Earning a degree can be expensive but it might be worth it as you may earn more money over your lifetime than if you don’t have a degree.
Nowadays, higher education expenses are beyond a reasonable extent. Many students face different kinds of problems before being admitted to higher education. The main and most common challenge students face is increased tuition fees.
Due to extra-high fees, students also can’t pay their debts, which is the main rising issue in today’s world. So, this question arise in student’s mind “earning a degree can be expensive, but why it might be worth it?”
To continue their studies, students hesitate to take the massive loan to pay their tuition fees. But, besides all the costs and expenses of higher education, a degree is necessary for every person’s financial and personal development.
There are a lot of benefits that a degree can provide to a degree holder. Earning a degree can also give everyone unlimited opportunities and complete stability.
Stick with us to see how a degree can provide various financial and non-financial advantages, as well as it has the best job and earning potential. With a real-life case study, you will learn how much worth a degree can hold!
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Financial benefits of a degree
Higher Earning Potential
Degrees have the highest earning potential, especially in the fields of healthcare, technology, and finance. These industries pay a lot to all graduate employees and give them many advantages. A bachelor’s graduate student can earn more than 67% more than a simple diploma student.
Many jobs in the market that pay thousands of dollars to graduate students, and such high-paying industries make people financially stable. A degree can help you in personal development, social development, paying debts, living a good standard life, and most importantly, the pressure of being successful will also be reduced due to stable financial status.
Reduced Unemployment Rates
With high earning potential, a degree also provides secure and stable job opportunities. In the whole world, the unemployment rate in 2023 was about 2.1% in graduate students.
On the other hand, this rate was about 4.2% among the people who just did the simple diploma for the school. Higher education is very important for a society to reduce the employment rate.
A degree can reduce the unemployment rate because, during a degree program, students learn many new skills and technology. Different skills provide opportunities to people so they can easily do other kinds of tasks.
That’s why degree holders can do multiple types of tasks because of knowing about it, and this step makes society and people financially stable.
Long-Term Investment
While taking admission to higher education, we think it is an expense due to high tuition fees. But, considering it as an expense we also consider it as a long-term investment as well. This is because the ROI(return on investment) of a degree has constantly proven to be high as compared to a simple school diploma.
Because the degree provides handsome financial rewards to the people throughout their careers. According to the Education Statics report, a degree holder earns more than $1 million in his whole career as compared to a diploma student. That’s why a person who has a degree can live and enjoy a better life as well as he or she can save some money to use after their retirement.
Non-financial benefits of a degree
A degree not only has financial advantages but also provides you with many non-financial benefits as well. Let’s look at some of them!
Increased Knowledge and Skills
The main advantage that a degree can provide except money, is skills and knowledge. Having knowledge about different fields leads you to do any task related to your skills. Knowledge is not just about money or paychecks, and it gives you lifetime stability. You can earn whenever you want just because of your skills and expertise.
During the degree completion period, colleges let you do critical thinking about different things. Thinking, communication skills, or deep learning help you throughout your life. Skills, abilities, and knowledge are very important in every industry. To get a secure and stable job, people spend much time on their skill development and increasing knowledge.
Personal Growth and Development
With paychecks and skills, degrees also help people to be good ones for a nation or society. Personal growth is what everyone wants in themselves. Higher education makes people more confident, independent as well as responsible. A sophisticated person can make a well-mannered society and also that person can improve others as well.
During the academic period, personal and professional behavior matters a lot. Higher education lets you learn how you can behave at internships and part-time jobs and how you can behave in extracurricular activities during and after your academic period. It also teaches you about how a long-lasting personal and professional relationship can be made.
Contribution to Society
Higher education does not only educate a person; it also makes positive changes in the community, nation, or society at large. Graduate students are usually very helpful, and engaging and take part in volunteer activities.
They easily handle all societal challenges and initiate other people to participate in solving problems and helping others. A well-mannered and educated person provides benefits to society, the nation and to the whole country as well.
An educated person can easily contribute to society in a meaningful way. During the academic period of a degree, students briefly know how they can handle all the environmental challenges, how they can do personal growth and how they can engage themselves in local organizations as well.
A meaningful contribution towards a society or nation is very important for every individual of that society and nation. Higher education is that thing which tells people how to play better of themselves in all the organizations.
Educated people can easily handle and contribute to all the activities, while uneducated people mostly hesitate to take part in any kind of societal or extracurricular activities.
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Case Study: A Real-Life Example of the worth of a Degree
As we’ve discussed many advantages of having or earning a degree. Now, let’s share a real-life example with you. In this example, you’ll get to know about how a degree can help every individual and how much worth it holds.
It is an impactful story of Dr. Maya Angelou, is successful author and poet. Initially, she faced many challenges, which is why she dropped out of school, but later, she turned to her education and earned degrees. Those degrees helped her a lot in her field of poetry and writing. She also wrote impactful writings on civil rights.
She faced many difficult circumstances, but her education proved the best thing for her, and her higher education helped her to transform in a very positive and beneficial way. During her higher education period, she spent time gaining knowledge and she learned many skills which encouraged and inspired her to be a fantastic author and poet.
With master author and poetry skills, she also encouraged other people through her life lessons and circumstances. Her degree played a pivotal role in different career opportunities and the movement for civil rights. About civil rights, she connected with the key figures for their movement and her degree helped her a lot in this field.
After reading Dr. Angelou’s story, we can easily see how a degree can help everyone in personal and professional growth. A Degree can act as a powerful tool. In her story, her degree made her strong. Although she faced many difficult circumstances when she earned the degree, it helped her a lot.
She learned many beneficial skills during her academic era and then she became a successful author and poet. From this story, we can see how impactful a degree can be.
Addressing the Cost of Higher Education
Acknowledge the financial burden
As we discussed earlier, higher education has become a burden nowadays due to very high tuition fees; not everyone can afford it. But as we also discussed the benefits of higher education, it also becomes necessary for everyone. This need for higher education makes students urge to take loans during their academic period.
Taking loans to continue education seems daunting for every student. With proper management, students must have to handle all their financial debts and education expenses as well. Although it seems difficult for a student to handle, financial management and proper planning are very important for everyone.
Explore potential solutions
To reduce this major problem of finance for higher education, we need to look forward to some solutions. One of the most common and important solutions to minimize the expenses of higher education is scholarships. It reduces the cost of education and many people who actually can’t afford their education expenses can easily complete their higher education.
Grants and work-study programs also play an important role in decreasing education expenses. Some colleges give multiple affordable or instalments options to manage and continue higher education. It is also a convenient way of pursuing education in this modern and technological era.
Emphasize the importance of careful planning
To manage financial expenses and do proper planning, every student should do proper research. In this modern era, everyone can easily research different colleges with scholarships, grants, or study-work programs. Just by doing proper and brief research, every student can get admission to affordable colleges or universities to pursue their general or higher education.
There are many universities and colleges which provide flexible financial budgets with multiple career opportunities. Those universities also support their students in achieving their academic goals, give financial aid options, and truly understand student’s financial conditions.
These privileges help hundreds of students to continue and complete their general or higher education. So, better research about either universities or colleges can help you a lot.
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Final Thoughts
Even though higher education demands high financial assistance, it also provides stable financial benefits and helps you to grow. Your higher education plays a crucial role in your personality grooming and societal development as well. The well-mannered behavior of every individual in professional and local organizations is very important for every person.
A degree makes a man capable of dealing with critical as well as smooth situations. It also gives knowledge, and people learn many skills while earning a degree. We can also resolve the issue of high tuition fees for colleges and universities. Better research can help every student a lot in pursuing and completing their degree.
