Post Secondary Education Advantages And Disadvantages

"The goal of education is the advancement of knowledge and the dissemination of truth" (John F. Kennedy). Each year, millions of high school students must make a choice that may change their lives forever. The decision on what to do after high school leaves many puzzled but is not without research. While the decision will always be a personal one, options for all students do exist. Post-Secondary education has evolved greatly over time. In the past, education after high school was rare and limited to a select few. In the decades since, post-Secondary education has expanded to all facets and for all types of students. Expansions in university, community college, vocational, and alternative education have led researchers to agree that all students

Like anything, universities have drawbacks. And with extensive benefits, come extensive drawbacks. The largest of said drawbacks come in the very nature of universities. They began as selective institutes for the smartest few. While universities have greatly expanded their populations to include a wider group of students, at the end of the day, they are still the most selective form of post-secondary education. And with many schools, the selection process is not always an accurate judge of character for all students. As a result of this, many students feel abandoned by the very idea of attending a university. Selectivity is not the only deterrent either. In the past few decade, the cost of attending a university has skyrocketed. Richard Fonte (2011) published a peer-reviewed article titled, "The Community College Advantage." In this article he writes the following statistic, "The average annual cost of tuition and fees for a fulltime student at a community college is $2,713, while at the public university the cost is $7,605." Cost presents an issue for two reasons. The first is the burden on those students whose families are supporting them. The disparity of the investment to attend a university compared to other post-secondary schools is enormous. As such it is difficult to reconcile asking for much support without any guarantee the investment will pay off. The second issue price raises deals with the students who are financially independent from their families. For

Vocational schools appeal to many non-traditional students. Pat Stanley (2007), the former Deputy Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Department of Education, speaks to the importance of community colleges in his published article. In it he says, "Students of all ages come to community colleges with many different educational goals. They are vital entry points to postsecondary education for new Americans, nontraditional and traditional students alike." Vocational education provides an opportunity for any student to advance their education. Dr. Phillip Toner (2010), a doctorate in the field labor and economics, writes an article discussing the advantages of vocational education. In this article he discusses this idea of incremental innovation. The premise behind the idea is that the biggest innovative leaps come from those working hands-on. Vocational schools, he advocates, allow students to work directly with the educational path they are following, gaining that hands-on experience which will inevitably lead to innovation (Toner 2010). One large differential between universities and vocational schools are their focus on tactical education. In a university, much of the education is learning the skills through instruction. In vocational schools, much of the education is the tactical classroom environment, where students are directly exposed to what they will be doing in the workforce. This ability to be involved appeals to many students who may have felt that academia may not