Higher Education: Not as Beneficial as Our Society Likes to Think
Higher education is now a controversial topic. That fancy piece of paper in a frame that we lose sleep over for four years has been victim of heavy scrutiny in recent years. Every side of the argument seems to agree that we place too much importance on it, but the variety of explanations(and potential solutions) can be overwhelming. At the risk of looking like a cop out, I firmly believe, after thorough research, that there is not a sole guilty side. There are multiple factors that play into this.
Peter Thiel, co-founder of Paypal, is one the most outspoken about the subject. In an interview with Sarah Lacy for Tech Crunch, he expresses that, although not a complete lie, higher education isn't always as beneficial as our society likes to think. We are taught from a young age that the world will be without worries for those who try hard and graduate from a college or university, and that financial hardships will not even be a notion in our minds. Thiel thinks higher education can be counterproductive in this aspect and Lacy seems to agree with this. “..the idea that attending Harvard is all about learning? Yeah. No one pays a quarter of a million dollars just to read Chaucer,” says the interviewer.
There's this idea that the more you pay for an education or the more prestigious the institution you attend, the better the job and income you will enjoy in the end. Thiel suggest that this is blown out of proportion and the main reason why graduates struggle to escape debt at old age. I can vouch for this, as I know several people who are well in their 30's and still owe thousands in college loans. Now, I have yet to meet someone who paid a quarter of a million dollars in loans and is still drowning in fees, but the situation of being indebted years after graduation is commonplace. Again, this makes expensive higher education counterproductive. To add insult to injury, the average lifetime earnings of a person with a bachelor's degree is $2.1 million(according to the
Peter Thiel, co-founder of Paypal, is one the most outspoken about the subject. In an interview with Sarah Lacy for Tech Crunch, he expresses that, although not a complete lie, higher education isn't always as beneficial as our society likes to think. We are taught from a young age that the world will be without worries for those who try hard and graduate from a college or university, and that financial hardships will not even be a notion in our minds. Thiel thinks higher education can be counterproductive in this aspect and Lacy seems to agree with this. “..the idea that attending Harvard is all about learning? Yeah. No one pays a quarter of a million dollars just to read Chaucer,” says the interviewer.
There's this idea that the more you pay for an education or the more prestigious the institution you attend, the better the job and income you will enjoy in the end. Thiel suggest that this is blown out of proportion and the main reason why graduates struggle to escape debt at old age. I can vouch for this, as I know several people who are well in their 30's and still owe thousands in college loans. Now, I have yet to meet someone who paid a quarter of a million dollars in loans and is still drowning in fees, but the situation of being indebted years after graduation is commonplace. Again, this makes expensive higher education counterproductive. To add insult to injury, the average lifetime earnings of a person with a bachelor's degree is $2.1 million(according to the