College Tuition : Is The Debt Acquired Really Worth it?
Onotina Imoudu
October 2020
The question of whether one should go to college or not, is an issue frequently raised in society. Over the years, this question has led to a lot of dispute, in which both parties present cases of people who have done significantly well in their respected career with either a college degree or without. However, this is a matter where a final conclusion can't be obtained because it is far too ambiguous and highly dependent on the individual in question. One issue that is gaining alarming attention is the annual increase of tuition, particularly in The United States. Over the last 40 years, the cost of college has increased exponentially, the large spike in price has led to more requests for student loans. It is sufficient to say that the higher the cost of tuition, the more each student has to borrow which leads to large accumulation of debt. This raises the question of whether the large accumulation of student debt, which many people never end up paying completely even into their 30’s, is worth going to college for. It’s quite counterintuitive to believe it is, when in the digital age a large number of courses are taught freely online and are significantly cheaper. But there is a side of this story that is not taken into consideration. The vast resources college students have access to, the people they meet, the skills that are only acquired through experience, the safety net of learning to navigate the world without parental supervision; are all benefits which colleges in America offer outside of a declared major. It is for these reasons that we should conclude that while the yearly increase of tuition in America leads to a lot of student debt, the resources, network, skills that colleges provide is worth the monetary value of large accumulation of debt.
According to Experian’s Data Study, as of 2020, the United States has reached an all time record high of $1.4 trillion in student debt loans with borrowers averaging $37,107 in debt. Why would anyone risk going to college, only to end up with such an amount in debt? There has to be opportunities, difficult to access as an everyday civilian, that affiliation with a college readily provides a free pass to, right? Yes, the first is constant access to influential and prominent individuals in society. Hold on, why would meeting 'this people' make the debt acquired in college an investment? Can't I simply just attend events organized by them or hang out at their favorite hang-out spots? You could but that fails to take into account that such opportunities are rare, expensive and requires looking for events connected to your current interest. However, those affiliated with college (whether current or alumni) don't have to worry about any of that. Because colleges either organize events and invite these individuals as guest speakers or have them become faculty members.
Ok, I understand that colleges make it relatively easier for those affiliated with them, to meet prominent people in society. But why would anyone want to meet them? Doesn’t it still seem counterintuitive to decide to pay such a huge amount of money just to meet someone, whether popular or not? Yes, it does seem counterintuitive but there are numerous benefits of meeting them. It could be the head start a student looking to launch their company needs. Or the audition, a student looking to get in the movie industry needs. It just goes to say that meeting people who have successfully navigated through every difficulty an individual has (or will face) can be the final piece of the puzzle they need to get their foot wet in their intended career or the motivation they need to keep pushing on. This point is illustrated beautifully by taking an example of what might be going through the mind of a student present at the summit organized by Northeastern Women in Technology Club, in 2020, titled 'Women who Empower', where the guest speaker was Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi. An excerpt of the talk from northeastern news:
““It took over 200 years of the pecking order, one person after another, all in line,” she said. “And then when I sort of broke into the line, they said, ‘Who said she could run?...........................I wish I could say that that is a relic of a bygone era, that everything has changed, but current events suggest that we still have a long way to go,” she said. “It’s through platforms like Women Who Empower, through these networks, these forums, that we can unabashedly and enthusiastically cheer on our women and girls.”
This segment of talk was based on the difficulties women encounter when trying to run for a position in politics. She went on to share the problems she faced on her way to become the first woman to lead a major party in Congress. Suppose there was a student called Elsa present at the summit. And Elsa is currently a candidate for president of the Student Government but she decided to drop out from the race because of words people constantly throw at her with the common theme involving how unfitting it is for a woman to run for president. On arriving at the summit, she made up her mind to pull out from the race the following day. Then Nancy walks in and she starts to wonder how Nancy became the first woman to lead a major party (Democratic party) in Congress. Suddenly, she sits up straighter and hangs on every word authored by Nancy. When the talk reached the point of the excerpt, the first thing that popped into her mind was “if Nancy could do it then I can” and throughout the remaining minutes she was slowly convinced that she had to run for president and was more excited than ever. Hearing the story of Nancy became a source of motivation to Elsa and because of the similarity of the problems, she saw the challenge as something worth fighting through instead of it being surmountable. While this is one instant in which the presence of a prominent individual was beneficial to a college student, there are many instances where this still holds true. For these reasons, it is sufficient to conclude that it is easier for college students to meet prominent individuals than for those not affiliated with colleges, and meeting such individuals could be very beneficial to a person’s career or life as a whole.
Do you know that teaching has evolved tremendously over the last few months? As of last year, there were some professors who didn’t know how remote classes work but because of the current situation, it was required that they learn how to make it somewhat similar to an on-campus class. A lot of them had to learn new ways to use tablets, how to make the class interactive and the list goes on. Every career reaches a stage where new skills have to be learnt to be effective, because of the rapid rate at which technology advances. Some of the techniques taught in college gradually become outdated and over time a huge chunk of it is no longer applicable. If the only skills a college student learns from college surrounds their declared major, at this point we can say that a college education is worth only a few years. However, this is not the case, there are skills acquired during the course of college that don’t become outdated. This includes: knowing how to navigate the terrains of random strangers and communicating with them effectively, collaborating with others in projects or assignments, handling deadlines and pressures without burning out and learning to schedule each day. Over the course of any career, these skills will be used one way or the other. However, it becomes harder to learn these skills while on the work field because they are needed to make significant progress and can only be developed through constant use. These skills are, however, mastered over time and used constantly during the 4 years of college to prevent burns and successfully navigate college. Because the curriculum of college is designed to teach students how to interact with professors, teacher assistants and other college students and handle the vast amount of information given to them. It is sufficient to say that, because these acquired skills never become outdated or are used consistently throughout life. This is another area that makes the large amount of debt acquired worth it.
Humans are complex in nature and as we grow older, our interest multiplies and the desire to learn more increases but because of limited resources or time they are completely dropped. This issue has been addressed in the way American colleges are designed. The major difference between a college student from the US and one from another country is the amount of courses on their transcript which have no correlation to the declared major. This has a lot to do with the philosophy of college, which is to help people advance in their career and thrive in their overall lives( to be an engaged and enlightened citizen capable of thinking critically and communicating clearly). Colleges achieve this by giving students the liberty to craft their plan of study either by picking minors, going on study aboards, working at an organization or selecting an interdiscipline course (which allows them to pick and match courses and turn it into specially crafted majors). Take for instance, Nigeria. In Nigeria, a college student doesn't have the liberty to pick minors and the courses studied during their years in college. It is picked by the Ministry of Education. This point can be illustrated by contrasting what would happen to a student in America with one in Nigeria, if the student had a lot of interest but couldn't decide which to major in:
Suppose Tina chooses Medicine as her declared major while applying for college in Nigeria. Along the way, she discovers medicine isn't something she wants to do anymore. If she decides to change her major to computer science while she's in her second year, she has to start college all over again and the courses she took during the first year can't be transferred. However, if Tina was in America, she could easily decide to enter college with an undeclared major and test what works for her and what doesn't. And if after her first semester, she discovers she has interest overlapping in two areas. She has the option to either do a combined major, a double major or a major and minor. But if she was in Nigeria, she either has to enroll in a course outside college or wait until after college to pick the other interest and she can't apply to college without declaring a major.
The above illustration shows the difference between a college student in America and one in Nigeria. It goes on to highlight the way in which the American curriculum takes into account the multiple interests a student could have. While there are other countries which allow students the option of crafting their plan of study, like Canada. The number of courses at American colleges are far numerous and covers a wide variety of interests.
There are a lot more benefits which American colleges offer but these three points have been highlighted to offer the contrasting way in which, although tuition cost increases annually globally, the debt acquired particularly when the affiliation is from an American college makes the monetary value substantial. It is for these reasons, why the number of international students that pick the United States hit an all-time high of over one million in the 2018/2019 academic year. According to the 2019 Open Doors Report on International Educational Exchange,
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