College Is Not Worth It

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With growing pressure put on high school graduates to pursue a higher education, many ask the simple, yet intriguing question: “Is it really worth it?” After doing extensive research and delving deep into many studies, personal experiences, and headline news, I have reached the conclusion that the answer is no, college is not worth it. It is not worth the excessive time, money, and stress that it steals from our country’s youth. Imagine your child, without a job, without enough money, without any personal self confidence. It paints a terrifying picture, no? You might still think that college has a fighting chance in this debate. That perception is false. College is a bad investment, that is simply not worth the time, money, or emotional stress. …show more content…

The negative emotional impact on students can be pretty intense. From postponed adult milestones, to major health issues, college can be stressful. Many students who go to college have their major adult milestones postponed or eliminated. One study showed that only 50% of female grads and 30% of male grads had completed some of the core achievements we attribute to adults by age 30 (ProCon.org). Another source says that people in their 20’s and 30’s rarely buy homes anymore due to college (Partridge).Things such as marrying, having children, buying a home, moving away from your parents, all stolen by college. Do you want that to be you? That single person living in their mother’s basement? Did not think so. These negative events lead to negative emotion, leading to negative health. One 2012 study says that 41% of students say that they feel “frequently overwhelmed.” The Director of Student Health Services at Biola University once said that, “college stress can cause headaches, weight gain, chronic digestive disorders, fatigue, increased blood pressure, insomnia, teeth grinding in sleep, general irritability, recurrent feeling of hopelessness, depression and anxiety and low self-esteem (ProCon.org)." That’s a lot of excessive pressure we put onto our youth to get a college education. To avoid this mental trauma, the best path would be to forego to …show more content…

They feel that college is definitely worth it, that it offers all sorts of interesting benefits and experiences. These people argue that college offers better salaries in the long term. Numbers even back this up, with some studies suggesting that there is a 98% salary gap between high school grads and college grads (Leonhardt). Another main point in this argument is that college is a good experience, and teaches you lessons not learned anywhere else in life. This is a solid point. College does give you a good opportunity to become a more inquiring, social person. The last strong argument for this point is that many good, high quality jobs require degrees. This is also true; you don’t see too many doctors straight out of high school. Yes, all of these points are solid reasons that college is a good thing and should be attended. The question is now, are these points applicable to real

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