Why are we even here? The median wage for high school diploma holders is $809 per week, while for bachelor’s degree holders, it’s $1,334 per week. That’s certainly a sizable difference, so continuing your education for four more years after high school is all you need to be successful, right? Wrong.
Unfortunately, the market for bachelor’s degrees is becoming oversaturated. Most jobs nowadays require a college degree as an entry-level necessity, so having one doesn’t make you all that special. Seventeen percent of hotel clerks and 23.5% of amusement park staff hold four-year degrees because graduating college simply isn’t enough to get you the career of your dreams anymore.
The declining value of a bachelor’s degree also forces 20-something-year-olds to go through even more schooling right when they thought they were done in an attempt to stand out from other candidates. Not only is that investing more time to maybe get a job later on, but it requires spending an exorbitant amount of money. American public universities cost around $36,436 per student per year, which can easily total hundreds of thousands of dollars for those pursuing post-graduate degrees.
Even if you do manage to scrape together scholarships or take out enough loans to afford continued education, there’s still no guarantee that a job will be waiting for you on the other side. It’s an expensive gamble that many degree holders are forced to take.
Take a look at the highest-paying jobs in America: surgeons, cardiologists, anesthesiologists, psychiatrists — nothing you can achieve with only a four-year degree. Even if you go to grad school and get a master’s, PhD or MD, finding a job willing to hire a newbie with no experience is difficult. So many employers, 37% to be exact, believe experience is the most important qualification in a hiring candidate, not their level of education. Your degree is frankly useless in the face of a candidate with a little more time on the job.
So, where’s the silver lining in all of this? You don’t have to wait until graduation to start gaining experience. Any internships, tutoring, part-time jobs or leadership positions you’ve held in school aren’t invisible to hiring managers. Volunteering for meaningful causes or participating in research that interests you matters, too.
Aside from the career grind, remember that you didn’t come to college just for an education. We come here to meet new people, find out what it’s like to live away from home and have experiences that shape who we are. There’s more to growing up than finding a job.
At the end of the day, the best anyone can do is pursue a career they love and trust their passion and hard work to guide them to where they need to be. The overall unemployment rate in America is just 3.8%, so odds are you’ll be able to make ends meet no matter what path you choose. So, next time you imagine where you’ll be in the next ten years, just take a deep breath and trust that it’ll all end up OK.
