In the United States, while in high school, students are encouraged to apply to higher education.
In fact, up to 70% of high school graduates end up enrolling for college.
Many of these students enroll into university because they believe this will improve their job prospects. When you think about it, a lot of jobs require that the applicant has a bachelors degree. Therefore, those with just a high school degree are left working jobs that pay minimum wage. Some high school graduates have skills that let them enter the workface for that particular skill; however, even in those fields, many jobs require a college degree still.
Ofcourse, there are many sucessful people, who didn't finish college or go to college, but not everyone can be follow that path because it is unreliable. This is why the New York Times, states that 'A college degree remains the most reliable path to a good job and a healthy, satisfying life.'
The average cost of college depends a lot on whether the college is a public institution or a private institution.
For the school year 2017-2018, the average cost of tuition, fees, room, and board at a public college was around 18K per year.
In comparison, the average cost at a private college was around 46K per year.
Clearly, this is a lot of money. Even if a student and their parents save up for college, they most likely won't be able to pay the whole cost of college.
Ofcourse, there is finanical aid given to many students as well, but at private colleges, this still might not be enough money to cover just tuition.
They why not go to a public university?
In general, students are going to college to help themselves get a job,
but many students want to go a highly ranked university so the job prospects will be better than those students who attend a lower ranked university.
So, taking this into account, a lot of students go to private schools because they are higher ranked than public schools.
Aside from that, student also have the right to like the school and the atmosphere that school creates,
since they will be spending the majority of four years at that place.
So, what is the result of going to college and taking on a massive amount of debt?
Right now in 2020, the whole world is in the middle of a pandemic.
Thus, Class of 2020 graduates are having a harder time finding jobs than those who graduated before this pandemic started. According to U.S. Department of Labor, in May 2020 the unemployment rate reached a high of 14.7%. However, this doesn't mean that all college graduates are unemployed. One out of every 20 young college graduate is unemployed currently.
Although these statistics are scary, let's break down which group of graduates are having a harder time finding employment. Once students enter college, they choose what they would like to major in. Depending on a student's major, the student may have a harder or easier time in finding a job after college. The problem nowadays with going into college is that many majors don't have much of an ability to be employed. Ofcourse, this depends on the job market itself.
So the result of going to college, is that you most likely will end up in debt, but depending on your major you may be able to pay that debt off easily. Or you may end up having a job that has nothing to do what you went to college for. In the end of the day, it really depends on the student and their actions to suceed in this system of higher education.