If more people successfully attend and complete college, how does that change the value of a college education

for individuals? For society? It seems like, today, if you do not get a college degree, you will not get a good paying job or be happy in your career. At least, that is what society wants you to think. More and more people are going to college and the prices are increasing. Employers are looking at these undergraduates and seeing them as just another fish in the pond. There are so many people with the same degree and skills as you and they are all fighting to get the job. The employers are forced to look at every candidate and find the best one. The option that they end up going with is the person with the most education, i.e. someone with a graduate degree or higher. With so many people attending and completing college in this day and age, has the value of a college degree decreased? Some think so and others do not, it is a matter of personal opinion. Society and the economy are also affected in this situation by an increase in well-educated people searching for the right career. There are close to 17 million undergraduates seeking degrees in the United States. Their numbers are booming: enrollments increased by 24% between 2000 and 2008, and are expected to climb to 19 million by 2019 (Lagemann and Lewis pg. 86). This statistic is astounding. This statistic just completely backs up the argument to this writing. If there are 17 million undergrads seeking degrees in the United States, the value of that degree declines. It is like printing excess money and releasing it into the economy. If you print more money, it causes inflation, which causes the value of the dollar to decrease and become less valuable. This relates to getting degrees in this present day. With the job pool becoming smaller and the amount of people willing to take that job becoming larger, the value of education declines.

I recently saw a statistic in class that said 36 percent of college graduates do not have a job in their area of study. If 36 percent of college grads are working as baristas and food servers then the value of education is certainly dropping. Do not get me wrong, I believe that education is very important and having an education is more important and worthwhile than not having one, otherwise I would not be enrolled. With the current job marketplace suffering, getting a job right out of college is getting harder and harder. I think that it is becoming the norm to not have a career in your field right out of the gate. Whether this is due to a loss in value of a college degree or not, the simple fact of having a college degree puts you way ahead of someone without one. The bachelors degree is worth less than it used to be. Many bachelor degree holders are employed in jobs that do not require a college degree and furthermore these degrees are not necessarily aligned with job openings that require different skill sets. So, alternatives, such as training programs and online programs are proliferating and Master degree programs are increasing as well (Lawrence, 2012) (globalization101.org). Masters degrees and doctoral degrees are what are needed to succeed in the job marketplace these days. Sometimes, however, the doctoral degree is even too much unless you plan on obtaining an administrative role or higher. Some employers are unwilling to pay the salary demanded by doctoral degree holders. This forces these overeducated people to go out and get jobs that do not require them to use their skills and experience. The main concern pertaining to the value of completing college is, of course, money. In 2011, the median of earnings for young adults with a bachelors degree was $45,000, while the median was $22,900 for those without a high school

diploma (nces.ed.gov). The college degree, in the long run, is worth it. The only problem is acquiring a job to earn that $45,000, which, in turn, decreases the value of education. The longer you are looking and waiting for a career to fall into your lap, the less money you are making each year. And with student loan debt looming around $1 trillion, it is harder for these grads to pay off these bills without getting the high paying jobs they deserve. The debt as well as the time these graduate students are waiting for a job is only going to increase as time goes by. With undergraduates rising by 2 million students within the next six years, the more graduates there will be competing for a job. Patience is a virtue. That is what you have to keep in mind when searching for a career. It is still worth it to attend college and get that degree because it will eventually pay off. Literally. The value of a degree is only decreasing because the time that it takes to get a job is increasing. If a career pays $50,000, but you dont get that job until you are 28 years old, and you graduated when you were 23, that is 5 years of a possible $250,000 that you didnt make. So, go out and get a college degree, preferably a masters, and be patient.

Works Cited

Lawrence. "Globalization101.org | Globalization | Globalisation | What Is Globalization | Globalization Dilemmas | Globalization Debates | Pros Cons Globalization | Global Issues | International Relations | International Issues." Globalization101. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Sept. 2013.

Lagemann, Ellen Condliffe, and Harry R. Lewis. What Is College For?: The Public Purpose of Higher Education. New York: Teachers College, 2012. 86. Print.

N.p., n.d. Web.