What is university for?
When I started university last September, I thought there was something wrong with me.
I wasn't going to university to find my sense of self or simply for the joy of learning. I'm a little more pragmatic. I mostly wanted a degree.
I'm in university because it's something I need to do to reach my career goal. Learning simply for the sake of learning was, and still is, secondary to me. But that doesn't mean I'm not enjoying my classes on ancient civilization and anthropology.
Like most students, I find it exciting and rewarding to be in a setting filled with experts in their respective fields. I especially love my biology classes, and look forward to the experiments and labs I get to participate in on a regular basis.
But as much as I'm enjoying my time at the University of Waterloo - learning more than I ever expected or hoped to about cell biology and molecular genetics - I'm there to obtain a degree. And if investing those four years of my life wasn't going to lead to my earning an undergraduate degree, I'd leave. Immediately.
For me, university is all about helping me reach my next goal in life.
But is that wrong?
According to a report published earlier this month by the TD Bank Financial Group, the total cost for an undergraduate degree started this year will cost a small fortune. Approximately $53,356 for students living at home, and $80,498 for those students who don't. In 18 years, the total cost will have shot up to $101,426 for students living at home, and $137,013 for those who live somewhere else. That's a lot of money just to, well, find yourself. At that price, I might decide to stay lost.
But it's not all bad news.
The report says that the huge rate of return on an undergraduate degree more than makes up for the enormous costs involved. University grads make more money than those who don't pursue a post-secondary education.
According to the 2006 Census, an undergraduate degree means a median annual income of almost $19,000 more than those with just a high school diploma.
If a higher future income isn't reason enough, the report also says a university degree reduces your chances of being unemployed. Nothing guarantees you a future job, of course, not even a degree. But it's an additional and important tool to have for the future. The report says a degree also means less time on the unemployment line as well. University graduates find new jobs faster after they lose a job.
A few of my friends thought I was weird for knowing exactly what undergraduate degree I wanted, right from the start of my post-secondary education. A few said they wouldn't really know until they had gone to school for a while and, you know, sort of tried it on for size. Some of them have changed their majors. Several times.
I think it's great that they didn't have to continue to waste time or money pursuing a degree that wasn't right for them. After all, what's the point of spending all that time and money pursing a path that doesn't lead you to where you eventually hope to be?
Picking the wrong degree is an expensive mistake that many of us, myself included, can't afford to make. But we need to be able to recover from that mistake if and when we make it. We need to find a way to better support students, while they're still in high school, to help them avoid making that mistake in the first place. Otherwise, too many students will continue to find themselves in university before they're actually ready.
Tagged with
cost,
undergraduate,
degree,
income,
expensive,
mistake
| 
Comments
I think you have a good point, school is expensive but required in todays society. While you may know what degree you want, you may find your specilization changes with experience.
However if your interested in biomedical sciences then you should come to the realization that a masters is also required (yeah education inflation). Or even a phd if you have dreams of your own research.
I think its great that a student thinks of the cost of university, when students don't foot the bill they loose that insight most times (not that I know your finacial situation).
I'd be interested to hear what you think about people who go to University but do not plan on becoming physicians or engineers, or some other highly paid professional. Perhaps they will go into the arts, work for a small not-for-profit agency, or do faith based work overseas. Surely going to University is more than a down payment on a life in the upper middle class.
And as lovely as it is that you are happy living at home and your family is equally happy to have you there, that is not a universal experience. It's truly a form of privilege to have that as an option.
@ A Friend from Alberta
The point I was trying to make is not that attending university must include some “plan” on becoming a doctor or engineer or, as you put it, “some other highly paid professional.” My point is that going to university without an idea of why you’re going or what you hope to achieve seems like an expensive journey to me and one I personally can’t afford to make. As I said, too many students find themselves in university before they’re actually ready.
I also surely agree that, “...going to university is more than a down payment on a life in the upper middle class.” It certainly isn’t my reason for attending, nor anyone else's goal that I know. Of course, that’s not to say that some people don’t see it, as you put it, as some kind of a “down payment on a life in the upper class.”
I understand that a student living at home instead of in residence is not a universal experience. My mom, for example, moved out from home soon after she graduated from high school. So I do know that lots of students aren’t as fortunate as I consider myself to be to have that option. But I also know lots of students who could live at home for free but choose to live in residence, despite the expense.
I definitely grok what you're saying, Jenny. It is though difficult to not see it as education=investment when people talk first about what a University education costs and then follow it with an analysis of how financially valuable a degree is over the course of a lifetime.
From my perspective, the biggest value in the four years or so someone spends at University may very well be the privilege of being in an environment of intellectual excellence and curiosity. It is a luxury very few of us are lucky enough to experience later on in life.
It is wonderful when those years lead to an amazingly fulfilling and successful life related to one's major. As we live longer and longer lives though, it is not at all unusual to have more than one career during a working life. The non-career related things we are exposed to at University may inform and enrich our lives many years after graduation.
My best collection is filled with great synthetic leather bags,
Coach outlet but I don't just wanted however , felt that needed so as to add some bags that will be meant to generally be taken frivolously and designed be interesting. You fully understand who other than them is attracted to it? I uncovered it during Coach store the Marc Jacobs Fluorescent Tweed Container and Over the internet it during this Gucci Container.
Elle MacPherson. However is not me.
Lake covered any Gucci Bliss Boston Container with Snowman together with Elephant Create, Coach london the kind of reaction was varying (except regarding Facebook the place most most people disliked any bag strongly). In reality, I a short time ago took a take a look at my designer purse collection together with realized That i was absent buy coach playful together with whimsical variations. I enjoyed this bag from the moment I earliest saw it all.
Ray-Ban is a byword meant for American rayban sunglasses cool for the reason that iconic spectacles label was initially founded during 1937. Famed ready for its Aviator eyeglasses - originally specifically for the INDIVIDUALS Air Induce - any label a cheap oakley sunglasses child friendly its cult status when using the launch within the Wayfarer during 1952, together with both varieties have seeing that become A-list staples. With different sunglasses for sale shapes together with colors going up regularly, no way lover has to be without some.
Comments are closed for this post.