Argumentative Essay Sample: College Is Not Worth The Cost

Every year, thousands of high school graduates get acceptance or rejection letters, believing that where they go would influence their professional prospects. They stay up day and night anxious about whether they will make it or not. Societies stigma has caused students to fear their own thoughts on how a four-year college really is not worth it. However, it's possible to have a very stable job without going through four years of college. This brings me to my point; college is not worth the cost. 

To begin with, college isn’t worth the cost because it’s way too expensive and it’s likely to end up in debt. In Why College Isn’t (And Shouldn’t Have to Be) For Everyone, Robert Reich comments “Even if they get the degree, they're stuck with a huge bill—and maybe paying down their debt for years.” (19). It takes years to pay a college loan, years of money from maybe a part-time job during college, that could be spent on bringing your life back up to the fullest. At this point in life, a car, a house, etc. Could be extremely useful at the point of getting out of college and into much of the real world. But necessities like these can't happen because of how expensive it was to go to a good college. It only makes things more arduous and causes people to take out more loans that will be a struggle to pay. The “Institute For College Access and Success” has conducted research and has come to the conclusion that: “62% of 2019 college graduates left school with student loan debt, with an average balance of $28,950.” (n.pag.). Depending on how a student decides to repay their student loans, it's possible to be in debt for 10 to 30 years. Because of minimum monthly payments, it once again will postpone students to other financial goals, such as saving for retirement or buying a home. Every year college debt for students will continue to get bigger and much more of a limitation to our future students. 

Now many argue that going to college for four years gives good jobs, which is true. However, it is extremely easy to obtain a stellar job with less than four years of schooling. What may be supplied for, so little is often neglected. Others aren't shown this because their minds are too preoccupied with college stigmas and how people would respond if you don't attend for four years. In NPR Education, Elissa Nadworny uses commentary from Ryan Farell, an economist working on the handbook: “‘People getting an associate degree can be a little overlooked and there are plenty of occupations where that's the required entry-level education.”(Nadworny 20). It's unreasonable to school for two more years and pays more for college when a good stable job already has already been supplied. You can become so many good things with just an associate degree, it continues to be overlooked. Robert Reich discusses why a four-year college degree isn't (and shouldn't have to be) compelled for tomorrow's decent employment in Why College Isn't (And Shouldn't Have to Be) For Everyone: “For Example, the emerging economy will need platoons of technicians able to install, service and repair all the high-tech machinery filling up hospitals, offices, and factories.” (26).