What Are The Benefits Of Earning A College Degree

Superior Essays
There are well-documented benefits of earning a college degree. Students with a college degree benefit more financially and culturally than high school graduates. College is a place where students can explore and develop intellectually, while building lifelong relationships. Many of the relationships involve meeting people from different backgrounds. According to Jeff McGuire, meeting people from diverse backgrounds provides an opportunity to gain a global understanding and perspective of people from other countries, and around the world (n.d.). These experiences cultivate a community of individuals, who are growing together. College offers so much more than just educational experiences; it also provides an avenue to explore a host of activities …show more content…
This statistic is indicative that a person with a college degree at each level earns more than a person without a degree. Furthermore, the research posits that Millennials (born after 1980) with a college degree are more career driven, and value their education. Douglas Webber (2015) stated “A college degree is the best outcome for everyone regardless of cost". In fact, many of the high school graduates do not view a college education as an investment. On the other hand, college graduates view their education as a financial investment and feel as though their education is worth the student loan debt. Moreover, the investigation also revealed that regardless of generation: Millennials, Generation X (born: 1965-80), the late Baby Boomers (born: 1955-64), the early Baby Boomers (born: 1946-54), and the Silent generation (1928-45); college graduates have higher earnings compared to those individuals who do not attend college. For example, the early baby boomers earned 25% less than college graduates. Millennials with a high school diploma earned almost 40% less than a college graduate. This means that at the same age, Millennials earn slightly more than the early Baby Boomers. Because Millennials place a higher value on getting a college education they are less likely to be unemployed compared to their counterparts. Consequently, the Millennials, who are college graduates, enjoy the benefits of a higher

Related Documents

  • Decent Essays

    Myriad Benefits of College In this century an education is indispensable and mandatory to be successful. According to a recent survey in Feldman’s book, P.O.W.E.R , college students said they wanted “ to learn more things that interest me.” Moreover, forty percent wanted to be more cultured. But sixty- eight percent reported they hoped college would provide a path to a more lucrative career.…

    • 381 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Value of Education: A Liberal Approach Three Reasons College Still Matters, Stand and Deliver, Education’s Hungry Hearts, and Admiral McRaven’s speech at the University of Texas convey the value of education. Three Reasons College Still Matters by Andrew Delbanco discusses the major advantages of college education, particularly economic, political and personal development — the latter of the three being dismissed by college attendees and high school graduates alike. The economic advantage of college education is well known by parents and stressed to children by family and schools. For the many, it is the prime reason to attend college and serves as the first step towards working up the social ladder. In his essay, Delbanco includes the…

    • 762 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Essayist David Leonhardt uses statistics to show us that a college degree couldn't be more valuable. The wage gap between college graduates and everyone else seems to keep rising.…

    • 977 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Like the Pew Research says in their study “consistently find that college graduates regardless of generation are doing better than those without”. (2) The one without still have though time without college degree over time. High school graduates are doing worse compared to their college peers. The 630 Millennial ages 26-32, the young adults that finish their education started to work to make a living and pay off some school loans over time as for one with a high school degree and with a small amount of college it takes much longer to make to pay it off (2).…

    • 1000 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Great Essays

    College Is Worth Going To

    • 1210 Words
    • 5 Pages

    As said by Andrew J. Rotherham “college graduates earned more and are more likely to have a job in the first place”. As we expanded our knowledge the more likely we are to get a job in a higher profession. “College graduates are more likely to be in jobs within better benefits, further widening the divide” as stated by Andrew J. Rotherham. Adding on, it is easier for college graduates to get a job that is going to benefit them in many ways. For example, a college graduated is the manager of a clothing store and a high school graduate is an employee of the college graduated.…

    • 1210 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Sean Illing's Analysis

    • 1066 Words
    • 5 Pages

    After the Cold War, America’s economy experienced an incredible upgrade, which brought back wealth into the country, positioning it as the richest country in the world. According to Gibney, baby boomers have completely wrecked the United States, and why is that? For starters, the millennial generation, for the past decades, has been struggling with the consequences of the baby boomer’s acts, starting with economy. Growing up as a baby boomer was much easier than growing up as a millennial; the cost of living has been rising up onto a point where not only people finish college with a student loan so big they cannot afford to pay (if they even attend college), but they don’t even get paid enough in their workplace to maintain an active life. Grant Sabatier, founder of the website Millennial Money, stated in his article “Are Millennials F*cked?”…

    • 1066 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Where as a college degree is not crucial, college education helps people obtain advanced career fields In other words, college graduates tend to have monetary leverage over non graduates. In fact, “adults who graduated from a four year college believe that, on average, they are earning $20,000 more a year as a result of having gotten that degree”. (Pew Social & Demographic Trends) It is a commonly held fact that on average, salaries differ based on the type of degree and fields of study. College ultimately provides a broader experience and increases ones chances of lucrative employment.…

    • 506 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Student Debt Causes

    • 1036 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Due to fewer of the lower class attending college because of the fear of debt, the gap between the upper and lower class is rising. College graduates tend to come from middle to upper class. As these graduates get jobs, they tend to earn more than the average high school graduate. Along with the wage gap increasing, new business ventures are becoming more rare. The lack of money that college graduates have…

    • 1036 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    According to the article, “College Degrees Get You Dollars, But What Else?” by Nick McCrea, “People with a college degree are 72 percent more likely to have a retirement plan, and fewer than half are still working at age 62, whereas 67 percent of people with just a high school diploma are still in the labor market after age 62” (McCrea). McCrea does not stop there with the benefits of college. Although retirement is a huge part of many peoples lives, going to college can also help someones life on a more personal level. “People with degrees were 21 percent more likely to get married and 61 percent less likely to be divorced” (McCrea). McCrea concludes that college can lead to a better…

    • 1455 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Generation Of Slackers

    • 663 Words
    • 3 Pages

    First, the typical grade point average of college students rose from 2.52 in the 1950's to 3.11 by the last decade (Rampell, 2011, pg.2). According to the article college students that worked full time was on the rise until the Great Recession displaced millennials out of work. "44 percent of students today say that work or personal savings helped finance their higher educations, (Rampell, 2011, pg.2). Moreover, this demonstrates that the millennials are eager to work hard and get an education. There is no coddling if they are employed and going to school, as well as getting great grades.…

    • 663 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    We view “college as a job” that gives substantial earnings returns to a college degree, irrespective of occupation, whether an individual is an insurance agent or a rocket scientist. This is not true because there are people with high degrees, like a PhD or a computer programmer, who have lost their jobs to layoffs. So having a college degree does not guarantee “substantial returns,” as Richard Vedder summarizes in his article, “For Many, College Isn’t Worth It." Vedder thinks the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) are fairly accurate and that college is not worth it for everyone because we are all created differently. An impartial understanding of the information is that school is justified, despite all the trouble, for some huge number of youngsters, but is a significantly more financially dangerous…

    • 1046 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    In “Should Everyone Go to College,” Owen and Sawhill states that college allows students who graduate to earn a higher rate of income; however, various factors should be considered before choosing a degree. Moreover, the authors clarify that while the value of college outweighs the costs associated with earning a degree, just any college degree is not the best investment one could make to ensure the completion and success of their education. The authors also explain that the value of college can outweigh the costs associated with completing a degree. Owen and Sawhill emphasized that college improves certain values, such as job satisfaction and overall well-being, while also improving equally-as-important more monetary values such as graduates’…

    • 1232 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    It is shown that on average that people who go to college make more money than people that stopped their education after high school. This is supported by a quote from Should Everyone Go to College? by Stephanie Owen and Isabel Sawhill which says, “Hamilton Project research shows that 23- to 25-year-olds with bachelor’s degrees make $12,000 more than high school graduates but by the age 50, the gap has grown to $46,500” (Owen and Sawhill, 211). This quote shows that on average people when people decide to make an investment in their education, they are seeing that they are making more money than if they were to stop their education after they gained their high school diploma. Now making more money when you have a college degree is not always the case, there is still a good chance that you will have better job opportunities by having the…

    • 1025 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    College Interviews

    • 1440 Words
    • 6 Pages

    “Asma Khalid has reported, about two-thirds of Millennials ages 25 to 32 lack a bachelor 's degree. Millennial college graduates in this same age group earn about $17,500 more annually than those with only a…

    • 1440 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Worth It For Whom Higher education has become one of the hot topics in the United States as of late. There are individuals who assert that a college degree is not required to get a high earning job, because many people who are successful did not graduate from college. There are those who debate higher education is not worth due to its high price, and those who believe higher education is worth it and necessary for the reason that jobs demand a degree. Those who argue that college is not worth it expose that loans from college are too high and the job market is weak. Furthermore, these loans affect students by delaying them from buying a house, getting married, or saving for retirement.…

    • 1274 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Great Essays