Is College Good Enough?

Is college really enough? Is college really "good" enough? These questions may seem similar, but the answers are nowhere near the same. I do believe that college is very important and that everyone should try to attend, but I'm not sure if it really is good enough.

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Kids are always told that they need to finish school so they can go to college to support their future families. At least, that's how I was raised. Oddly enough, when you look at many of the successful people around you, there are a great number of them who never obtained a college degree. This is one of the main reasons that led me to think if college was enough. As JackVincent stated, “First off, a degree no longer sets you apart from the pack. Today, high school students are pretty much expected to go to college. Boomers are going back to college. Plus, there is plethora of specialized technical colleges. So, there are millions of other people with degrees looking for jobs just like you. While the realization of the importance of obtaining a degree is wonderful, the shift in thinking took college graduates from the front of the line and placed them right in the middle. This eliminated the competitive edge that a degree once provided.” I strongly agree with what Vincent is saying, because when you look around at so many successful job holders, only a handful of them actually have a degree. He also explains how nowadays it’s just as easy to get a job if you have great experience, rather than a degree."

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Ramesh Ponnuru also hits a similar topic about college in his article, "A Case Against College Education". "Part of the college wage premium is an illusion. People who go to college are, on average, smarter than people who don't. In an economy that increasingly rewards intelligence, you'd expect college grads to pull ahead of the pack even if their diplomas signified nothing but their smarts. College must make many students more productive workers. But at least some of the apparent value of a college degree, and maybe a lot of it, reflects the fact that employers can use it as a rough measure of job applicants' intelligence and willingness to work hard." 

 Aside from a degree, most people oversee that they also need experience. Many employers nowadays would rather higher someone with experience in the field, over someone with just a sheet of paper. People often stress that they are losing their jobs to others without degrees, without even knowing that the other person has been working in that type of work for over 10 years. So maybe for some people college is exactly what they need to go down their right path, and for others, there much better off staying in their hands on work. I'm not saying that people should or shouldn't go to college, because I can't answer that for anyone but myself. It's not up to me to decide if college is good enough for you.