As provocative as the title may sound, I belive the actual case that can be made why not to go to college is even more so.  To start with, let me just say that in no way am I against higher education.  As a matter of fact, I am a product of it.  Without it we would not be anywhere close to as advanced a society as we currently are today.

The problem I have is not with college, but with the foregone conclusion that has been reached in the last couple of decades that it is the only logical path to success after the high school years.  The choice not to continue on with education today means you will be written off and esentially ostrisized by greater society.

The tragedy of this way of thinking is that those of us in skilled labor trades: mechanics, carpenters, plumbers, electricians, machinists, landscapers (had to throw that in as it is my profession) find ourselves no longer revered, but looked down upon and even pitied.  If you are a blue collar worker, you are often working for the doctors, the lawyers, the business people.  This relationship and the manual labor part of it is undoubtedly what gives it this stigma; the American Dream is to be able to afford not to have to do any hands on work.

In reality, these blue collar trades are referred to as skilled labor for a reason: they require years of work to perfect.  While they may not realize the wages of some highly schooled professionals, they can make good livings and are essentially recession proof.  In fact, I would argue, the number of people going to university instead of entering these occupations will only make their demand go up.  What is easier to find in your suburban neighborhood, an accountant, or somebody who can fix the wiring in your house?

The Cost of College

It is difficult to find real statistics on how many high school graduates go on to college, but the number is high, between 70-80% on average.  Let’s look at the cost of a college education, and I am going to be conservative in going with the average public university costs; private universities cost on average almost three times more.

According to the U.S. Department of Education, the average cost of a public universitiy’s tuition for one year, with room and board factored in, for the year 2005-2006 (latest year statistics were available) was $10,454.  It should also be noted this number I am using has two year universities factored in and since they tend to cost less, it brings the average down.  A four year public university average was $12,108 for that same year.

Staying with the average cost for all public universities though and looking back at the data from the years 2000-2006, I calculated the average annual increase for this period to be 6.6%.  Applying that to the numbers available gives us an estimated average of $12,674 a year for the 2008-2009 school year.  That adds up to a $50,000 price tag for a four year education from a moderately priced public university.

FinAid.org reports the average student graduates with a student loan dept of right around $20,000.  Assuming repayment of that with a 6% interest rate over 10 years results in a monthly payment of $222.00.  Over the course of the loan, if it remains as is, $6,640 will be paid in interest.  The added interest of the school loan will bring the actual cost of the schooling to between $55,000-$60,000.

The rationale for spending the money for higher education.

An oft repeated mantra is that those who earn a college degree will make over a million dollars more in their lifetime than those who did not go to college.  This is often true, as the salaries for those aforementioned electricians, plumbers, carpenters tops out on average in the $40-$50,000 a year range while a lot of college graduates start out at that.

Also, it is likewise assumed that the investment in college will pay off due to the higher amounts of money that will be made in return.  The case can easily be made to support this argument as well.

Then why not go to college?

If you are not working in your 20’s and even into your 30’s because you are going to school plus you are accruing debt that will take a decade to pay off, the chances of investing or saving any money during this period is about null.  I realize the rationale behind a 20 year old being dedicated and forward thinking enough to start saving money at that age is flawed.  In the interest of the argument though, lets assume they will.  Someone working as a construction laborer averages about $30,000 a year, a realistic scenario for someone out of high school.  Even though it would be ten percent of their income, a high though possible amount, lets postulate that they put $250 a month, or $3000 a year into a Roth IRA.  Assuming a retirement age of 65, they would have amassed $1,268,238 by depositing $3000 a year for those 45 years.

Now let us assume the college graduate at age 30 is finally able to start saving.  Since they more than likely will have a higher income, we will say they can afford the maximum $5000 a year contribution in a Roth IRA with all the same variables in place.  At age 65, despite their higher contributions, they will have amassed $937, 903.  That is more than $300,000 less than the previous scenario of the non-college graduate!  If they would have been able to invest that $5000 a year in the IRA from ages 20-30 (a net investment of $50,000 or approximately the same amount that was spent on their university education) it would be a very different story: $2,103,091 at age 65.  Yes, that is well over a million dollars more.

What it amounts to is more knowledge equals more options.

That fun lesson of compounding interest aside, I again wish to reiterate that in our society and times I know it is a stretch to think that out of high school we could hope for any of us to be so financially savvy.  Perhaps if we would attempt to teach these options to our kids though, along with the lessons of living more conservatively that this down economy is bringing to us, we would see there are more options to succeed other than a college education alone.

If we would better publicize some of the other good jobs that are in demand and either require only a GED or some technical training: Healthcare Workers ($30-$60,000/year), Correctional Officers ($50-$70,000/year), Food and Beverage Director ($50,000/year), Construction Manager (over $100,000/year), along with the other blue collar trades we mentioned earlier, we might have a better rounded view on the situation.  Obviously good wages aren’t given out, they require hard work and moving up through the ranks to achieve.  If we had more focus on this aspect in high school, rather than feeling more schooling is the only way to success, more kids would go in the right direction and find what best suits them.

Some of us need the direction along with the freedom college provides to develop into productive adults, others do not.  Though I may not be directly using my education presently, I know it helped shape me in important ways and for that I don’t have regrets, other than not starting an IRA ten years earlier…