College Versus No College

College Degree Does Not Guarantee Success

College Degree Does Not Guarantee Success

To go or not to go to college, that is the question many high school graduates are asking themselves. They are probably told that graduating from college is the next rational thing to do in order to earn a living and to be successful in their careers. Undoubtedly, many are unsure if it is the only right thing to do and if the time and money invested would be worth it or not. While going to college might be important as it could pave a path to success, ultimately I believe that college degree does not guarantee success. The few reasons that I believe so are that because of the rising number of unemployed graduates, successful people who did not need a college degree and the ability to achieve success boils down to the individual’s characteristics.

If one is to claim that college degree does guarantees success, it means that the graduate would have at least a decent job. In addition, success is defined as the favorable or prosperous termination of attempts or endeavors and the attainment of wealth, position, honors, or the like (Dictionary, n.d.). However, according to Shepherd(2009), graduates leaving university this summer will endure a tough job market in more than a decade with an estimate of 22,000 more graduates likely to be unemployed (Graduate unemployment, para. 1). Contrary to popular belief, this fact proves that there are many other factors that affect an individual’s success. For example, the current economic downturn plays a major role in employment and particularly hurting the chances of fresh graduates getting employed. Rachel Percell, a human development graduate from River College could not find a job in her field and is forced to settle for a low-level desk job to pay her bills which she claims that she could have done straight out of high school (Stossel, Sancho, Sullivan & Kirell 2009). Moreover, she is still in a huge college debt despite being...