College Isn't Necessary for Success

By: Austen Wyche

One of the major choices that youth in the United States have to make is which college they want to attend after they graduate from high school. In our schools, we have formed a mentality that you must go to a four-year university to be successful; that there are very few successful options you can take besides going to college. We do not adequately teach that you can make just as much money going to a community college, technical school, or training program than many would make when they attend a four-year university. Additionally, college is a huge financial burden and many attending do not receive scholarships; therefore they rack up thousands in student loan debt that they must pay off for years of their life. In the United States, there are approximately 45 million people who have received student loans and are in debt; adding up to roughly 1.6 trillion dollars in student loan debt that is owed by students in this country. To help mitigate and end this student loan debt crisis, we must educate our youth on other options to be successful, and teach that going to college is not a guarantee of success. By educating, we can ensure that students choose the correct option for them when they graduate from high school and choose their path.

Going to college is not a guarantee of success in the United States, and oftentimes going to college is not necessary. In the US, 33.8% of college graduates work in occupations that they do not even need a degree to work in according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. According to the Department of Labor Statistics, both the unemployment of community and technical schools and college graduates are under 5%, illustrating how you can get a job no matter what level of education that you go to school for. According to CNN, about 30% of people who get an associate’s degree from a community college earn more than people who received a bachelor’s degree from a four-year university. There is no correlation that going to a community college, which offers programs to go into fields to be Dental Hygienists, Nurses, Technicians (Mechanical and Electrical), a Paralegal, or Occupational Therapy make less money than someone who goes to a four-year university. In Florida, the average graduate of a community college makes 47,708$ a year annually, while an adult who graduated from a four-year university makes about 36,552$ a year, and does not include student debt that the students who attended university may have collected. Many students unnecessarily go to college for the experience, rather than community college where they can receive the skill training for much less money. You can go to a community college or technical school and be just as successful as someone who attended university, even more, successful in some occupations. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the demand for nurses will rise by 2020 by 26%, with the healthcare industry in need of more workers, especially in the middle of a pandemic. You can go to community college and get a Nursing Degree (ADN), and spend about 18,000$, while a degree at a university may cost upwards of 125,000$. Attending a Community college will help mitigate the costs of attending higher-level education, and you can still receive scholarships to attend for free. Before you make a decision to attend a university, there are options at community colleges and technical schools to account for, that are usually cheaper and can assure success as well as any other university.

One of the fields that are in most demand right now in the United States is those in the technical field, including therapists, dental hygienists, and even Cardiovascular Technologists. There are many programs that are offered at technical schools to become Network Architects ($135,000 a year), Database Administrators ($85,000 a year), Radiation Therapists ($85,000 a year) that can be completed in 2 years or less. At a technical school, you can even receive certification to become a Nuclear Technician, which makes upward of 80,000 dollars a year. Attending a technical school can get you as much or even more money than someone at a university; with the cost of Technical School on average being $33,000 while the average cost of attending a university is $127,000 in total. Attending a four-year university is just unnecessary for people wanting to go into the workforce when at a technical school or community college you can learn those same skills at a lower cost. We must spread awareness in our schools about the options that you can take following high school, that there are many paths you can take to be successful.

Community colleges and Technical Schools only have degrees and training programs that prepare you for special occupations, while universities have degrees that can result in unemployment frequently. Degrees at universities such as Composition and Rhetoric, Anthropology, Environmental Science, Theatre, Mass Media, and Ethnic studies are all degrees whose graduates have very high unemployment rates following graduation; over 10%. Universities additionally have many degrees such as General Studies, that does not adequately prepare you for any occupation post-graduation and limit employment opportunities due to the broadness of the degree. Instead of studying degrees that limit your opportunities and don’t prepare students for the workforce, we should encourage upcoming students to undergo education in needed occupations, such as Therapists, Nurses, Technicians, Hygienists, and Technologists, all of which you can receive training with an associates degree instead of attending a university to receive a bachelor’s degree. These are some of the most growing fields in the United States, and career preparation programs at schools should focus on where prospective students can have an easier time gaining employment.

A major issue when talking about college in America is the student loan crisis. Of the 45 million people in the United States that have student loan debt, the majority of that debt is made up of people that attended a university. For public community colleges, the average debt that a student has after graduation is about 13,000, while at a public university it is 26,000; twice the amount and taking longer to pay off. Some people will die with their student loan debt, as in many cases when you take your loans out in someone else’s name, they will be responsible for that payment as long as they live. In 2018, 69% percent of college students took out loans before they went, and those payments they will be burdened with for the rest of their lives. Career Preparation classes in high school must more adequately teach the alternative options of college, how attending a community college or a training program can result in an identical salary, or even bigger, than a university grad. To avoid people developing the burden of student loans, we should teach preventative measures through other forms of education. We should enact programs to teach high school guidance counselors and teachers at community centers to teach teenagers all of the options that they have following graduation, not just university. Congress and the Department of Education should require every student to take a career preparation class before they graduate high school, and update the curriculum to include all options available. Additionally, we should teach students that they do not have to have a one size fits all approach, they can attend a technical school, get an occupation, then go to college later on. The path to education is very flexible and we should ensure students know that their path is their path. This will help ensure that students will receive the proper education that they need to make a choice about their future.

Overall, the idea that everyone has to go to college to succeed needs to change. We cannot continue having students going to four-year universities gaining burdens of debts and earning degrees that they cannot get occupations with. We should offer more merit scholarships at four-year universities, and increase Pell grants to students in need. Congress and our leaders should additionally allocate more money to community colleges to improve their programs and give more scholarships to those who do not wish to go to university. With proper education and funding, we can ensure that every student can make a reasonable decision about their future in education.

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