Is College Worth it?

I am aware that some of my comments will not endear me to my American friends, but would ask that they read to the end of my posting, before launching into a vitriolic attack on me. Throughout the world, the American university system has been the laughing stock of the education community, and is often publicly pilloried in the media and on tv across the world. The lower end of the quality scale have long been seen as more interested in having a successful sports team (whether it be American Football, Basketball or Athletics), and would admit anyone who could throw a ball, or run fast, rather than favouring intelligence. The Ivy League establishments are far more interested in your ancestry, advantage to netwwotking, and your families personal wealth, not intelligence. Whilst my experience is that there is a lot of truth to the above generalisations, it should not be taken to the extreme. There are many very intelligent students, working hard to attain their qualifications, who would excel at any establishment in the world. There are a couple of political reasons behind maintaining a lesser standard than you may feel suitable for the USs further education establishments, and these can be 'spun' in opposite ways;1/ By lowering the entry standards, you open up the availability of further study to s greater number of citizens, which is good. (or, you devalue the final cerification, and those who excelled will be put on a par with lesser candidates, making the piece of paper attained, worthless). 2/These people are not taking up jobs, whilst they are studying, which allows greater prospects in the workplace for all (or, these people do not work, but are not reflected on the unemployment figures, and as above, the more in education, the bigger the saving on the Unemployment Data). 3/ An educated electorate is an asset to a country (or, governments are scared of an intelligent electorate, it is easier to pull the wool over peoples eyes, when they are nort intelligent. And, as a bonus, you have an ignorant electorate, which due to meaningless degrees, thinks it's an intelligent electorate). What is most frightening, is that the UK government discovered these same 3 truths, and the UKs university system us rapidly going down the pan, too. From age 16 onwards, it is actually a superb achievement of some note, if you manage to fail an exam. Our education system used to be the envy of the world, with our GCE 'O' & 'A' level examinations being sat across the globe, as the true gold-standard of education. Our current government has so badly screwed up the whole system, that they are now thinking about adopting the French Bacca Laureate! We, also, have Loughborough University, which adopted the principle of sport over intelligence 25 years ago. And our universities are over-flowing with people of sometimes dubious ability studying such magnificently useful degrees as Media Studies (Telly watching) and Sports Studies (We called it PE in my day). Unfortunately, nowadays, if you want your child to gain a first class education, you would have to move to India or Japan. I hope this came over as sympathetic and balanced, as I have often been incorrectly accused of anti-Americanism, and that was certainly not my intention. I have just tried to be honest. All the best.

and yet these are the people that are getting the job...my husband has had over 25 experience in the same field but cannot find a job because he has no letters after his name...he went to community college instead of university! How sad is that?

In the long run, yes it is worth it, for the mere fact that there are more opportunities for the college-educated. While the starting salaries for college-educated and non college-educated may be very similar, college-educated folks will get promoted faster, more often, at a higher rate than non college-educated folks. Colleges do have standards and grade accordingly. Many people breeze through college by just doing the bare minimum, and it is no wonder these people aren't able to complete basic tasks. It is up to employers to decide how valuable a person's education is to the position they are hiring for. I think employer's need to put more emphasis on a person's GPA instead of just acknowledging that the person has a degree.

Yes, and you can get better job if you are college graduate.