Post-Secondary Education: Is it really beneficial?

 “One of the most damaging messages of educational romanticism is that everyone should go to the college”. – Charles Murray

In today’s world we have often heard the statement “Post-secondary education is a stepping stone towards becoming successful in one’s life”, and it is essential to becoming a more mature and prolific adult. Post-secondary education provides financial stability. I believe that graduating from a well-known esteemed university is more fulfilling than winning a lottery because, in the lottery the prize money will exhaust and the chances of winning another lottery are slim, but with proper education and skills one can make their own fortune. However, seeing the current stats on students who have just graduated from college shows that post-secondary education does not fulfil the promises made to students. Post-secondary education is becoming more disadvantage than its proposed benefits because of its affordability, mental health concerns and assurance.

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Career plays a crucial role in the life of any youth. Education and just routine education are trapping the youth today in a wheel within wheels conceptualization of set prejudicial standards. Just educating ourselves is not sufficient. The call of the day is to inculcate our inherent and latent abilities so that we not shape our personality but also give our contribution to the nation building and growth of the economy. These days many options are available before the youth to choose a vocation in accordance to their ability and aptitude. That’s why they are excelling in the fields they are selecting. Their interest and right guidance through trained faculties help them excel in whatever career they are pursuing. Life is not the matter of just living it, it is modifying and molding it to enable us to serve our country in a more efficient and effective manner, for this specialized education is more helpful than simple post-secondary education.

The price of higher education is increasing per year and that is an alarming situation for every parent. Reasonableness of post-secondary education is flawed in light of the fact that every year because of rivalry in the colleges, the costs go up. Not only is there competition between the students to succeed, but there is also competition between the universities to attract more students, which is further deteriorating the quality of the academics in those institutions. Since 1983 the rate at which the price of college education has increased is far steeper than the increase in the price of good and services. Furthermore, you will be shocked to know the salaries of graduates is on a stable graph since the year 2013. This increase in the cost is like a big rock for students who wish to achieve post-secondary education. I read an article on the internet and it states, the average cost of attending a reputed university in United States of America is near $250,000. With such high cost of attendance, it is nearly impossible for students who come from a low-income background to get into colleges without taking on debt. Recently, total student loans hit a $1 trillion threshold.

A “Pew Internet Survey” which was organized in the year 2016 in which approximately 10,000 higher education experts were interviewed and about which 77 percent said higher education was too expensive for most low-income families to afford it. I walked into the school at the age of four and by the time I graduate I will be 21 years old. I will spend my 17 years of life studying theoretical knowledge knowing that the actual jobs that we will get will be either practical or mechanical. In a recent survey graduates from college of engineering were asked a simple question that was “How many centimeters are there in an inch” out 10 graduates only three were able to give the answer to it. I believe if those students were offered more practical information than just theories, they could have easily answered the question.

 Not so long ago going for Post-secondary education meant acquisition of beneficial knowledge. Realization dawned upon universities that job market gave preference to graduates and BOOM! University diplomas progressed from straightforward signs of education to negotiating chips holding quantifiable fiscal esteem. No sooner education also became as just a private business. With rising interest came fundamentally higher cost. Today, Thousands of dollars are paid by the parents to colleges so that their children can get a job security later in life but still every year students graduate from the college with expensive degrees and no job.

 One of the reasons why students from low income background cannot afford education is that “there is no doubt that costs are going up, and debt is accumulating at an uncomfortable rate for many students” (Korfmann, 2012). As the tuition rates are so high getting a loan from the banks for education are difficult because “prospective students are often unable to provide sufficient collateral to back their borrowing” (Finnie, Ross, Mueller and Richard, 2008).

 Plus, I believe by the time we complete our post-graduate offering the valuable time of this “once given life” the requirement of that degree has already decreased. The so called “trendy course” is no longer fashionable. It can be witnessed in the past years that college degrees are serving just a nominal job after graduation. But if we look at famous billionaires like Bill Gates are Mark Zuckerberg who were college dropouts and still are successful than most of the people in this world. From them we come to know that if we acquire and master a skill set nothing can stop us from reaching the heights of success. Some more infamous billionaires are Anne Beiler co-founder of Auntie Anne’s Pretzel, she dropped out of high school. Richard Branson billionaire and founder of Virgin Mobile. If you run after money you will probably not get successful in life, but if you run after success you will definitely end up being both rich and successful.

 Mental health is a big concern while pursuing higher education. Post-secondary education requires lots of time and attention to the studies and also huge amount of efforts into one’s chosen major. A survey was conducted in 2017 out of 1,000 students 62% reported that post-secondary education gave a lot of stress. People who fall into mental illness and illegal substance use are students who are trying to get out from the stress. Moreover “studies have shown that stress, sleep loss, and depression are commonplace in the college, student population” (Popovic 2012). So, it is evident from these facts that post-secondary education can lead to high health risks. Sometimes student even end up taking counselling sessions so that they can overcome the stress caused by the college.

 Because of stress the cases for suicide ideation and practices, self-damage reports, emergency advising needs, dietary problems, past sexual injury and different things have been expanded. These sorts of issues are disservices for the understudies who need to achieve their objectives in the later life. Consequently, it, makes an enormous measure of weight to the understudy which will probably make them bomb in accomplishing advanced education.

 Another major problem related to post-secondary education is college degrees are of uncertain value, for example if one has to become a doctor, lawyer, engineer or psychologist college theoretical classes are really important for them, but if one aspires to become a lighting designer a guitarist or a plumber how will classes of theories help them? There are so many occupations which do not require a college degree. Also, if one has chosen a career that doesn’t require a college degree one must stay firm and confident in their choice and have faith in whatsoever, they plan to do for themselves. Let’s talk about famous youtubers or all the famous people on social media such as models, singers etc. many of them do not even complete their college or many don’t even try to join one because they believe they can earn money with their talent all they need is a large number of fans following which colleges don’t tell how to earn. As once said by Mark Twain: “Don’t let your boy’s schooling interfere with his education”. This is just one form to say that parents can’t make their children successful just by dumping knowledge over them.

 Now let’s talk about some graduates “Finn Lee” a graduate from reupdated university in America end up working as an uber-driver having a degree of computer science. “Finn Lee” is just one name out of thousands of graduates who every year end up working in Starbucks, MacDonald’s, KFC or as an Uber driver. What makes it worse is that they have thousands of dollars of student loan to pay to the banks. When they fail to pay the loan back to the bank it increases crime rate such as robbery or even murders. Some of them commit suicide leaving behind their loved ones in shock and grief. “The worst part is student loans, like 90% of private loans today, if you die, your cosigner (typically a parent) will still have to pay the debt” (Suicide and student loan debt, 2018).

 Higher education sometimes can have more cons than pros due to its cost, health issues, and debt loans. One of the major reasons why post-secondary education has a disadvantage because of its rise in cost per year. Despite the fact that it offers an alternate focal point it likewise contains disadvantages that can have a huge effect on one’s choice in seeking after a post-education. An individual goes to college so that they can achieve financial stability but nowadays college degrees fail to provide job security and financial stability. In post-secondary education one should always look for open doors and opportunities if left unchecked post-secondary education can have more disadvantage than its advantages.

WORKS CITED

Korfmann Andreas. The Post-Secondary Education Bubble (2012)

Finnie, Ross, Mueller, Richard E. The Effects of Family Income (2008)

Popovic, Tamara. Mental Health in Post-Secondary Education System (2012)

Robert Farrington. Let’s talk: Suicide and student loan debt. (2018)

Mike-EL Navarro (November 24, 2015)