Summary Of Should Everyone Go To College By Stephanie Owen And Sawhill

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In the article, “Should Everyone Go to College,” authors, Stephanie Owen and Isabel Sawhill’s, published by the Brookings Institution, discusses the benefits of a college education. The article begins by mentioning the arguments related to the requirement of having a college degree while entering the middle class in the United States. Having a college degree reminds people that higher education is the best advancement humans can make to allow them to make more money in their lifetimes, rather than if they just had a high school education. A fact that does not get much attention is not all college graduates, or college degrees, are equal. Even though Owen and Sawhill focus, in general, alternative career paths may result in equally lucrative …show more content…

They mention some studies showing the best results of students that return to an additional year of school is around ten percent. The reviews by Owen and Sawhill (2013) state if that ten percent rate goes to the median earnings of approximately $30,000 between the ages of 25 to 34 years of age that are also high school graduates who work full time will increase college earnings by $3,000, while four years will increase by $12,000 (p.1). “Notice that this amount is less than the raw difference in earnings between high school graduates and bachelor degree holders of $15,000, but it is in the same ballpark” (Owen & Sawhill, 2013, p. 1). They show multiple earnings just throughout those two sentences above. This relative rate gives the readers an understanding of what they are specifically referring …show more content…

Adam (2012) acknowledge that the majority of the public felt that getting a college degree was not a good value for money (p. 2). “For example, 57% of those surveyed said they did not get good value for their money with higher education, and 75% said that college is too expensive for most Americans” (Adam, 2012, p. 2). There is interesting tension in the publics opinion in regard to college. Many college presidents have noticed a number of trends in higher education, especially the rise of student loan debt. “In addition, the majority of presidents (52%) said that college students study less now than they did 10 years ago” (Adam, 2012, p. 1). The reason Adam mentions all of these studies is to display the problems with attending