Is college right for me?

In this article I will explore the prospects of a college/university education focusing primarily on perspective of a north American student. College has long been taken as a right of passage, for a *large amount of the American public it is seen as a stepping stone in any career. For other Americans however it seen as an opportunity to get out of poverty, as a method of escaping into prosperity. I will use this article to address many of the facts surrounding this decision, and will hope to help you make an informed decision.

The value of college cannot simply be calculated as a measure of it's financial utility, there is a lot more to this decision which impacts how you will spend the next 3-5 years of your life. It is important to understand some of these arguments, even those which seem like intangibles, as they are often the areas which can be overlooked while considering the topic in a purely objective perspective.

• Many career make college compulsory (look at the graphic bellow).
• College provides you time to consider import career decisions without having to act immediately. In a lot of ways college is seen as living in the "real world" with training wheels. College gives you the opportunity to explore how you would like to wiggle into a career, while allowing you to make major mistakes.
• College gives you the opportunity to grow with many many people that will share your experience and are your age. Many people will testify that post-college their friend pool considerably drops and that the friends that they had made in college lasted for a great portion of their lives.

Note: These facts are designed to give you a large picture of the American college systems, and they shouldn't be your sole source of guidance. Take them as a start to your own research!

• College National Budget (2007) - $972 Billion
• %7 Student default on their loans
• Every 17 years college costs increase by a factor of three
• %64 of Americans believe college to be a good decision
• 4,431: Number of degree-granting colleges in America
  

I will try bellow to lay out some of the basic financial realities of attending college. Please use this only as a guide, perform research for your own college institution and careers of interest! Also refer to the graphic bellow for more information about this topic.

Average costs of College (annual): $12,000 (public) - $30,000 (private)
Average costs of College (four years): $48,000 (public) - $120,000 (private)

Median increase in annual earnings: $21,900
Median increase in career earnings (30 years): $657,000

Median gain:
(Public institution) $657000 - $48000 = $609,000
(Private institution) $657000 - $120,000 = $537,000

Factoring in loss work time during college:

Lost amount: 4 * 25,900 = 103,600

Final values (median earning increase due to college education)
(Public institution) = $505,400
(Private institution) = $432,400

The nature of post secondary education is changing dramatically, as such the decision to go to college isn't quite clear-cut as it has always been. Given this, one should perform a great amount of research before making up their mind on the college question. It is important to consider not only how college is now, but also to predict the utility of it's experience on you as an individual throughout your lifetime.