Yes, college is worth it

In the past few years there have been more people questioning whether a college degree is worth it, no doubt due to the stories of people still paying off college loans in their '60s. And now, with the rapid deployment of Artificial Intelligence (AI) into various professions, questions about career choice are no doubt on teenagers' and their parents' minds.

One problem is assuming that if you get a degree in biology, you'll only have a biology-related career. Or, like me, I really wanted to design circuits, but ended my working career in technical management. While you go to college to acquire the skills that will make you employable after graduation, you are actually getting many other skills and life experience in a short period of time than you realize. And that is what you'll use across a 40-year career.

I remember having to take a public speaking class in college. I didn't want to; I wanted to learn electronic design. I hated the class. Probably got a C. But wouldn't you know it, over my 40+ year engineering career, that class was needed to train me as an engineer, even if I didn't remember much of it. College expands your mind. It teaches you skills you didn't think you needed. It makes you responsible for completing what you started. You graduate as a more well-rounded and deeply educated adult, able to support yourself and make a positive impact in the world. [Not to dismiss trade school education, etc., as they have their place and are the right choice for many. But in our world today, high school is insufficient. Further training of the mind, hands, and heart is needed, and that only happens with more education after high school.]

So the question then becomes, is it worth it from a money and time standpoint? Like other purchases, you can overpay or get a good deal. With the discussion about the high levels of college debt and loan forgiveness, many are now finally realizing that they should consider the "value" of the degree against the career. Many higher-end, well-known state public universities are now way more expensive than they should be for the mission of a state university. There is nothing wrong with a liberal arts degree as long as it doesn't cost what an MIT engineering degree costs. 

Then there is the question of time. Spending 6 or 7 years seems too long to delay career earnings if work or family means you can't finish in 4 years. An alternative is to complete half of the credits at a local community college, then transfer those credits to a state school, thereby lowering the cost and completing the education in 4 years instead of stretching it out while working 20 hours a week, making it more affordable. There have been studies done looking at the career earnings of those with and without a college degree, and those with a degree have higher lifetime earnings. But I believe the degree should be finished in 4 years, enabling employment at an entry-level position sooner, to have a longer working career to benefit from the higher income. But it can take decades to get past that break-even point.

BTW - In the late 1970s, at college, I learned to design electronic circuits with individual components; the "integrated circuit" had just been introduced, and it was exciting to see the first "microprocessor" where assembly code could perform all sorts of logic, switching, and simple computation. About 10 years out of school, there was less and less circuit design to do. Modules and computers replaced it on a card that plugged into a standard backplane. I was becoming obsolete. Ten years later, I never designed a circuit again. My engineering skills were applied to writing software, but soon that became obsolete as the computer science field evolved to fuel the internet age. The point being, those specific design skills were valuable for a limited time, while the rest of my college education got me through a long, technology-oriented career.