The question you need to address for Essay #2 Should we continue to encourage every high school student to go to college to pursue a standard 4 year degree? or Are we encouraging too many people to go to college to pursue a 4 year degree?

Some Background on This Issue

In the not so distant past, let’s say before 1940 and World War 2, not very many people went to college. At that time, only about 4% or 5% of high school graduates in the U.S. went to college. In those days too, college was not expected for most people — mostly only the wealthy sent their children to college and it was mostly their sons, not their daughters. Another difference back then was that a college education was not so directly tied into careers or jobs in the ways that it is today. Most people back then didn’t go to college merely in order to pursue a specific career; it was just something that wealthy and cultivated people did. Of course, it was understood that a college education even back then would enhance someone’s career, especially if they went into one of the professions like law or medicine or business. But students didn’t go to college to study a particular field in order to be trained for a particular job or career. A college education back then was more of a social class marker than training for a particular career. 

After World War 2, the college experience in the U.S. started to change dramatically and quickly. The U.S. economy was expanding rapidly and more and more jobs required the technical and specialized education that could only be had with a college degree.  Along with the economy, U.S. college and university enrollments began expanding dramatically, and by the late 1960’s, the children born right after the war — baby boomers — were going to college in much higher percentages than their parents. By the end of the 1960’s, over half of all high school graduates went to college. A ten-fold increase in just one generation!

These trends that began after WW2 have been going on ever since. Currently, over 70% of high school grads go on to college (they don’t all finish!). The direct connection between a college degree and a high paying career is now very well established. 85% of college students today say they are in college in order to get a good job. The conventional wisdom right now is that for most people a college degree is a virtual requirement for a high paying career. The statistics clearly support the idea that a college degree will pay: