Let’s try and define the concept of higher education and why you should invest in it.
What is Higher Education?
Higher education is specifically education provided by universities and colleges, and it includes both graduate and undergraduate degrees. This level of education is very strongly focused on professional outcomes and how individuals can transition from a college atmosphere to a professional workplace. Most degrees involve higher level courses, with advance concepts and in some cases, thesis projects as well. The approximate age of college or graduate school level students ranges from 19 years to 23+ years old, depending on the degree.
Why Should You Seek A Higher Education?
A lot of people question the importance of going to college after high school, citing examples of people who made it big even without college education. While luck can be on anyone’s side, it is always better to eliminate as much risk as you can when planning to build yourself a secure future. Let’s look at some of the ways higher education can be beneficial to you:
Monetary Benefits
This is one of the major reasons why people tend to go for higher education: the greater earning power. With an almost sure shot at getting a better job than you would have with a high school degree only, going to college is most likely going to be worth your while. Higher education offers relatively more jobs than high school graduates. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that on average a college graduate with a bachelor degree earned a median income of $1,137 per week, as opposed to the $678 earned by those who hold a high school diploma. For those who did not have a high school diploma either, the matters were a lot worse, as they were earning only $493 in weekly earnings. As for the other end of the spectrum, people with masters degrees earned $1,341 weekly, professional degree holders earned $1,730 and doctoral degree holders made $1,623 in weekly earnings. As you can see, the trend of higher earnings associated with a higher degree is very clear.
Better Employment Rate
Connected to the monetary reasons above, this is another one of the most important factors why people choose to go for higher education. According to 2015 data by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate for students with a high school diploma was 5.4%, while that for students with a bachelor’s degree was 2.8%. The rate fell further as the level of degree increased. For masters degree holders, it was 2.4%, for professional degree holders, it further fell down to 1.5% and for doctoral degree holders, it was also pretty low at 1.7%. The greater degree of employability associated with higher education is one of the main reasons why a large percentage of people opt for it.
Greater Learning
Keeping money and employment factors aside, higher education at the end of the day, is about the attainment of greater knowledge and learning. Whatever subject you are going to major in, you have the opportunity of developing a vast knowledge reserve regarding it. And typically, the amount of learning derived from study materials tends to get greater as the level of the degree increases. Since the course material gets more focused on specific topics, you get to learn about all the intricate details. So higher education is just the right thing for people who want to specialize in a particular subject and apply it in their professional lives as well. For instance, if you want to study a subject like finance, the bachelor’s level courses would be a lot less intensive than what you would come across at the doctoral level. The doctoral level course would cover so many more aspects of the same topic and expose you to a lot greater detail in the field of finance, resulting in a greater degree of learning.
Development of Key Skills
One of the biggest advantages of going for a higher education is that you develop certain key skills. The various activities incorporated in a higher education program are designed to instill in you a complete set of skills you are likely to need in your professional lives. These include skills such as communication skills, the ability to deal with different kinds of people, the confidence to speak in front of professionals and present your ideas in a systematic format. In addition to that, college also teaches you the importance of impeccable time management. With so many deadlines to meet, essays to submit and exams to pass, the ability to manage your time becomes very important. By learning these skills in a controlled college atmosphere, you can pick up a lot of new things without much of the risk associated with learning these skills in the real, professional world.
A Lesson in Independence
Whether you are going to study abroad or another state, or even if you are simply shifting to the dorms, college life will teach you how to make it on your own. You will be stepping out of the protective bubble that was your home to go and live with people you don’t even know that well. But the whole experience is going to teach you a lot about yourself and the kind of responsibilities that come with living on your own. You will learn how to take care of little matters such as doing the laundry, cooking for yourself, cleaning up after yourself, managing your budget, making a little extra money by in-between jobs on campus and so on. These matters might have seemed insignificant while you were living with your parents, but now that you have to manage them all on your own, you will learn a lot about independence.
There can be numerous reasons why people would choose to go for a higher education. Whatever they may be, one thing is for sure: the greater amount of employability, pay and learning sure make the whole process worth it.
