Is College Worth The Cost?

Gannon LeBlanc | Oct 28, 2013

The average college graduate holds at least $35,200 of debt and has spent four years out of the workforce, where he or she would be otherwise gaining experience. All this for a piece of paper that by no means guarantees a job. The question that potential and current college students need to ask is: Do the financial costs, opportunity costs, and other factors justify the cost of college? For a select few, the answer may be yes. For a surprising number of people, it will be no…… Does the financial cost justify going to college? It depends on what you want to do in life. If you want to go into medicine (average debt of $170,000, average salary $150,000-$200,000+), law (average debt of $100,433 , average salary $113,310), or engineering (average debt of $52,596 , average salary $91,810) the answer will be yes. This is for two reasons. First, today you cannot work in those fields without a college degree. Second, the average income of those professions quickly pays off debt (assuming you can get the job). …..To Read More….

My Take – Many years ago when I was in the service I was required to take a bunch of technical courses that were only semi related to what I was going to do. Was it worth it? At the time I was concerned that I wasn’t going to remember all this stuff, mostly because I didn’t really care about it and didn’t pay very close attention. As it turned out I didn’t need any of it….until it came time to I take a test to get promoted, and then they provided the study material, which I didn’t pay much attention to either. 

I learned two important things from that which has never failed to prove true. After everyone knows how to read, write, add, subtract, multiply and divide, most classroom stuff isn’t nearly as important as OJT. On Job Training. Did you ever try and read the Microsoft manual on how to use a program? It’s a nightmare for most of us, but when someone shows you how to do it….you think …..Wow….that’s simple. Higher education is absolutely critical in some fields. Mostly it’s a load of horsepucky! Expensive horsepucky.  

The second thing I learned is the system is rigged to accomodate those who play the game, not necessarily those who can do the work.  As a result we are stuck with a ton of over-educated, under-smart people in charge of entirely too many parts of our society, be it in business or government.  

A friend of mine who never finished his education and owns a business once said to me....I make a whole lot more than these PhD.'s.  So....what's your goal?  Perhaps I'm being unfair.  There is one area higher education excels in and that should be acknowledged.    Turning out good little socialists and economic idiots.