Roving Teen Reporter: Is College Worth It?

For generations, students have assumed that attending a university and receiving a bachelor’s degree would guarantee entry into the job market. In recent years, that assumption has begun to look faulty.

According to National Public Radio, over the last 30 years, the “average tuition to both public and private four-year colleges has essentially doubled after adjusting for inflation.” This, combined with the decrease in entry-level and white-collar jobs due to a rise in Artificial Intelligence, means that students are often left with substantial debt and a limited ability to pay it off.

Iniya Sivakumar, a rising senior at Torrey Pines High, has noticed that decisions regarding how to pursue education are often financially driven.

“If you go to an institution … it’s definitely pricey and then sometimes you might not find a job as quickly depending on what field you’re going into,” Sivakumar said. “[Trade schools] are definitely good options for people who want to pursue them … it’s definitely a lot cheaper, but sometimes long-term financial accessibility is unpredictable.”

She can see a “lot of students going to a community college for the first two years and then transferring over to another university to save money, “because every school is so expensive.”

Sivakumar wants to pursue doctoral studies in the future and plans to attend a four-year college. “I want to study medicine and be a doctor so I can help people, and there’s no way for me to go to trade school and do that [because of the degree] … and [there is] parental pressure,” Sivakumar said. “Your parents have a lot of influence on you because a lot of the time you go with what makes them proud and what impresses them.”

Sivakumar has also noticed how the two paths are viewed differently by society. “If you go to a four-year university, people think you are more prestigious.”

Despite these factors, Sivakumar does not find a degree to necessarily be the recipe for financial success. “A lot of people are successful without going to college and getting a degree,” Sivakumar said. “They start their own business and just learn along the way … [a degree] is just more favored by society.”

When a degree no longer guarantees financial success, students must decide whether to pursue a costly university experience or pursue a more vocational educational path.