Caroline Bird College Is A Waste Of Time And Money By Bird Summary

For a long time, people have questioned if they should attend college or not. Most people have different ideas of what they will get out of going to college, like a better career or is it a waste of money. Caroline Bird’s essay “College is a Waste of Time and Money” discusses the controversy of college. Throughout the essay, she discusses why someone may not want to attend college. Giving examples like if someone who gets a college degree will earn more money than someone who doesn’t go to college. Also, explaining many college students are not in school because they want to and they want to learn. The author accurately explains college may not be for everyone, because of the pressures, cost, and qualities you can gain. Bird argues that

She writes “If a 1972 Princeton bound high-school graduate had put the $34,181 that his four years of college would have cost him into a savings bank at 7.5 percent interest he would have more than five time as much as the $199,000 extra the more educated man could expect to earn” (432). The author made a good point. Although many people will not save that much money. However, many people that attend college will have student loans to pay off, which can take years to payoff, thus allowing the person that didn’t attend college to make more money. In the article “Making College Worth It” by Philip Oreopoulos and Uros Petronijevic they explain why college can be worth it for people and what to consider when choosing to attend college. They consider the amount of money differences and compare them between job categories. They found that with a higher degree they can make a about 30 percent more money than someone with a high school diploma. Also they state “if those most likely to succeed in college are the ones who usually choose to attend, then having a college education does not necessarily explain their positive outcomes. Thus, encouraging more youth to attend college will not necessarily generate similar outcomes for them” (Oreopoulos). It makes sense that everyone will have different outcomes with anything you do, even though you would want everyone to be as successful as they