Worth of College Degrees

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Brief Background
Body
Objection and Rebuttals
Conclusion
Works Cited

Introduction

While in college, most students get involved in different activities. They also go through varied experiences during this period. The combination of the activities students involve themselves in while at school and the unique experiences they go through is an important determinant of the process that prepares them for the job market. Pursuing education is an expensive affair which prompts people to ask themselves whether college education is worth the monetary investment.

After completing their degrees successfully, students return to their homes and what follows is search for employment opportunities to achieve self reliance. The question that emerges is whether the students leave colleges with adequate knowledge and skills to face the challenges of the world and if the degrees they get after being in college for four years are worthy. Obtaining a bachelors degree is not worthwhile for all students.

Brief Background

In the past, most of the things that were said about a degree were true. A person with a degree was a different person who could easily separate himself from the rest. Degrees were a reserve for a few people because not many could afford to pay college fees. It was only individuals from the upper middle class or the rich people who afforded college degrees.

This was the reason why great value was attached to a degree, simply because it was scarce. However, things have recently changed with the number of people getting degrees increasing everyday.

This has eliminated the scarcity of people with degrees. When job adverts are placed on the newspapers, thousands of college graduates submit their applications. However, the big question that many people ask is whether all the people with degrees have the right skills for the jobs advertised or they simply have the degrees but lack practical expertise for the jobs.

College degrees have nowadays been rendered worthless because some college graduates lack the anticipated skills and expertise once they leave college. It therefore becomes meaningless for them to have spent four years in college to acquire a degree. In addition, some spent the four years in college only to land in professions that do not require one to have a degree. They at times find jobs that can be done by high school dropouts. This again makes the value and worth of a degree questionable.

Body

To begin with, there is a clear disconnect between the knowledge college graduates are supposed to exhibit in the job market and what they actually exhibit once they get the jobs. Employers demand specific skills from the individuals they employ regardless of whether they have degrees or not. It is not logical or helpful to have a people with degrees yet they cannot perform the specific duties that they are supposed to perform in their jobs.

One of the easiest ways to ascertain if job applicants have the required skills is to subject them to certification tests. This determines whether the candidates have the required skills or not. For instance, a multiple choice test may be used to determine the skills of a job applicant.

Programmers for example, may prove to be suitable candidates by providing samples of work they have done regardless of whether they have degrees or not. It is not a surprise for job seekers with degrees to fail a simple certification test while others without the degrees pass it very well.

This clearly indicates that a college degree is not worthwhile because there are individuals with degrees who cannot deliver what the employers want. As a result, a college degree should not be used as the job specification to employ job seekers but rather, they should be employed on the basis of whether they have the specific skills that the employer wants (Lucas 125).

Most college degrees are costly yet the outcomes do not match the cost. It is considered a bad deal for the medium family, student, employer and the taxpayer. It is difficult for students who attain college degrees to recover the cost incurred during the period of study.

Employers who demand that job seekers should have degrees trust systems with slipping standards. Professors who teach college students do not truly profess what they know, but instead concentrate on selected students who eventually get unrealistic and possibly inflated scores.

To make the matters worse, academically gifted students fail to know what they are supposed to know throughout their college education because they are given degrees in liberal arts yet they study things that are actually not liberal arts. In the past, universities were seen as avenues to lead people out of poverty but the situation has greatly changed.

Universities and colleges continually lose their power and in future, they will not be as powerful as they used to be. The services that define them such as networking, hands-on working, and socialization are bound to turn into unique and separate entities (Murray 35).

The presence of professors who teach in universities does not imply that university education is a worthwhile encounter. Highly prestigious institutions employ professors to carry out more research rather than teach the students. This is because professors who bring a lot of research work are highly paid when compared with normal lecturers who simply teach.

The professors may be a problem with regard to instruction but the problem is compounded by the fact that college students themselves do not read. Studies show that literacy among college students has declined since they cannot do the most elementary things. As a result, employers complain that the fresh graduates lack critical thinking and problem solving skills.

This is a clear indication that the worth of the four year college education is no more because the graduates exhibit ineptitude. It is expected that students who graduate from colleges are competent individuals who can think critically and exhibit problem solving skills. However, employers have proven that college graduates lack the necessary skills and expertise, a fact that deprives college education its worth (Hacker and Dreifus 288).

The innovative open education which is practiced in many universities is aimed at cutting the cost of college education but this is not what actually happens in the universities and colleges. The cost of getting a four-year college degree is very high. Just like most business organizations do, universities raise their tuition fees instead of reducing the costs under the pretext that the state funds are low. However, when the funds are available, the cost does not either go down.

This becomes an opportune moment for universities to introduce more programs, incorporate more faculties and exercise independence in terms of funding their activities. Most students use student loans to cater for their tuition fees hence the ability of students to fund their college education through various methods makes them less sensitive to the skyrocketing costs of tuition fees in colleges.

Since the government subsidizes the student tuition fees, universities find it prudent to increase the cost of education instead of cutting it in other sections. This availability of cash makes students and their parents ignore the efficiency of college education hence making the four-year college degree a worthless effort.

Objection and Rebuttals

Although Nemko and Murray in their article argue that obtaining a bachelors degree is not worthwhile for all students, other individuals have a feeling that going to college and obtaining a bachelors degree is still worthwhile. According to Forest and Kinser (2002), the benefits associated with post secondary education are evident even when the unemployment rates are analyzed.

Some people who work in high-wage sectors may have little or no education while a degree holder may earn little compared to what they earn. However, the unemployment rates for individuals with little education are higher than those of their educated counterparts.

This means that a person with a college degree stands a better chance to keep his job than another person who has less education. It does not make a lot of sense to be paid well for a short duration of time and then lose the job and remain unemployed. The idea is that it is advantageous to be well educated than being well paid because a person who is well educated is not at a high risk of being rendered unemployed. This view attempts to explain that a college degree remains worthwhile (Forest & Kinser 35).

The other argument that validates a college degree is that students who are exposed to post secondary education get the privilege to read variety of books and listen to experts in their field of specialization. As a result, the students are stimulated and this prompts them to think, explore new concepts and ask for clarification on various issues.

This enables them to grow mentally and prepares them for the job market as opposed to students without college education. In addition, college education enables students to acquire important resources within the course of their tenure. They build many connections during their time in college and this provides them with many options when they begin to look for jobs. Once they get the jobs, this does not mark the end of the importance of a college degree since it offers them good chances for promotion.

Conclusion

Acquiring post secondary education and especially a college degree was a highly valued and important achievement in the recent past. However, a college degree has continued to lose its worth with time. This essay has discussed various reasons why college degrees have been rendered worthless. Students have been leaving colleges with degrees yet they have not been performing well in the job market. This means that their college education has not been equipping them with the skills required in the job market.

The quality of education offered in the universities has also been deteriorating since the professors have been concentrating on research instead of teaching. Moreover, universities have been turned into business institutions and their focus has not been providing quality education but making money. There is need to review the relevance of college education to ensure that students who receive college degrees have the skills required in the job market.

Works Cited

Forest, James and Kevi Kinser. Higher education in the United States. New York: ABC-CLIO, 2002.Print

Hacker, Andrew and Claudia Dreifus. Higher Education? How Colleges Are Wasting Our Money and Failing Our Kids—and What We Can Do About It. New york: St. Martin’s Press, 2011.Print

Lucas, Christopher. American higher education:. New york: Palgrave macmillan, 2006.Print

Murray, charles. Real Education. Washington: Crown Publishing Group, 2009.Print

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