Society and Culture

Should you go to College?

Casey Martin, Author
November 21, 2022

As High School starts to come to a close, seventeen and eighteen-year-old high school seniors have lots of decisions to make. One of those decisions is to either go to college or not go to college. This is a very important decision as it sets up a person‘s direction in life where they go and study for a career or to join the workforce and make a living.

This decision is a very hard one as where you study could potentially lead to having a higher-paying job but with that, you can accumulate a lot of debt. “The average federal student loan debt balance is $37,787 while the total average balance (including private loan debt) may be as high as $40,780.” (Hanson) That also isn’t the only issue. “The United States experiences a daunting 40% college dropout rate every year. With only 41% of students graduating after four years without delay.”(Bouchrika). That is a massive dropout rate so there is a good chance you might decide to go to college but just end up dropping out and now have more debt. But joining the workforce also has its issues where “The average American with a bachelor‘s degree earns about $80,500 per year, while the average American with only a high school diploma earns about $40,000 per year.” (Chang). That is a lot of potential income that people are missing out on by joining the workforce immediately.

But now with that background information out of the way let’s see what some of the other students of Capital High School are going to do after high school. I asked 3 different students: Dylan Baker, Sonja Ison, and Ryan O’Leary why or why not they will go to college and their plans after high school or college respectively. Both Dylan and Sonja both aren’t going to college and here is what they said about why they weren’t going. Baker said, “The reason I am not going to college is that I see no gain for me. I can‘t sit in a classroom and do work. If I am not paid I don’t have the motivation to do so.” And then there are their reasons after being asked about their plan after high school. Ison said, “My plan after high school is to continue the job I am currently at. This is because I enjoy it, and I am good at it. I might even get a second job to help support myself and make more money.” And now let‘s take the point of view of someone who is going to college with the same premise as the questions before. O’Leary said, “I’m going to college to pursue the career I want and open up more career opportunities for myself in the future. I think college will further my understanding of subjects I’m already interested in and show me new subjects of interest. My plan after college is to pursue something in the tech industry, ideally game development.”

So what do you think you would do? Join college or the workforce? Or if you are an adult what would you want your kids or future kids to do? But when it comes down to it, it‘s up to you what you want to do and how you feel in the moment of the beginning of your adult life.