Is a College Degree Still Worth It? >
College Graduates Earn Higher Pay
Encouraging students to go to college is the right choice
November 17, 2011
About Anthony P. Carnevale:
Anthony P. Carnevale currently serves as research professor and director of the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce. Between 1996 and 2006, Dr. Carnevale served as vice president for public leadership at the Educational Testing Service. While at ETS, Dr. Carnevale was appointed by President George Bush to serve on the White House Commission on Technology and Adult Education.
During a recession, there are bound to be those who would advise students to skip college. This, however, is bad advice. The dim job market, combined with technological advances, is only increasing the demand for more skilled workers. Greater skills requirements mean that more education is needed in established jobs. Stephen J. Rose, my colleague, often provides the example of insurance agents. In the 1950s and 1960s, most insurance agents did not have any college education. Today, 50 percent of insurance agents have a bachelor's degree and only 20 percent have not attended any college.
[Average Student Debt Reaches All-Time High.]
Employers see those with postsecondary credentials as the most capable of adapting to new economic realities and are willing to pay for it. In 1999, a worker with a bachelor's earned 75 percent more than workers with only high school diplomas; today, that "premium" has risen to 84 percent. In other words, over a lifetime, a bachelor's is worth $2.8 million on average.
In addition to higher pay, college graduates are more likely to be in the labor force and to find jobs faster during periods of unemployment.
For those who look backward in time, insurance agents don't need a bachelor's and the agents with degrees are not utilizing their college skills. But the market tells a different story: Agents with a bachelor's earn 50 percent more than agents with a high school degree. Employers pay more because those with a bachelor's are better at selling complex insurance policies to companies and individuals.
[Lack of Jobs for Young Workers Spells 2012 Trouble for Obama.]
The United States has historically been the world leader in providing mass education to its people. In the 1960s, even though America had the most educated workforce in the world, the rate of college-going among high school graduates doubled compared to that of the previous generation. This investment paid off handsomely as the U.S. maintained the highest living standards in the world and led the way in creating the major breakthroughs of the computer revolution. If history is any guide, encouraging students to go to college is the right choice.
However, our research also shows that earnings depend on the field in which individuals earned their degrees. For example, the degrees and jobs that will pay best and grow fastest will be in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) fields and in healthcare. Today's best advice, then, is that high school students should go to college and examine employment and salary prospects associated with the various fields of study before picking a major.
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- Other Arguments
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#18030
Yes — The return on a college investment is more than that on almost any alternative
JULIE MARGETTA MORGAN, Policy Analyst with the Postsecondary Education Program at the Center for American Progress
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#26029
No — Four to six years of partying do not equal an education
CRAIG BRANDON, Author of 'The Five-Year Party: How Colleges Have Given Up On Educating Your Child' and 'What You Can Do About It'
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#34317
Yes — Like any smart investment, the pursuit of higher education requires effort to explore the options
PETER KONWERSKI, Senior Associate Vice President and Dean of Students at George Washington University
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#44322
No — We now have nearly 80,000 bartenders and taxi drivers with bachelor's degrees
RICHARD VEDDER, Director of Center for College Affordability and Productivity
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#52611
Yes — Students and their families should not simply assume that college will be "worth it"
ROBERT B. SCHWARTZ, Francis Keppel Professor of Practice in Educational Policy and Administration at Harvard University
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#64128
No — Put more courses online and limit federal student loans to four years of undergraduate work
LINDSEY BURKE, Senior Policy Analyst in Domestic Policy Studies at the Heritage Foundation
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#72919
No — What's the message when grads can't write a simple E-mail?
NAOMI SCHAEFER RILEY, Author of 'The Faculty Lounges ... And Other Reasons Why You Won't Get the College Education You Pay For'
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#92218
Yes — People need to go to college in order to have a fighting chance at a well-paying career
KEVIN CAREY, Policy Director of Education Sector
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#101816
Yes — College often provides the first opportunity for students to direct their own education
TOM CARROLL, President of the National Commission on Teaching and America's Future
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#111720
Yes — The return on investment in postsecondary education remains compelling
CHRIS FARRELL, Economics Editor of 'Marketplace Money'
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#121627
Yes — Tuition and student debt have not grown "unmanageable"
CECILIA ELENA ROUSE, Katzman-Ernst Professor in the Economics of Education and Professor of Economics and Public Affairs at Princeton University
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