Every year, millions of secondary school graduates enroll in post-secondary institutions anticipating that the education they receive at these post-secondary institutions will help them secure jobs and achieve success. However, a question most students ask themselves prior to applying for a post-secondary program is, “is this worth it (time and money)?”. Yes, enrolling in a post-secondary institution is most certainly worth it. The value of post-secondary education can be explained by three economic principles – scarcity, the fallacy of single causation, and opportunity cost.
A central focus in economics is scarcity, scarcity is the problem of having limited resources and unlimited wants – this concept can be applied to post-secondary education …show more content…
To begin, when someone receives a post-secondary education, the individual is likely to earn a larger salary than those who do not. Society believes that the physical diploma/degree is the only reason why graduates of post-secondary institutions make more money than those who opt out of attending university/college. However, the skills you receive during the whole post-secondary education process (ex. “people skills”) is a main contributor to the success a post-secondary graduate has. So, while the qualification you receive is valuable, it is also the experience of post-secondary education that makes it worth …show more content…
A prime reason people receive any kind of education is to increase the amount of potential money they could earn. Now, suppose someone decides not to go to university – what is the opportunity cost in this scenario? Well in this scenario, the main opportunity cost is the loss of potential money they could earn because a university graduate is likely to make $1.3 million dollars more in their career than a person who opts out of attending university (Coates and Morrison). Moreover, $1.3 million dollars is a significant loss – this shows the immense value of a post-secondary education.
In conclusion, enrolling in a post-secondary institution is worth it and the worth can be explained by applying the concept of scarcity, the fallacy of single causation, and opportunity cost to post-secondary
A central focus in economics is scarcity, scarcity is the problem of having limited resources and unlimited wants – this concept can be applied to post-secondary education …show more content…
To begin, when someone receives a post-secondary education, the individual is likely to earn a larger salary than those who do not. Society believes that the physical diploma/degree is the only reason why graduates of post-secondary institutions make more money than those who opt out of attending university/college. However, the skills you receive during the whole post-secondary education process (ex. “people skills”) is a main contributor to the success a post-secondary graduate has. So, while the qualification you receive is valuable, it is also the experience of post-secondary education that makes it worth …show more content…
A prime reason people receive any kind of education is to increase the amount of potential money they could earn. Now, suppose someone decides not to go to university – what is the opportunity cost in this scenario? Well in this scenario, the main opportunity cost is the loss of potential money they could earn because a university graduate is likely to make $1.3 million dollars more in their career than a person who opts out of attending university (Coates and Morrison). Moreover, $1.3 million dollars is a significant loss – this shows the immense value of a post-secondary education.
In conclusion, enrolling in a post-secondary institution is worth it and the worth can be explained by applying the concept of scarcity, the fallacy of single causation, and opportunity cost to post-secondary