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Monica Perry
Gail Richard
Composition II
31 March 2016
Why One Should Attend College
One would think that the decision to attend college is a no-brainer for most potential
students. There are numerous facts and data to support the advantages of doing so. However,
there appears to be a valid argument for the opposite side- those people deciding not to attend
college. I will attempt to examine and support the reasons why attaining a higher education is
critical for people choosing a career path, maximizing their earning capacity and to defuse the
argument that attending college is not important.
First, lets briefly examine the opposing view point of why some people are against
attending college or pursuing higher education. There was an article written by James Altucher,
published in January of 2011. His article was titled 10 More Reasons Why Parents Should Not
Send Their Kids To College. In this piece, the author almost appears to convince himself why
attending college is not the solution for many people. He actually lists what he considers bogus
excuses such as kids learn how to think in college, kids learn how to socialize in college,
college graduates make more money than non-college graduates, etc. He even goes on to list
alternatives of going to college. He tries to argue that the cost of student debt is not worth the
return investment. This is just an example of several articles that I discovered over the internet
that were not pro-college. However, I strongly disagree with this view point, and let me begin
listing my arguments in the following paragraphs.

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One source of support for my position comes from an article by Caroline Gulbrandsen,
written in February of 2011. In her article, titled The Importance and Value of a College
Degree, she outlines several facts that proves higher education is important for job seekers. For
example, she states that in 2009, the unemployment rate was twice as high for people without a
high school diploma than it was for people who had an Associates degree. When compared to
people with a Bachelors degree, this gap widened to three times the unemployment rate.
Gulbrandsen argues that having a degree will not only help you get a job, it has been proven to
increase earning potential. She uses stats from the Bureau of Labor that points out people with a
Bachelors degree earn almost twice the amount of pay as people with just a high school
diploma. Further, she found that persons with a Masters degree earned $1,257 a week as
opposed to $626 a week for people with only a high school diploma.
Another source I would like to use comes from the author David Leonhardt, written in
May of 2014. His article, entitled Is College Worth It? Clearly, New Data Says, also uses stats
and data to support the pursuit of higher education. For example, he researched and found an
analysis from Labor Department statistics by the Economic Policy Institute. In it, he discovered
that American citizens with four year college degrees made 98% more an hour on average than
people without a degree in 2013. Five years earlier, it was 89%. This statistical gap has increased
steadily since the 1980s. Leonhardt also produces a graph that shows a steadily increasing pay
line for college graduates, which is compared to a graph for people without a degree. The graph
of the people without a degree remains relatively flat. Leonhardt actually uses the argument that
deciding not to pursue a college degree will cost a person a negative $500,000. He points out that
even for students having to obtain student loans, the average debt is a tiny fraction of the
economic benefits of actually graduating college.

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I discovered another compelling article which seems to support my argument as well.

This article was written by Katherine Peralta of U.S. News in June of 2014. In her discussion,
Benefits of College Still Outweigh Costs, she illustrates, once again the earning difference of
people holding a college degree as opposed to people who have yet to attain that degree. For
example, Peralta states that in 2012, Americans between the ages of 25 and 32 who had attained
a higher education made $17,500 more than others who had only a high school diploma. Peralta
also argued that persons who attained a college degree, even though they may have started in the
workforce later, still earned $1 million dollars lifetime on average more than people who only
had a high school diploma. Lastly, she pointed out that the people who attained a technical
degree had even higher returns on average compared to those who obtained a non-technical
degree (such as liberal arts).
One final article that I found was from www.greatschools.org. This article was entitled 5
Reasons Your Child Should Go To College. Although this article was geared more toward
younger students, it still had some compelling data. The article states that people with a college
degree make around $1,100 dollars a week compared to $638 by people with just a high school
diploma. The article also points out that the unemployment rate for high school graduates was
much higher than the unemployment rate for college graduates. In 2009, there were 9.7 million
unemployed high school graduates. At that same time, there were only 5.2 million unemployed
college graduates. This article also points out some other interesting statistics. For example, the
divorce rate for college graduates who got married between 1990-1994 was about 25%. For
those people who got married (in that same time frame) without college a degree, the divorce
rate was about 50%. This may prove that as a whole, people with college degrees may tend to
lead healthier and happier lifestyles. Lack of financial stress could be contributed factor.

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As I have discovered through my research, the benefits and potential earning capacity for
those who obtain a college degree, far outweigh any short term obstacles such as student debt.
People who argue from the other viewpoint will try to point out that tuition debt is simply not
worth it in todays world. However, I feel that the information, data, and statistics that I was able
to research support just the opposite. In fact, my research indicates that choosing not to go to
college will put you in a financial hole starting out. Therefore, I think it is imperative to attend
college and get that coveted degree. In my opinion, this decision is a no-brainer.

Works Cited

"The Importance and Value of a College Degree." The Importance and Value of a College
Degree. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Feb. 2016.

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Leonhardt, David. "Is College Worth It? Clearly, New Data Say." The New York Times. The New
York Times, 26 May 2014. Web. 22 Feb. 2016.

Peralta, Katherine. "Benefits of College Still Outweigh Costs." US News. U.S.News & World
Report, 24 June 2014. Web. 22 Feb. 2016.

Altucher, James. "10 More Reasons Why Parents Should Not Send Their Kids to College."
Business Insider. Business Insider, Inc, 30 Jan. 2011. Web. 28 Feb. 2016.

GreatSchools Staff. "5 Reasons Your Child Should Go to College GreatKids." GreatKids. N.p.,
n.d. Web. 28 Feb. 2016.