What Are We Paying For?

“Good Will Hunting” offers some great life lessons for everyone who watches it. A lot of the lessons are about not shutting people out, and going after what you want. Along with lessons, we see a number of issues and stereotypes throughout the movies which raise a number of questions about our society. The big thing that stuck out to me was the importance of college. The protagonist Will is a genius and does great without college, and his friends (though not wealthy) have no problems enjoying their lives and surviving. Since watching this movie and starting the blog the question “is college worth it?” has run around in my mind, developing and growing into something more. The question has adapted and my opinions have changed quite a lot.

Ive decided college is a scam. Its a bold claim, but looking at how a lot of pyramid schemes are run, its not very far off the mark. Pyramid schemes often exchange "business advice" for money, then offer a small amount of money for each person the original student refers to the scheme. If you think about it, college is very similar except its accepted by society. Pulling back from the extreme slightly, college is charging a lot of money for a piece of paper saying you didn't fail. After some research I decided that this piece of paper is important requiring me to change my question about the necessity of college. I feel their is a major gap in  the importance of having a degree and having a good education. So, In todays businesses, has the importance of attending college overshadowed the importance of how smart and well educated someone is regardless of how they were educated?

While doing research on this I came across an article called "Is College Worth It?" by Adam Michelle. Though it doesn’t directly answer my question, it gives me good insight to how parents, students, and graduates feel about college. The article pulls from many different surveys that different groups have done. Through calls, internet, and mailed in responses we get an idea of what people think about the value of college. The results ended up being extremely interesting and eye opening. 

Though 57% said that they did not get good value for money and 75% said college was too expensive for Americans, 86% of graduates still said college was a good investment for them. So apparently from a money stand point college is not worth it, but the overall investment of college is a great decision. It is a very contradictory statement that requires farther insight. Just to add to the ridiculousness of societies view on college, it was also stated that 19% of on survey thought that the U.S. system is the best in the world. The results are constantly going against themselves which makes society’s thoughts towards college seem terrible. 

This article brought me to an interesting conclusion that seems to answer my question as a “yes”. The investment is important if you want to make more money in the long run. To be more specific, its important if you want to make an extra $20000 a year compared to a non college graduate. At the same time if you go to college you're not getting as much as you should for the money. That extra $20000 a year is important, but for how much we pay to go to college we should be getting a lot more than that. This puts college in a very dangerous position, just barely hanging on to its credibility. Though as that percentage of people grow saying the cost is too much, college gets closer and closer to collapsing as the expected option after high school graduation. 

This is a good way to get into another article I found while researching my question called "Is College Still Worth It" by Brian Kelly. Had this article and the first article I mentioned been written as one, I feel it would be similar to what I am writing right now about college. The article seems to focus on the conclusion I came to in my last article. So, starting from the beginning, this article talks about how US News doesn't promote college, but instead ranks them against each other. “we rank colleges and universities, we don’t promote them. Which is a good thing, because this year in particular, college would seem like a very difficult product to sell” which supports my claim that college is in a dangerous position because we are not getting enough for the amount we are paying.

Brian moves on to talk about what would happen if colleges were businesses and the questions that would be asked. Mostly if the promised product (education) is being delivered effectively. From their he talks about how college has been supported even against all odds. According to economists, higher ed is the nest economic bubble about to pop. So I’m not the only one that thinks college is losing its value and my soon die out.

Overall this article is about how college is not sustainable. Eventually the cost will outweigh the perceived value, and people will put money elsewhere. Yes, for now people who go to college are making more money long term, but soon college debt will cancel that out. One of the most concerning things I read is that many colleges spend money on non academic pursuits. This becomes a problem when the state starts funding less and colleges have to lay off faculty, resulting in over crowded classrooms and grad students teaching classes for no pay. Colleges find themselves with state of the art athletic facilities but no way to actually educate their student. 

So back to the original question, in todays businesses, has the importance of attending college overshadowed the importance of how smart and well educated someone is regardless of how they were educated?  The answer is yes. Right now businesses care more about people having a degree because so much of the money that goes into college has nothing to do with education. If the business world wanted the best educated, they would insist that the $30,000 we spend a year goes towards educating us to be successful working for various businesses. 

Adam, Michelle. "Is College worth It?" Education Digest 77.6 (2012): n. pag. Academic Search Premier. Web. 16 Mar. 2015.

Brian, Kelly. "Is College Still Worth It?" U.S. News & World Report 47.8 (2010): 6-12. Points of View Reference Center. Web. 29 Mar. 2015.