College degrees remain valuable assets

By Ryan Amante

Why do hundreds of thousands of young men and women up and leave the safety of their homes and plunge headfirst into the college life? I submit that there's more to it than the soccer games in dorm hallways, the Easy Mac, the wallet that never seems to have any cash in it and the parties that keep going until the cows come home and the cops come knocking. Surprisingly enough, many people attend college for a little something called a degree.

I was inspired to write this article by a lunchroom conversation with my boss on one rather humid afternoon this past August. "Son," he began, "now I'll admit that I don't have a four-year degree, but I'd bet a dollar to a donut that I make more money out there than 80 percent of people with degrees. You know why that is? Because many people who have degrees don't find jobs in the fields they studied. Now if they pursued a career that involved certification, like I did, it would let them find a job that not just any average Joe could walk in and get hired to."

After this conversation, I could not help but wonder: Why do we attend Santa Clara anyway?

Reflection upon that particular conversation with my boss sparked a memory of another one I had with a fellow co-worker. As a newly hired CT/MRI tech aid in the hospital, he was partnered with a more experienced employee to show him the ropes: namely, me. Now call me rude if you like, but my curiosity was piqued by the fact that a 39-year-old man was hired to do a job that an 18-year-old was performing. My curiosity drove me to ask him why he chose this job.

"I'm just doing this while I get my degree," he said. "I am tired of kids making more money than me because of a stupid piece of paper." I politely failed to point out that he was being trained by someone half his age that didn't have that stupid piece of paper either.

Curiosity getting the better of me, I hunted down some statistics. Nowadays, people with bachelor's degrees average around $962 a week, and those without degrees make about $595. Now I suppose I could leave it at the fact that plain averages are evidence enough that degrees equal more money, and are worth the money and effort put into earning them. But that would be an error of gargantuan proportions. Remembering that correlations do not necessarily mean causation, I propose an alternate theory.

Those people who actually choose to go to college are the ones who have the motivation necessary to earn themselves high-paying jobs.

Of course there are anomalies of people without degrees, such as Microsoft's Bill Gates, in highly lucrative fields. People with the necessary drive will find the means to become successful, whether it requires them to get a degree, or some alternative method, such as CT certification.

That is not to say that college does not have value. The collegiate experience lays out career options in a well-organized, concise manner to ease the passage of someone into the labor force. It also equips motivated individuals with a variety of tools that will be useful later, such as social skills, deductive and inductive reasoning, and even things as basic as time management.

In comparison with a trade school, it may seem like the outcome of the collegiate experience may not be worth the resources put into it. However, take a look at it this way: People in trade schools do not have the versatility of a college graduate. While they might make more money from the get-go, it is unlikely that they will ever expand their horizons. My boss has been working as a CT/MRI technician for over 20 years. While I'm sure he makes a respectable paycheck, he really hasn't moved upwards within the company since he began his career.

Ultimately, it comes down to the drive of the individual and the way that they choose to orient that drive. Lack of motivation will be duly translated into careers. Conversely, a hunger for success will speed someone -- no matter what their background -- toward success. The only difference is that college makes that success more tangible and easier to obtain. You, proud students of Santa Clara, have the method, the means and the motivation to make an impact anywhere you choose to go.

Ryan Amante is a sophomore marketing major.