Monday, October 20, 2014

Is College Worth It? Walter E. Williams

As September comes along, many parents help their kids pack for a new chapter in college. Many of these parents asked themselves if college is really worth paying the money and their children's time.

The U.S. Department of Education shows that the probability for kids who graduate under the 40 percent of their high school class are not likely to graduate from college. Colleges have even made classes more simple to fit these types of students, Although students are not prepared to go to college and take on college level courses based on the examinations of the ACT in 2007, colleges still manage to accept these kids.

Colleges have strong financial motives to admit these under-prepared students, but for students who don't accomplish their goals, their life at college can be devastating. When they decide to leave college, they are left with financial debt. The process of leaving college can also devastate a student's self-esteem. The students feel they have let their families families down by not graduating college, Worst of all, many of the students who attend college and waste an amount of money but still end up at jobs that a person with a high school diploma can acquire.

On the other hand there is students who are prepared for college. Less than half the 2 million freshman going into college graduate in four years. Having a college degree doesnt mean much to the world at times. Many college seniors failed tests that would apply to daily base lives in the real world. For example, 20 percent of the students could not calculate if they had enough gas to get to the gas station. Many employers come to the conclusion that college graduates lack critical thinking, writing, and problem solving.. many of the subjects brought upon in school.

Parents and taxpayers give millions of dollars to education systems. Colleges make money whether the student learns or not so the main priority for a college is not education. There's prove a person is able to be successful without a college education, so the question stands; is college worth spending the time and money? There's no doubt that out of the thousands of colleges enrolling students, there is some colleges that do a fine job to educate the mind of these apprentices.

Sunday, October 12, 2014

"Is College Worth It? Clearly, New Data Say" by David Leonhardt Summarized

In his paper "Is College Worth It? Clearly, New Data Say," David Leonhardt (2014) demonstrates the importance of acquiring a 4-year college degree with new found statistics. The payment of a person with a four year degree has increased over time; while the payment of a person that goes to college but does not acquire the 4 year degree or just has a high-school diploma has remained constant thus emphasizing the 4 year graduates having a better opportunity of getting paid more. The true cost of not going to college will equal to about negative half a million dollars, which means that if a person does not go to college it will equal to them not gaining money. This throws away the rumor of college being a huge financial loss as in a life time the person will receive more income. A person who goes to college and acquires higher than a bachelors degree will receive more income than a community college or high-school graduate. In the past going through 13 years of school was thought to be the main priority but as of now, with the economical gap of college graduates , the main priority is 15 to 17 years of school.