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Some Good Reasons to Go To College

**This content is excerpted from the Guerilla Manual for Adult College Students. To learn more about the book or author visit AdultStudents.com .

"I knew that they were setting me up to lay me off so I decided that I would go. If they offered me that (severance) package then I would leave and go back to school full time."
Linda W., 41, started at a community college in 1979, returned to that community college in 1994, earned her Associate's Degree in 1997 and transferred to a private 4 year school. She earned her Bachelor's Degree a few years later

A changing workplace.
It's a good bet that sometime during your 40+ year working career you will be out of a job: the company changes direction and no longer needs your skills and fires you, it goes belly-up, is absorbed by another corporation that lets you go, working conditions become just intolerable and you quit.

It doesn't matter how it happens. One day you are employed, the next day you aren't. Where do you go from there?

"I became disabled on my job working as a secretary in a law firm. ...My doctor told me to get into another line of work."
Evelyn S., 41, originally started college in 1975 and returned in 1995 to work on her Bachelor's Degree. She earned that and went on for her Master's.

College graduates just have more options
If you have a college education you have a lot more employment possibilities than the person who does not have that education. Why? Because college graduates are in a minority. In general it's the college graduates who run this country (and the rest of the world) and the companies and organizations in it. If you are a college graduate you have a high probability of winding up as a manager, while those without a college education have a good chance of reporting to those of us who do. That's just the way the world is: education produces benefits.

On average, only about one person in four over the age of 25 graduates from college, as Table I shows. You are a relatively rare individual if you have a Bachelor's degree. And that education makes you more valuable to a prospective employer.

"So I find that because I have more confidence, I've been able to put more of myself into all the work that I do - parenting work and my real job and all the other stuff that I do."
Patrick A. finished his Bachelor's degree with a 3.6 GPA.

Think about this. Being able to get through college at 30, 40, 50 or so, while raising a family and working, is a stunning personal accomplishment. It is one that no 22 year old recent graduate can brag about.

Will that accomplishment keep you from getting fired? Maybe. If it comes down to choosing between you and someone who didn't do what you did, the odds favor you.

Will it automatically get you a new job if you are somehow turned loose from a company? There are no guarantees, of course. But being able to brag about how you went through school will definitely deliver a lot of extra points in that job interview. It shows a level of perseverance and commitment to a goal that a lot of people just don't have.

Are job flexibility and future employability the only reasons to go to college? No. Although they are certainly important, the big reason for many people is money, pure and simple.

College graduates make a lot more money
The simple fact is that college graduates make more money than people with two-year degrees, who in turn make more money than people with high school educations. Some numbers are in order to support that.

As of 2000 - the latest data available - a male who didn't get through high school had a median annual earning power of about $25,095, while a high school graduate could expect $34,303, about $9000 per year more. Someone with an Associate's degree could add about $7650 per year to that, bringing his median yearly income up to about $41,952. The figures for women, unfortunately, are lower, but the effect is the same: more education means more income.

"When my husband's business started to fail I went out to work. My first job was working the B-shift in a factory. That was quite an eye-opener for me, to see women who had no choice. Working in a factory was all that they were equipped to do academically. And I thought, this isn't where I want to be."
Kathleen C. started college in 1971 and finally earned her Bachelor's degree in the fall of 1998.

Bachelor's degrees are worth more $$$$!
Males with Bachelor's degrees, on average, bring home $56,334, a huge $14,382 per year increase over the two year degree holders. For women the figures are $40,415 per year for a Bachelor's, a $9,344 per year advantage over Associate's degree holders. That puts a very high value on that extra two years of school. And for what it's worth, people with Master's degrees do significantly better, as you would expect: about $68,322 per year for males, $50,139 for females. And remember that these numbers are medians: half of the sample is above this level, half are below.

"When this fall comes and I get the job teaching, I'll have something that I've never had in my life, which is benefits. I'll have a steady acceptable paycheck. I've been waiting for 15 years for that."
Patrick A., 46, worked as a waiter for many years before entering college. It took him a bit more than five years to earn his Bachelor's Degree Ð while working part time.

Over an average working career of about 40 years, this will add up to an extra $881,240 to $1,249,560 in your pocket if you're a male, and $617,800 to $899,920 in your pocketbook if you're female. Pick up a Master's degree and you effectively double your earning power over a high school education over your working life. Could you use an extra half a million to a million bucks....or maybe twice that with a Master's?

And it's not just money
The final reason to finish that degree has to do with how you feel about yourself.

When you finally stroll down that aisle and cross that stage and that college president hands you that piece of paper, you will feel very, very good about yourself. You will be absolutely, completely ecstatic. I guarantee it.

And something else: you'll be more self-assured, more confident than you've ever been. You'll know that you'll be able to learn and understand anything that you need to know. You'll be able to take on and complete big, complex projects that a lot of your friends would never tackle. You can sit in meetings with your head up and a smile on your face and no one - no one - will be able to successfully challenge your ability to get a big job done.

You already finished the biggest job of your life: you graduated from college as an adult. Everything else is small by comparison.

And PS: Spend the extra few hundred bucks and buy the biggest college ring you can afford and put that coveted sheepskin in the most expensive frame you can find and then hang it for all to see in your living room or right over your dining room table. You earned it.

"It will definitely improve my life, as well as my kids' too. Because of the simple fact that I'm in school now, and I'm also on public assistance."
Joyce M., a 36 year old single mother of three, earned her Associate's and then her Bachelor's.

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