By: Mindy Larios

          Animo Pat Brown has held an outstandingly high graduation and college acceptances rate. APB’s graduates have been accepted to top universities such as UCLA, USC, Yale, Princeton, and Harvard. As we all know, the purpose of school is to educate and prepare students for the future and send them to college in order to be successful in life. However, how important is college education? Can you still be successful without having to attend college? There are many reasons on why students should go to college, but there are also reasons why a college education is not always worth it.

       An obvious reason for on why college education is worth it is because college graduates make more money. According to College Board, someone with only a high school diploma will make an average of $28,000 in a year. Although that sounds like a lot of money, a college graduate can earn from $51,000 to $100,000 a year. Now that’s a huge amount of money. College graduates have more and better employment opportunities and therefore have better paying jobs. People who have dropped out of high school or have only achieved their high school diploma and did not attend college, struggle financially throughout their lifetime. Meanwhile, college graduates live a more comfortable lifestyle and are financially stable.

         However, college costs a lot of money and time. Although there are opportunities for scholarships and financial aid, many high school students will either not qualify or receive any help. As of 2018, 4 years of college is $34,740 including tuition, room and board, etc. If students plan on pursuing higher education degrees, the cost could be up to $120,000. As a result, about 40 million Americans are currently in college debts. So, the question arises whether college education is worth it because of the large amounts of money needed to attend.

        But even without college, people are still able to find jobs and earn a decent amount of money even if they are not the highest paying jobs. Often, they are jobs that are not desired by the person like restaurant waiter, construction worker, cashier, etc. For these people, these jobs are chosen because there is not any other options available for them.

         All in all, there are many reasons on why college education is worth it, and many reasons on why it’s not. Although it is recommended to go to college for a guarantee at a financially stable life in the future, the beginning years of attending can be overwhelming. But in the long run, your hard work will pay off and your college education will definitely benefit and lead you to become a successful person. Sometimes, however, college just isn’t the right fit for someone. There are people who have become successful without a college education, but it does take them more time and they face more challenges.Therefore, whether college education is worth it differs because it depends on what students plan to achieve and their goals in life.