You do Need a College Education: Here’s Why

If you have ever asked yourself whether it is worth it or not to pursue a college degree, you have probably first considered the economic aspects. It is clear from all available evidence that someone with a college degree will earn more in his or her lifetime than someone who does not have a degree. However there even more compelling reasons to continue your education beyond high school and I would like to present them to you.

A degree is a credential that will open many doors for you, but once you walk through those doors people will expect you to “deliver the goods” and perform well. Your performance depends on how well you can use your mind and that is what education is all about.

If you want to get your degree either on campus or online you will have to do well in exams. Often you will have to memorize information and then be able to give this information back on exam time. But what will happen a few months after the exam. Will you still be able to remember all of this information? You would probably fail your exams if you had to take them again at a later date.

Mere repetition of memorized information is not what employers are looking for or what they need. They need people who know how to think. And that is what higher education can do for you. If you pursue your college studies in the right way, whether it is on campus or online, you will strengthen your capacity to think and to create.

It is not enough to know how to use your head and come up with great solutions. You also have to learn how to communicate and express your ideas. This is another great outcome of the process of higher education. As you work on your college degree, either on campus or through an online course, you will in the process of doing the exercises, improve your writing style and your capacity to explain and to convince others.

Last but not least, if you continue onward and attain a college degree you will acquire one more important skill. You will learn how to “learn.” Education doesn’t stop when you get your degree, it should continue through your entire life. If you plunge into a college-level course of study you will develop a love of learning and the ability to keep learning by taking advantage of books, the Internet, mass media and the as yet to be discovered means of communication that awaits you in the years to come.

So, by all means, go ahead, get your college degree. You can enroll in a traditional college or sign up for an online degree course. Either way you will be well rewarded.

Diane Palmer is a veteran college Dean of Students who acts as a consultant to an educational publishing company which owns websites on online degree programs and online degrees for working professionals.