Americans owe more than a trillion dollars in student loan debt, and that number is only

set to grow. With many jobless graduates struggling to pay off their education, it is starting

to look like college isn’t that great of an investment anymore. So, does college still

matter, and is it even worth it?

Well, it’s no secret that the purpose of going to college is to find employment after

graduating. According to the US’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate

for graduates with bachelor degrees or higher is just 2.5%, compared to 5% among high school

graduates. However, for those who only had some college education, or only received an

associates degree, the unemployment rate was much higher, roughly 4.5%.

Now, while that figure might be comforting, it includes post-grads of all ages, and doesn’t

paint a realistic picture for graduates today. At its peak in 2011, recent four-year college

graduates saw an unemployment rate of about 11%. That’s more than twice the national

average! And when counting those who are underemployed, meaning that they work in jobs which do not

actually require a bachelor’s degree, the number is MUCH higher. Since 2001, the underemployment

rate for recent grads has been rising, hitting 44% by 2012. That’s nearly half of all grads

in a job where their degree is irrelevant.

Of course, what you do in college can often be as important as going to college altogether.

In-demand careers like Nursing and Education may see low to mid-range salaries, but have

comparatively stable rates of employment for recent graduates. Meanwhile, majors based

in humanities and arts see incredibly high unemployment, more than twice that of those

who never went to college in the first place. Moreover, despite having to pay back an average

of $33,000 dollars per student, salaries for recent graduates are relatively low. In the

Arts they range from about $26,000 to $36,000 a year. For a family of four, that’s barely

above the poverty line.

For some, a college education may not be worth the additional costs, but what if you get

into a really good school? Does that matter? Well, a 2015 study found that among science,

humanities, and engineering majors, there was little to no difference in future earnings

between graduating from a mid-tier or a top-tier school. However, for business, social science,

and education was there a significant relationship between the quality of school and future salary

prospects.

So does college really matter? Sort of. For many, the cost of getting a degree far outweighs

potential job prospects and earnings, and over the past decade, more and more people

have fallen into that category. However, the outlook for non-college graduates are pretty

abysmal as well. Perhaps most realistically, regardless of whether you go to college or

not, young people are suffering a job crisis unseen since The Great Depression.

But one school in San Francisco, California is seeking to end the crisis of college costs

by not charging tuition. Learn more in this video by Seeker Stories. Thanks for watching!

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