The Value of a College Education, Thesis Paper Example

It is undeniable that college education is widely regarded as an immense investment that has the propensity to yield great dividends. Day and Newburger (2002) in a recent publication of their research findings about the significance of college education to social and economic wellbeing were quoted as saying “the expected life time earnings of a bachelor’s college graduate are $2.1 million and the expected lifetime earnings of a high-school (only) graduate are $1.2 million.” Thus further leaning credence to what is already universally known about the relevance of college education. The next several paragraphs will be dedicated to the presentation of a lucid case that fundamentally will highlight the gains of college education both in the long and short term framework.

To begin with, it is worth acknowledging that college education arguably serves as a good precursor to enhanced career fortunes. College education serves as a preparatory period for an individual to fully develop and articulate his or her academic skills to a point of enhancing its relevance to the labor market. Depending on an individual’s intended career path, he or she will strategically gain from the preparation that college education offers by way of direction towards the realization of this goal. College education in our day and age has evolved into a self-fulfilling system that streamlines academic knowledge with real world situations. For instance, more college students are now exposed to internships and industrial trainings than ever before. For good reasons, it creates the platform for the students to get a fore knowledge about the internal dynamics of industry before they are able to fully launch into it.

It is also known that college education comes along with a considerable element of social prestige that can be gauged by the level of acceptance that people with college degrees receive in our contemporary societies. It is not uncommon to find that most elite and high paying jobs usually set a college degree as the most optimum requirement for eligibility to be considered for such a job. A number of basic assumptions guide this assertion, irrespective of the veracity or otherwise of such a notion. A case in point is that, people with college education are more inclined to be more analytical, resourceful and industrious in comparison to people without any college education. They are therefore the most preferred group within the labor market when it comes to feeling up job openings demanding intellectual input.

In addition to the above, college education provides one of the most potent channels by which individuals can rise through the social strata that they belong. In order words, college education can elevate the son or daughter of a working class family living in the inner city suburbs to rise up to become the chief executive officer of a renowned multinational corporation. Within this milieu, this individual will be viewed with a different lens which is in sharp contrast to what his or her family was hitherto known for.

Reference

Day, J.C., & Newburger, E.C. The Big Payoff: Educational Attainment and Synthetic Estimates of Work-Life Earnings. Current Population Reports, Special Studies, P23-210, 2002.