College Education Essay

both direct costs such as the tuition and the indirect cost of forgone earnings while in college. If the difference between the benefits and the costs is larger than the present value of the stream of earnings the individual would realize in the absence of college, we would expect this individual to attend college.

It is currently researched that those with a college degree earn more relative to those with a high school education and that the difference has been persistently growing over the past few decades. Over a career, a study from Georgetown University Center on education and the Work force calculated that in 1999 the average lifetime earnings of a Bachelor’s degree holder was 75 percent more than the earnings of a high school graduate and that by 2009 the premium grew to 84 percent.
Another study estimated lifetime earnings for an average individual who graduated from college in 2009 to be worth about $1.2 million net of tuition expenses compared to $780,000 for an average individual who graduated from high school. Aside from just the monetary gain associated with a college degree, college graduates tend to have a higher probability of being employed as compared to the high school graduates.

A research conducted in November of 2011 the unemployment rates for college graduates was 4.4 percent as compared to the 8.5 percent for the high school graduates. The college education is associated with higher labor market earnings across all major occupations sectors. The evidence presented in this section thus far should not lead one to conclude that if any high school graduates went to college, he or she should expect to realize these labor market

benefits.

Individuals differ widely with respect to cost and benefits of college. Research shows that often those who benefit from college education are those who decide to enroll, or that workers who would earn higher wages at any level of schooling often tend to acquire more schooling. This leads to the well-recognized problem of self-selection: since individuals choose whether or not to attend college, if those with the highest propensity to succeed are the ones who choose to attend college. We cannot claim that college explains their outcomes, nor can we claim that encouraging more youth to attend college will generate similar outcomes. Since college education is attributed with a high income earning as compared to the high school education some research study denotes that a significant part of the rise in college premium can be attributed to these increased earning rates among those post bachelor degrees. When separating out the overall premium by type of degree, it is apparent that while the premium to a bachelor’s degree is high, the premium to a graduate degree is even higher. It is also clear that both the education and the choice of occupation are important determinants of labor markets outcomes. Without necessarily indicating direct causal relationships, occupational differences in the earnings of those with and without postsecondary education are at least worth considering for prospective students contemplating the choice of college major and eventual sector of employment.

Conclusion

The college degree is worth it as seen in the research above. The benefits of going through the college education do out way the negative thoughts or the pessimisms that several people have in their minds. Hence as seen the college

education is better that high school education. College graduates have more chances of enjoying better life in the future in terms of employment opportunities and earning rates are significantly high.

References

1. Oreopoulos, Philip, and Uros Petronijevic. "Making college worth it: A review of the returns to higher education." The Future of Children 23.1 (2013): 41-65.
2. Carnevale, Anthony P., Jeff Strohl, and Michelle Melton. "What's it Worth?: The economic value of college majors." (2011).
3. Leonhardt, David. "Is college worth it? Clearly, new data say." The New York Times 5.27 (2014): 14.
4. Bennett, William John, and David Wilezol. Is college worth it?: A former United States Secretary of Education and a liberal arts graduate expose the broken promise of higher education. Thomas Nelson Inc, 2013.
5. Taylor, Paul, et al. Is College Worth It?. Pew Social and Demographic trends, 2011.