What do Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs all have in common, besides their immense success? They are all college dropouts.
And for the rest of us — who aren’t likely to become tech billionaires — there are those who benefit from a college education and those who don’t, according to former Secretary of Education William J. Bennett and author of the new book “Is College Worth It?”
For a student with enough motivation and talent, who knows what they want to study — and has the money to pay for it — college can help. But statistically, things are not looking good for college students.
“Forty-six percent of people who enroll in a four-year college never finish — that’s almost half,” Bennett said at a Bloggers Briefing at the Heritage Foundation on Tuesday.
Bennett’s co-author David Wilezol also weighed in on what he calls “the college craze.” Students continue paying to go to college because they feel that the education is necessary in order to compete in the job market, he said, but sometimes going to college is not the best decision.
“Loading up students with debt — we are not equipping them for the work force with skills — this actually perpetuates income inequality,” Wilezol said.
According to Wilezol, 50 percent of 2011 grads are unemployed or underemployed, and the average debt for 2013 grads is $30,000.
Wilezol also said that students who were in the bottom half of their high school class have a much lower chance of completing their studies in higher education, therefore the cost of college may not be worth it for these students at all.
Also, many students can benefit from community college as opposed to a four-year university, but some disregard this option because it is less prestigious. Wilezol pointed out that a community college experience could be more beneficial for students looking to go into certain fields where workers are in demand — such as IT and nursing. He said students who attend community college can have a better chance getting a job than those who attend four-year universities and study liberal arts.
So in the end, is it worth it? Bennett and Wilezol believe that it can be — but only for committed students who weigh the financial decisions carefully.
“The thesis of the book is not ‘Don’t go to college,’” Wilezol said. “But ‘Take an honest look at your capacity.’”
