There was a time when a college degree wasn’t necessary at all. Fifty years ago, when public schools were churning out students to become factory workers a person could get a good job relatively easily straight out of high school. Once the factories began closing Làm bằng đại học, it became more urgent for a person to obtain a college degree to get a decent job. This was the major consensus when I was growing up, in the late 80’s and early 90’s. So, I went to college and got my degree. However, as we ponder the future, we must ask ourselves, “Is it still as important as it once was to get a college degree?” In a world where many of the wealthiest people in our society are comprised of college dropouts it seems like a legitimate question.
The “Yes” Argument
I don’t regret getting my degree. It has allowed me job security in a tumultuous time. Although I don’t get paid a great deal (I’m a teacher), it has been a steady and reliable income. But more than that, I loved college. I met so many great people, and I learned a lot of stuff. It’s very motivating when you’re paying for an education to get all you can out of it. I could have easily been happy as a lifetime student if only I could have supported myself.
As a college graduate, you open up many more options for yourself. Whether you learned anything or not, that little piece of paper affords you a lot of respect in some circles. Theoretically, anyway, you should have at least a base level of knowledge about your subject no matter how much you partied in school. Walking into a job interview with a college degree on your side is definitely an advantage, all other things being equal among your competition. But the world is a different place than it used to be.
The “No” Argument
Put simply, college costs a LOT of money. I’ve been out of school for 10 years and I’m still paying off student loans, and I didn’t even go to grad school. At some point you have to ask yourself if it’s worth it when you figure in the cost. College tuition rises every year. Although, I think many colleges will soon begin to see less applicants simply because a large portion of Americans find it harder and harder to afford college.
The other fact is that we live in an age of so much information availability that everything that was once held in secrecy by college professors is now readily available to anyone. Sure, we have to weed through it all to get what we need, but Google is here to stay. No longer do you have to shell out hundreds of dollars for outdated textbooks. We just pull up the search box and get the most up-to-date information for FREE. We no longer need to wake up before the sun to sit through a 7:00 in the morning lecture. We just pull one up on YouTube at our convenience.
So many ultra-successful people have been getting to the top without degrees that it’s making the rest of us question the necessity of that piece of paper. And we all know that for most jobs, having a degree really doesn’t give you much more knowledge about a job than someone without a degree. Most of the specific knowledge you need for a job comes through on-the-job training anyway. So, yes or no