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Is College Even Still Worth It?

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This is the second in a series of four stories. Read the related articles: How The College Pricing And Student Loan Systems Hurt StudentsHow To Save For Your Child's College Education: 6 Common Questions and 3 Education Experts On Ways To Improve College Pricing And Payment

Total student loan debt and the average per-student debt are at record highs. The percentage of student loan defaults is too: almost 15%. But, is college still worth the investment? While it’s no secret that the Great Recession has made it difficult for recent college graduates to find work, unemployment under bachelor’s degree holders ages 22 to 27 was only 6% in the first part of 2013, compared to almost 8% among all workers, according to a 2014 study by the New York Federal Reserve.

However, since 2001 the percentage of recent college grads in jobs that don’t even require their degree has jumped from 34% in 2001 to 44% in 2012. Behind these figures are stories of young graduates who end up working as baristas, bartenders or cashiers to pay down their college loan debt. Even more worrying is that the quality of jobs held by the underemployed had declined. In 1990, about half of underemployed recent grads had good jobs that didn’t require college degrees, but by 2009, only 36% did. Meanwhile, young college grads in low-wage jobs increased from 15% in 1990 to more than 20% by 2009.

But even if a college degree is no longer a guarantee of employment or quality employment, it’s still resoundingly worth the cost.

“On virtually every measure of economic well-being and career attainment—from personal earnings to job satisfaction to the share employed full time—young college graduates are outperforming their peers with less education,” said a February 2014 Pew Research Center report. Over the generations, the gap between the two groups has only widened.

Full-time employed recent college graduates ages 25 to 32 earn about $17,500 (63%) more than their diploma-holding peers annually; in 1965, the gap was just $7,449 (or 24 percent). Among the Millennial generation (born after 1980), high school graduates were almost four times as likely to be in poverty as their college-educated peers — up from 2.3 times as likely in 1979.

Ultimately, while the value of a college degree has remained relatively flat from the Silent Generation, through the Boomers and Gen Xers to the Millennials, the value of a high school diploma has plummeted over the same time. So if the cost of college and the earning prospects of bachelor’s degree holders give you pause, banish the thought: not having the degree is much worse.

This is the second in a series of four stories. Read the related articles: How The College Pricing And Student Loan Systems Hurt StudentsHow To Save For Your Child's College Education: 6 Common Questions and 3 Education Experts On Ways To Improve College Pricing And Payment

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