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Arthur Jiang

Professor Martin

English 110

10 February 2018

College Degree Is Worthy

According to Nation Center For Education Statistics, there were about 19.9 million

students attend American colleges in fall 2018. So why do many students want to go to four-year

colleges? Generally, a college degree is very important for young people to obtain in order to

become successful. However, the cost of a four-year college is rising every year, so people start

to argue about whether college is worth the money and time. Although going to college is very

expensive and time consuming, college is still worth the money and time because the diploma

can provide people several advantages through more job opportunities, better income and can

influence generations to come.

First of all, a college degree makes people’s lives easier when they try to find work

because the diploma gives a higher chance of providing jobs. According to the article “Is It Still

Worth Going to College?” the authors, Mary C. Daly and Leila Bengali, assert that “[h]igh

school graduates consistently face unemployment rates about twice as high as those for college

graduates” (51). This shows that most employers like to provide jobs to people who have a

college degree because many job positions require professional knowledge in order to complete

tasks. Therefore, people without a diploma are more likely to struggle finding a job that needs a

college knowledge, so people without a college degree probably need to take much longer time

to ensure jobs. Moreover, people without a college degree can have a hard time on moving up

even though they work very hard. In the article “Americans Want to Believe Jobs Are the
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Solution to Poverty. They’re Not,” the author Matthew Desmond states that “[w]orking harder

and longer will not translate into a promotion if employers pull up the ladders and offer

supervisory positions exclusively to people with college degrees.” That is because most higher

level job positions often require specific knowledge from four-college lessons, and the gaps

between basic jobs and promotional jobs are very big, so people without a college degree hardly

move to a better position which also means they have less job opportunities than people with a

college degree. Also, “if you give it your all in a job you can land with a high-school diploma (or

less), that job might not exist for very long: Half of all new positions are eliminated within the

first year” (Desmond). The job positions that do not require a college degree can be competitive

since most people in America have the ability to acquire such jobs. Therefore, this can also

decrease the chance of people without a diploma from getting jobs. On the other hand, job

positions that require college degrees can be less intimidating because not everyone in the

country has a diploma, and people cannot really steal jobs from other people who have different

major.

Second, compared to people without a college degree, people with a diploma can earn a

lot more. As a result, people can have better life quality just because they spend around four

years in college. In the article “Is College Worth It? Clearly, New Data Say”, the writer David

Leonhardt expresses that “[a]mericans with four-year college degrees made 98 percent more an

hour on average in 2013 than people without a degree” (33). This explains that people with a

diploma can earn almost double than people without a college degree. Hence, people with a

diploma can have the freedom to choose to work less and do something else besides work. In

addition, the income an of employee with a college degree can keep increasing during his life.

Daly and Bengali suggest that “the value of a college education rises over a worker’s life” (50)
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since “college graduates start with higher annual earning..., and experience more rapid growth in

earning than members of their age cohort with only a high school degree” (50). In other words,

people with a diploma can earn much more when they have more work experiences, and unlike

people without a diploma, people with a diploma are likely able to combine knowledge and

experiences.

In addition, people with a college degree are likely to make their children successful in

the future. A college degree not only can benefit the person who gets it, but also can benefit

his/her children. Writing in the article, “The Privileges of The Parents,” Margaret A. Miller

claims that “[s]ure enough, the more highly educated the parents, the higher the grades of their

children: 60.6 percent of children whose parents have advanced degrees get mostly A’s, whereas

only 27.8 percent of high-school dropouts’ children do” (674). Miller’s point is that parents of

higher education can help their children to improve their grades tremendously. Parents with

higher education tend to know the importance of a diploma, so they will likely make their

children work harder. At the same time, they are also capable to help their children on studying

and doing homework. Miller’s daughter-in-law Beth, tells a story about her friend who wants her

son to go to college, and “[s]he tells him to study, ... but she can’t help him with the content, and

she doesn’t know that she needs to really push him to do his homework for a certain amount of

time after school everyday” (qtd. in Miller 674). In making this comment, Miller complains that

although some parents want their children to do good in school, they cannot help their children

with studying, since they do not even understand what their children are studying or what to do

to make their children to be better in schools. In fact, both of my parents only finished their

middle school, so when I have troubles with my homework questions, I have to spend more time

to figure out the answer myself which can be more difficult and wastes more time. Miller agrees
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when she writes, “[parents with higher education’s] involvement has, as the most recent National

Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) reveals, a remarkably good effect on their children’s

engagement and satisfaction with college, and hence on their ultimate success” (674). Miller is

insisting that the journey of a student’s education can be much easier, happier, and better if

his/her parent is highly educated. This can make children earn a higher grade, better college, and

a more successful life.

Finally, some people argue that college does not teach a person the experience he needs

to be successful, but one can also argue that although practical experience is needed, basic

knowledge is also important. Besides that, people with a college degree can also combine his

knowledge with experience later on. On the other hand, if people without a diploma do not like

their jobs anymore, they can hardly change to a different jobs because they do not have the

experience of the new job nor the knowledge from college that can help him to prepare for new

work. Another point that some people make is that there are some people without a diploma who

are successful such as Bill Gates, Michael Dell, Steve Wozniak and etc. However, it must also be

recognized that those people are only the small portion of the people without a college degree.

Also, not everyone is going to be a business man, while he/she needs a college degree to find a

job. Understandably, many people are afraid that college costs too much money, and they do not

want to waste money. Nonetheless, Daly and Bengali advise that “once that investment is paid

off, the extra income from the college earning premium continues as a net gain to workers with a

college degree” (52). Therefore, people should be braver since they are likely to pay off their

debt, and after that, they should earn much more; at the same time, their life quality will improve

hugely.

“You have to stay in school. You have to. You have to go to college. You have to get
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your degree. Because that’s the one thing people can’t take away from you, is your education.

And it is worth the investment,” advises Michelle Obama. A college degree can bring so many

benefits to people. A college degree opens up many job opportunities. Also, people with a

diploma can make more money from their career. Furthermore, children can also gain

advantages from their parent’s education. Therefore, I hope more people can have foresight and

willing to fight for themselves and their children’s future.

Works Cited

Desmond, Matthew. “Americans Want to Believe Jobs Are the Solution to Poverty. They’re

Not.” Nytimes.com. New York Times. 11 September 2018.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/11/magazine/americans-jobs-poverty-

homeless.html

Daly, Mary C. and Leila Bengali. “Is It Still Worth Going to College?” Practical Argument: A

Text and Anthology. Ed. Laurie G. Kirszner and Stephen R. Mandell. 3rd short ed.

Bedford/St. Martin, 2017. pp. 48-53.

“Fast Facts: Back to School Statistics.” Nces.ed.gov. National Center for Education Statistics.

Leonhardt, David. “Is College Worth It? Clearly, New Data Say.” Practical Argument: A Text

and Anthology. Ed. Laurie G. Kirszner and Stephen R. Mandell. 3rd short ed.

Bedford/St. Martin, 2017. pp. 33-35.

Miller, Margaret A. “The Privileges of The Parents.” Practical Argument: A Text and Anthology.

Ed. Laurie G. Kirszner and Stephen R. Mandell. 3rd short ed. Bedford/St. Martin,

2017. pp. 673-675.