Do The Benefits Of A College Education Outweigh The Cost?

In today’s society, college seems like a must, but is it really worth it? Should students have to pay thousands upon thousands of dollars for a college education? Joann Weiner and Brooke Berger explain their reasonings behind the college mystery in “Why a College Degree May Not Be Worth It” and “Do the Benefits of a College Education Outweigh the Cost?” by discussing if parents should be sending their kids to college.
First of all, Weiner and Berger do agree on some points. They both talk about how college can be expensive, especially when they can’t afford it. However, Berger mentions unnecessary costs at colleges and universities. “There are three main reasons. One is a lot of families, out of the goodness of their hearts and love of their

children, will pay anything to send their kids to college. Two, many colleges will try to get as much money as they can. Three, the federal government endlessly subsidizes the increases in college and higher education. And so the price keeps getting higher. There's an academic arms race. “ (Brooker Berger, 5) Later in her article, Berger mentions how students should have a good reason to go to college. Not just to get away from parents or because everyone else is going but to have a sincere reason for going. She says that students should look over the possibilities that they may have to consider. Weiner doesn’t discuss that with the readers. She is mainly fixed on the benefits and costs instead of helping students decide if they want to enroll, although Berger does mention costs, but not in the same mindset as Weiner.
On the topic of costs, Weiner starts out by asking if students would be more satisfied with their college education if it didn’t cost so much and then backs it up by giving evidence. She uses statistics from the National Center for Education Statistics. “Before answering that question, it’s worth looking in depth at how much it costs to attend college. That’s a hard question to answer because there are wide differences between the sticker price of a year in college — it averages about $40,000 a year at a four-year, private institution and $17,000 at a four-year public institution — and what a student actually pays out of pocket after taking into account financial aid, scholarships, and other tuition assistance programs (Joann Weiner, 7)”. According to Weiner, the opinion about whether college is worth it depends on knowing how much financial help a student can receives from the college such as grants or scholarships. Grants and scholarships aren’t the only thing to reduce college costs either. Weiner brings up the option to qualify for a host of education-based tax breaks, meaning students can set aside money in a tax-favored education savings account and it reduces cost of saving for college (Joann Weiner, 18). After saying all of that, she goes on to say that just because a college degree isn’t needed for the job doesn’t mean that a college degree isn’t a good investment and some important benefits of a degree: better health overall and more stable marriages. Berger doesn’t talk about benefits of that kind. She doesn’t mention ways to cut college costs but she does throw in that it may be able to be fixed to some degree.
To conclude, Weiner and Berger can both agree that college is worth the cost only for people that have a good reason behind it and that it is also very expensive.