attend college and its affordability. Claiming that with the rise in the cost of college, which progresses at a faster rate than that of the job wage increase, that college is becoming less affordable. In their conclusion a three step policy plan is included for individuals who plan to attend college. While realistically I agree that yes, some individuals should not go to college, my optimistic side would like to believe that everyone should and can go to college without it becoming a sour investment.

After Robert Zaller explained how the housing market crashed due to a tremendous rise in prices, he said, “Now, looking at the costs of private higher education, typically in the range of $40,000-$50,000 per year, it seems clear that they, too, have become unsustainable” (553). High school students, from their first day of freshman year, are pushed to look into attending a “big” college, which often means the most expensive colleges. The cost of the college is not a top

The price of college admission has more than doubled but the value has not. Andrew Hacker and Claudia Dreifus start off with money grabbing statistics of tuition rates. Following that, they question the reader on whether or not college is a good investment and what the students are gaining from higher education. Hacker and dreifus went out to seek the answers and they concluded that colleges “are taking on too many roles and doing none of them well.”(180).

I attend CollegeBoard the College Selection Process: Find the “Best Fit” webinar. There were two presenters Melissa Caperton, Senior Associate, American Council on Education American College Application Campaign (ACAC) and Dr. Venisa Green, Professional School Counselor, Percy L. Julian High School, Chicago Public Schools. I would definitely recommend this webinar because I have learned a lot how to increase the number of first-generation and low-income students pursuing a college degree. Also I have learned quite a bit about how to help high school senior students navigate college admission process and ensure they apply to at least one college. I am going to

The article ‘America’s Great Working-Class Colleges’ published in the New York Times looks at the data received from college graduates tax filings and financial-aid records from around the country. Many people believe that colleges that are available to the middle and lower class, and that produce successful graduates is a thing of the past, but the data shown in the article proves that working-class colleges are striving. While these public colleges are filled with students from all types of backgrounds, Ivy League colleges remain to be for students of the elite society. On several campuses of elite colleges, fewer students hail from the entire bottom half of the income distribution than from the top 1 percent (Leonhardt, 2017). With elite colleges being almost exclusively for wealthy Americans, working-class colleges are playing a key role to social

David Leanhardt a correspondent for the New York Times stated in The College Dropout Boom that often times the thought of high tuition prices scare students away, especially lower-income students, before they even think about attending a college (92). And there is good reason for this. With the average four year degree costing $91,304 at public colleges and $179,000 at private universities (Merrow), tuition prices are ridiculously high. How are people expected to get an education with school costing so much? In the article Angela Whitiker’s Climb Isabel Wilkerson tells of Mrs. Whitiker’s near impossible climb out of poverty and into the upper-middle class. Ms. Whitaker, faced many struggles on her way up the ladder, but she worked hard, and eventually she wound up on top. Still through all of her hard work she could not have gotten to where she is now on her own. She needed someone to support her and her family emotionally, physically, and financially just for her to graduate with an Associate’s degree (202-16). It took a lot of time and effort for Mrs. Whitiker to get out of the place she was born into, and at times it looked like she would never get out, but she pushed forward, and lucked out. Most people don’t have the drive Mrs. Whitiker had, many students simply leave college when they begin to feel the pressure. In a study over college students, Merrow found that

The topic of the value of a highly educated populous is important for many reasons individuals with higher levels of education earn more and are more likely than others to be employed. Median earnings of bachelor’s degree recipients with no advanced degree working full time. “In 2011 were $56,500, $21,100 more than median earnings of high school graduates” (Phelps 2). Individuals with some college but no degree earned 14% more than high school graduates working full time. Their median after-tax earnings were 13% higher (Figure 1.1). Compared to a high school graduate, the median four-year college graduate who enrolls at age 18 and graduates in four years can expect to earn enough by age 36 to compensate for being out of the labor force for four years, as well as for borrowing the full amount required to pay tuition and fees without any grant assistance. Expanding enrollments are a public good that should perhaps be increased to a greater degree than in recent years, especially with grant aid to those in tougher financial

The private institutions that are generally desired by the public and future employers of the community are inflating their cost and spending that money with a pace that other colleges with less ‘endowments’ could ever achieve. Private schools within the United States are growing and flourishing while public schools, which are typically more affordable, struggle to acquire such strong assets to establish desirable provisions that employers want. Although these prices are high and growing, some would argue that this

When college is brought up to one’s mind, it can be inferred that where one can be free and have fun. Many people would not think that they would encounter the likelihood of being a victim of sexual assault would occur in college. The reason for most people to attend college is to be successful in a job after college, Parents trust colleges to keep their loved ones safe. Sexual violence in colleges are not being taken serious and shouldn’t be concealed from the public. The advisors of these colleges tend to keep these cases private to keep the image of the college not ruined. Maya was one of the many victims of sexual violence. She didn’t have a voice that could be heard such as the college students who have suffered.

"Students who go to more selective colleges make more money later in life. Receiving starting salaries of ~$60k for graduates of Ivy League schools vs. ~$45k/year for graduates of mid-tier state schools, and mid-career salaries of ~$110k/year for graduates of Ivy League schools vs. ~$80k/year for mid-tier state schools." Despite the statistics, thousands of experiments conducted to determine the return of the labor market have found the prospects of a graduate do not directly correlate to attending an elite university. Attending elite colleges does not notably raise earnings when controlled for work ethic, GPA, SAT scores, and major.