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  • Over the last 35 years, college tuition has gone up about 750%. Altogether, about 40 million

  • Americans owe more than a trillion dollars in student loan debt, and that number is only

  • set to grow. With many jobless graduates struggling to pay off their education, it is starting

  • to look like college isn’t that great of an investment anymore. So, does college still

  • matter, and is it even worth it?

  • Well, it’s no secret that the purpose of going to college is to find employment after

  • graduating. According to the US’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate

  • for graduates with bachelor degrees or higher is just 2.5%, compared to 5% among high school

  • graduates. However, for those who only had some college education, or only received an

  • associates degree, the unemployment rate was much higher, roughly 4.5%.

  • Now, while that figure might be comforting, it includes post-grads of all ages, and doesn’t

  • paint a realistic picture for graduates today. At its peak in 2011, recent four-year college

  • graduates saw an unemployment rate of about 11%. That’s more than twice the national

  • average! And when counting those who are underemployed, meaning that they work in jobs which do not

  • actually require a bachelor’s degree, the number is MUCH higher. Since 2001, the underemployment

  • rate for recent grads has been rising, hitting 44% by 2012. That’s nearly half of all grads

  • in a job where their degree is irrelevant.

  • Of course, what you do in college can often be as important as going to college altogether.

  • In-demand careers like Nursing and Education may see low to mid-range salaries, but have

  • comparatively stable rates of employment for recent graduates. Meanwhile, majors based

  • in humanities and arts see incredibly high unemployment, more than twice that of those

  • who never went to college in the first place. Moreover, despite having to pay back an average

  • of $33,000 dollars per student, salaries for recent graduates are relatively low. In the

  • Arts they range from about $26,000 to $36,000 a year. For a family of four, that’s barely

  • above the poverty line.

  • For some, a college education may not be worth the additional costs, but what if you get

  • into a really good school? Does that matter? Well, a 2015 study found that among science,

  • humanities, and engineering majors, there was little to no difference in future earnings

  • between graduating from a mid-tier or a top-tier school. However, for business, social science,

  • and education was there a significant relationship between the quality of school and future salary

  • prospects.

  • So does college really matter? Sort of. For many, the cost of getting a degree far outweighs

  • potential job prospects and earnings, and over the past decade, more and more people

  • have fallen into that category. However, the outlook for non-college graduates are pretty

  • abysmal as well. Perhaps most realistically, regardless of whether you go to college or

  • not, young people are suffering a job crisis unseen since The Great Depression.

  • But one school in San Francisco, California is seeking to end the crisis of college costs

  • by not charging tuition. Learn more in this video by Seeker Stories. Thanks for watching!

  • If you want to check out more TestTube News, be sure to subscribe to our channel. Have

  • a great one!

Over the last 35 years, college tuition has gone up about 750%. Altogether, about 40 million

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