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Leyna Giannelli
Prof. Presnell
UWRT 1104
6, October 2016
Is a college degree necessary to do well in life?
At some point in all of our lives we have all considered dropping out of school because it
was too stressful. I have always tried to come up with that million dollar idea so I can drop out
and become rich (which probably will never happen). Because of this mindset I started to wonder
if going to college is even worth it anymore. So often we hear stories about insanely smart
people who do not go to school because they started a company or invented something that
makes them millionaires. My main question is, is it all worth it? According to Bloomberg.com
the average cost of tuition has risen approximately 1,120% since 1978. The cost of tuition is so
high only about 17% of Americans obtain an undergrad degree. I wanted to research the pros and
cons of going to college and getting a degree.
College is a necessity
While I was growing up, I was always told that I would go to college and start a career
after I graduated, I could never imagine doing anything else with my life. It was not until my
senior year when we started making decisions for what we would do after high school that I
realized not everyone is as fortunate as I am to have such helpful parents to be able to pay and
encourage me to go to college. My mom would always say college is a necessity, so of course I
have been taught to believe that a degree is needed in life. Collegeatlas.org has an article called
The Benefits of a College Degree, that says you will make more money with a degree and have
more job opportunities with stable jobs. The article also says that having a degree helps you

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make better financial decisions and gives you better communication skills. I think these all are
really important if you want to secure a stable life for your family. If you are able to afford
college and value what you are getting out of this experience you should definitely take
advantage of the opportunity because there are great benefits to having a degree.
Tuition
Every year tuition rises about 7%, the average cost of annual tuition and fees are about
$24,000 for a public university and about $47,000 for a private university. Collegedata.com
wrote an article called Whats the Price Tag for a College Education, in this article they claim
that the average cost of room and board for a public university is about $10,000 and the average
cost for tuition alone is about $9,000. These numbers are extremely high which makes college
impossible for some students. Students also have the option to get loans but they will take awhile
to pay off and not a good idea in general. America has $1.2 trillion in debt from student loans.
About 40 million students take out loans and around 70% of students that graduate with a
bachelors degree are in debt. This is unfair to students and a major reason why some people
decide not to get a college degree. I found this information to be shocking, I think this is a valid
reason why people do not want to go to college and would rather work straight out of high
school. John Petellier, the head of the Center for Financial Literacy said, what a lot of students
dont understand is that student debt is an investment in your future, I never thought of it like
this, I believe that more students should be taught this concept and understand that they will have
so many more opportunities in life by graduating college.

Benefits from having a degree

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Huffington Post has an article written by Jamie Merisosis about the health benefits from
having a degree. He wrote that the University of Maine did a study that claims that people who
have a higher education live happier and healthier lives. He also wrote that college graduates are
five times less likely to go to prison. College graduates volunteer more than those who have a
high school diploma or no diploma at all; they are more likely to participate in community
activities. Merisosis says, higher education attainment isnt just about the moneyits about the
people, and opening up the worlds of opportunity that only education can provide. It is about
enriching lives and communities, reducing crime, increasing engagement, and feeding the
economy with the talent it desperately needs. Another benefit from getting a degree is that you
will make more money; collegeatlas.org wrote: the following degree levels earned the following
median annual salaries: PhDs, $100,000 or more; masters, $63,000; bachelors, $55,700;
associates, $42,000; high school diploma, $32,500. There is a big difference from getting a
bachelors to having just a high school diploma. I think this is a great reason to go to school
because the cost of living keeps going up in America and it would be extremely nice not to have
to worry about money. Most everyone in my family has gone to college with the exception of a
few, two of my cousins dropped out of college after the first semester of college and started
working at a grocery store; they still to this day are working there and do not have a degree, I
know their parents were upset with their decision to drop out and they are not doing very well
without a degree. A degree also helps with your ability to communicate with others, it helps your
verbal and writing skills significantly. I think these are all great things to consider while choosing
if you want to go to college or not.
Reasons not to go to college

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There are a lot of great benefits from having a degree but there are also benefits from not
attending a university. Michael Price wrote an article on Huffington Post claiming that when he
attended a business class, after he was familiar with some business, he was being taught the
wrong things and after correcting his professor numerous times she made him leave the class. He
states that, The reality is that only 67% of graduates from the previous two classes have
received jobs in their chosen fields. This means that not every student that graduates is getting a
job from the degree they graduated with. He also goes on to talk about how college does not
prepare you with skills for a real job, he says that degrees other than accounting, medicine, law,
or computer science are worthless and do not give you the preparation needed for a job in the
real world. He says that because the world is moving at such a fast rate, your degree could be
totally worthless by the time you graduate. This is tough because it is an extremely opinionated
article but he provides valid points, I think that colleges do not really provide the experience of a
working environment for most students. I think this is a huge factor because without the
experience or preparation you might not get hired for the job that you want. Jillian Gordon wrote
an article on PBS.org about why she tells some of her students not to attend college, she says that
a degree does not always mean you will get a job and that school sometimes is not for everyone.
I think these points are really relevant to people who are on the fence about attending school.
Conclusion
From my research, I wanted to find the pros and cons of going to college and getting a
degree. My conclusion is that I think college is a great thing for people who can afford it and are
unsure of what they want to do in life but I think people who want to do something else with
their lives and do not find a college degree necessary should not waste the money on school. I
think the research was more surprising to me than anything, I did not know there were so many

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significant pros and cons to just getting a degree. This did not change my mind about going to
college and getting a degree, I think the only way I would consider dropping out is if I won the
lottery or came up with something that would make me a millionaire. I think the research I found
had very strong points to either side but I still sided with getting a degree over anything, I think it
is really important that I get a job in my future.

Works Cited
Atlas, College. "The Benefits of a College Degree." Online Colleges and Online Degrees. N.p.,
n.d. Web. 07 Nov. 2016.

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Berman, Jillian. "America's Growing Student-loan-debt Crisis." MarketWatch. N.p., 19 Jan.
2016. Web. 07 Nov. 2016.

"Do You Really Need to Go to College?" Forbes. Forbes Magazine, n.d. Web. 07 Nov. 2016.

"Is College Worth It?" Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Nov. 2016.

Merisotis, Jamie. "Want to Be Happier and Healthier? Then Go to College." The Huffington Post.
TheHuffingtonPost.com, n.d. Web. 07 Nov. 2016.

Price, Michael. "7 Reasons Why You Shouldn't Go To College and 4 Things To Do Instead." The
Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, n.d. Web. 07 Nov. 2016.

"What's the Price Tag for a College Education?" COLLEGEdata. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Nov. 2016.

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I did not do much to revise my paper, I added a personal story about my cousins not attending
college in a paragraph because I needed to add a more personal touch to the paragraph. The only
other thing I did was strengthen my conclusion paragraph by adding my opinion on if I still
wanted to attend college. I think comments really helped me see things that I did not catch during
my first draft and helped to make the paper a lot better. I feel really good about this paper
because I spent so much time on it and think it was a really fun paper to write. I did a lot of
valuable research and think the outcome was one of my best.