Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Is the Cost of College Worth Paying For?

Is the Cost of College Worth Paying For?
By: Brennan Berg







Within the next few months most of us will worry about what college we will be attending next fall. One of the most common questions asked is, How much does that college cost? Now many of us will either go to a medium sized UW school or some may go above and beyond and go to universities like Notre Dame or BYU or maybe even Harvard you never know! If you get accepted into a college like Notre Dame then be ready cause thats a very expensive four years of your life. Notre Dame’s total comes out to be roughly $60,000.00 a year! Most of us will be attending a UW schools which on average is about $12,000.00 which seems to be a lot better of a deal depending on the college that you are accepted to. If you are accepted to both then you have an opportunity costs kind of decision and by that I mean: you could go to the college of your dreams and have to be in debt for a while or you could go to a place like UW Lacrosse or Eau Claire where you could pay off the debt faster than it took for you to graduate college. It’s still going to be expensive either way.
Now most of us will have the opportunity to go off to college and have a great experience, but some may not be able to attend college because it costs so much money. According to  USNews.com, “in 2010, recent college graduates  left school owing an average of $25,250 in student loans--the highest amount ever”(US News). Some people just can’t afford to be in the kind of debt so many do not end up going to college right away which is perfectly fine! It happens to a lot of people, but the real question is will being $25,250.00 in debt be worth the rest of your life? According to USNews.com, Most college graduates find better jobs and earn higher pay, but that is only if you graduate from that university.

Now most of you may be wondering, “what if I don’t want to go to college, but I want to have a really good job?” Don’t worry! There have been many people who do not go to college that have been some of the most successful people in the world. For example, Mark Zuckerberg, The creator of Facebook, Bill Gates who created Microsoft and probably the most known out of the three, Steve Jobs, The creator of Apple. Those three are all college drop outs and ended up creating something that will affect the world for many years to come. So if you end up going to college and dropping out or even if you end up not going to college at all, don’t think that just because you can’t afford it now doesn’t mean that you will be working at the same place you began working at as a teenager for the rest of your life.

So now going back to the question is going to college really worth the money? The answer to that is, it’s your decision, but I would have to say yes because people who graduate from college have gone on to make about $60,000.00 plus a year which could turn into a great income after a few years, but you can make a decent living if you don’t go to college right away but it could be hardly enough to get by and I know that we all want money that we could spend for things that could be at our leisure like a newer and better car, movies, go out to eat and I think you understand the rest. Could being in debt for a few  years be worth it in 20 years? Thats up to you to decide.








4 comments:

  1. It’s really a shame that the cost and requirements to go to college are so much higher than they were 30 years ago. My family found out that between ACT fees, college visit trips and application fees, we have spent more money applying for college than my Dad spent on his entire first year college tuition. Why is that you may ask. Colleges are harder to get into nowadays because in the past not as many people went to college and thus spots were easy to fill. Now that a larger part of the population is going to college, colleges must make requirements to decide who gets into the colleges scarce number of spots. In addition, schools must be added onto to offer more spots in the university. This costs money and drives up the cost of tuition. While the short run costs of college may be high because of student debt, the long run costs of likely a higher income will pay off in the future if you go to college.

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    1. I can completely see where you're coming from, Dany. When I was doing all the college tours, the applications, and the ACT, I could not believe the amount of money it was all adding up to. And no person can do anything about it. You want to go to this school? Well before you’re even accepted, pay all this money to find out. It’s a bit insane. I can’t even imagine what it’s going to be like for the next generation. I think that would’ve been kind of interesting to look at (a graph of the possible future expenses for the next generations to come).

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  2. It's an exaggeration how much colleges cost. They're part of education, so everyone should be able to go to college even if they don't have money to afford it. In Europe colleges are so much cheaper. I don't agree when you say that it's not that bad to not go to college because you can still get a good job. It's not always like that. Bill Gates and Steve Jobs are just some exceptions out of a million people who didn't and don't success as well. And in reality there is a lot of unemployment, so not having gone to college will make it harder to find a good job for sure. I think it's worth putting your savings into a college, because you get much more education and it gives you many more opportunities in the future.

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  3. I think your blog is opinionated

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