Given much of what I’ve said so far, you must ask yourself, “is college worth it?” It’s expensive, as I’ve said repeatedly. This isn’t news to many, and with tuition costs on the rise, people’s attitudes towards college are going to change drastically. According to what a study by Georgetown University says, if you just do the math and crunch the numbers, it turns out that in fact, it is worth it, but it really all depends on what you’re majoring in.
What you major in is important. According to the study, for those with engineering or medical/science degrees, you’re looking at unemployment rates of 7% and 4.8%. With the nation’s overall unemployment currently at 7.5%, those job fields rest comfortably below that line. On the other hand though, if you’re going for a degree in the arts , you’re looking at an unemployment rate of 9.8%, or if you’re majoring architecture (i.e. civil engineering) degree, you’re looking at 12.8%.
What does this explain? It explains that you can dance around the question and throw up numbers and percentages without ever actually get around to answering the question. What can be taken from here is that if you’re the one going for that architecture degree, you have a very bleak future and you’re better off getting that medical degree.
That’s one way to look at it.
Another thing the study offers though is that for overall, on average, those with with a degree with prior work experience look at an unemployment rate of about 4.6%. Those with no prior work experience (usually new grads) look at an unemployment rate of 7.9%. These are really all just numbers and in the end, they really mean nothing. Now if you’re looking to be a civil engineer, your chances of getting a job is still lower than the person looking to be a doctor because the demand for civil engineers in the job market is very low. Though if you already have prior experience in that field (construction), your chances are much higher than the
So is college worth it? There are certain jobs where you can’t get around it. There’s no way a hospital would allow you to work for them because you don’t have the qualifications. I mean, if a nurse or doctor was checking you out and all they had was a G.E.D. to their name, how would you feel? Could you trust that that person knows what they’re doing? I guess the question you should be asking is if the field that you want to go into requires that you specialize in a certain degree. Many jobs that are out there only require that you have a 2-year degree, and for that, you can easily just go to a community college and be done with it.
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