Attending college has become as common as Saturday morning cartoons for a six-year-old — it’s a part of life that is expected and awaited, and people are even treated differently if they choose not to participate.
Higher education has become necessary because of the importance our society places on it. We believe that unless you earn a college degree, you won’t be successful in the real world, and you won’t get a good-paying job. We don’t live in a time where jobs are earned through apprenticeships, and high school diplomas are at the top of our education standards.
Instead, we live in a society that is well-educated because of this trend toward higher education — a trend that should be considered valuable, respectable and worthwhile to everyone, including students who think their time in college is just another four years of high school.
There are several reasons why higher education is beneficial to our society and to us individually. Economically, earning a college degree is the most viable solution to making a good living. People with college degrees make more money than those without. In 1999, the U.S. Census Bureau found that the annual average income for a person who graduated from high school was $24,572, while the average income for those with a bachelor’s degree was $45,678. According to a Federal Document Clearing House press release, the gap in earning potential, over a lifetime, between a high school diploma and a bachelor’s degree or higher exceeds $1 million.
However, higher education isn’t just about economics and how much money you’ll make after four years. College is a learning experience; here’s an environment where thousands of people with completely different backgrounds come together for one reason: to earn a degree. Sometimes, this is the only thing you have in common with each other, but you learn to accept, appreciate, and gain a new perspective on life because of these people. Real-life experience often fails to teach you these things.
In college, we also participate in activities that we wouldn’t do elsewhere. We attend football games and other sporting events with roommates and peers. We get involved in extracurricular activities and clubs. We play team sports. Sure, these are all things we can participate in without attending college, but the activities and organizations we give our time to are valuable because they are unique. There’s nothing like the combination of a college atmosphere and a group of students getting together outside of the classroom to do what they are passionate about and interested in.
Ultimately, higher education is not just grades 13 through 16 unless we allow it to be. College is what you make of it. Sure, you can go through class after class doing the minimal amount of work possible, but why bother? Doing the minimal amount of work is only a disservice to yourself. Don’t you want to graduate college thinking you’re smarter? Knowing you’re smarter? Feeling like your money, time and energy was worthwhile?
In college, we have the choice of classes to take, along with what time and with which professors. There’s no reason to be unsatisfied with what we learn. If the material isn’t challenging enough, we have the option and are encouraged to talk to professors to discover new ways to look at things. We can take harder classes and learn about subjects we’ve never heard of. Compared to high school, college gives us the luxury to make our own decisions — including when to go and what to study.
So what’s the future of higher education? A Community College Week article in January said 80 percent of new jobs in the near future will require post-secondary education. In addition, a recent Oregon University System survey released this month showed that of 600 Oregon registered voters, 78 percent believe that in five years, it will be more important than it is now to have a degree in order to secure a well-paying job.
The importance of higher education should not be lost in years to come, but instead encouraged and considered a vital part of one’s education because of the life lessons, experiences and opportunities college gives us. So next time you’re debating whether to sleep in and miss that history lecture, think of the $300 tuition money you’re spending on that one class, and think of your future without a college degree.