Is College Worth It?

a href=”http://townhall.com/columnists/WalterEWilliams/2008/08/27/is_college_worth_it”That is the question /a asked by Walter Williams, author of a href=”http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0817996125?ie=UTF8tag=wwwviolentkicomlinkCode=as2camp=1789creative=9325creativeASIN=0817996125″emMore Liberty Means Less Government,/em /aimg src=”http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=wwwviolentkicoml=as2o=1a=0817996125″ width=”1″ height=”1″ border=”0″ alt=”” style=”border:none !important; margin:0px !important;” / in an article at TownHall (thanks to the reader to emailed this in): br /br /blockquoteWhat about students who are prepared for college? First, only 40 percent of each year’s 2 million freshmen graduate in four years; 45 percent never graduate at all. Often, having a college degree does not mean much. According to a 2006 Pew Charitable Trusts study, 50 percent of college seniors failed a test that required them to interpret a table about exercise and blood pressure, understand the arguments of newspaper editorials, and compare credit card offers. About 20 percent of college seniors did not have the quantitative skills to estimate if their car had enough gas to get to the gas station. According to a recent National Assessment of Adult Literacy, the percentage of college graduates proficient in prose literacy has declined from 40 percent to 31 percent within the past decade. Employers report that many college graduates lack the basic skills of critical thinking, writing and problem-solving. /blockquotebr /br /I was listening to the a href=”http://www.suzeorman.com/”Suze Orman /a show the other day and one of the listeners called in to tell her that she and her husband both had graduate degrees but weren’t making it as well as their friends who went into the trades. Apparently, this couple had $100,000 dollars in student loans and wanted to have children but felt unable to afford them. In their case, maybe advanced schooling wasn’t worth it. I think it depends on what one’s degree is in and what skills are learned there that translate into a real world job. It is getting more and more important to research thoroughly the degree one is going to get and if it is worth it in very practical terms. br /br /I wish I had known more prior to choosing my field, for if I did, I would definitely not have gone into the field I chose. What about you?