Click here for the other side of Point-Counterpoint: “Maybe you can put a price on education.”

The current outlook for a college graduate is understandably bleak given the economic state of affairs in our country. Yet, if the ultimate desire of any individual is to work immediately rather than acquire a degree, I have a simple solution: Get a job. Easier said than done, predominantly due to the fact that outside of the trade-skills professions a college degree is required for even the most mundane pencil-pushing position.

Regardless of how one feels about that specific situation the fact remains that the current professional landscape of corporate America requires it. Indeed, the new trend among most professions is the requirement of even further education after a bachelor’s degree, but fear not: Many employers are ponying up the dough to cover these mostly superfluous obligations.

The truth is that higher education is most specifically an environment to promote the evolution of a higher development of the mind and to serve as an impetus to individuals searching for a purpose in life and potentially their occupation. The college experience has been more skewed in the direction of socializing, networking and acquiring life experiences in recent times but I have to say that those too sound appealing and only add to the grandeur of what is the incalculable benefits of acquiring a degree from a college or university. First and foremost the university should be an environment in which the propagation of a distinct philosophy, ideology, and methodology flourish.

The tools which will assist in guiding you throughout the course of your professional and adult life are forged in the smithy of the mind and utilized in innumerable ways throughout the course of ones life. The triumph of an educatated and rational decision are most often the result of the completion of a mental concept attained from rigorous experiences in scholastic work.

Beyond the overlooked benefits of shaping the mental models of an individual’s comprehensive analytical process, the scholastic college experience is shared with countless peers, which offers even further benefits. Beyond the obvious fact that deep ties and strong relationships are furnished while attending most higher learning institutions, that often times stand the test of time throughout one’s life there is the more direct professional and self-serving benefit of networking.

Networking in the contemporary professional world is not necessary for  a successful career by any means, but most would argue that it helps navigate the vast scale of the job landscape that new graduated college students are thrust upon.

Many argue that the cost of higher learning institutes are now spiraling out of control and a substantial obstacle to the potential benefits of cost returns for acquiring a degree. Yet, according to the College Board there are over 7,000 higher learning institutes, surely within the expansive selection choices available an option exists that is capable of fitting the monetary specificities of varying applicants. Loans too have been a reoccurring nightmare for most students within the contemporary collegiate congregation that leave many members contemplating the true value of higher education. I would argue that a rational examination of the overall expenses of any institute made by a potential applicant would furnish results favorable to most individuals seeking the benefits of higher education. That is to say that affordable education at a collegiate level exists to most who seek it as long as they take into account the total cost and balance the allure of larger or more prominent universities for lower costs with equally enticing benefits, particularly those of preferential positions while vying in the job market. Acquiring a degree from an institute of higher learning does not necessarily transform an individual into a Brobdingnagian of potential business applicants but it will allow for an individual to compete, whereas the lack of an accredited degree will not. Unless you want to go into a trade-skills profession such as carpentry or plumbing then unfortunately or not you will need a degree for most contemporaneous professions.

The allure of a college education in the pretext of the modern era revolves around the potential prospects of professional life and garnering the highest possible salary. I would argue that the value of the higher education experience is not quite as simple as that and even if those desires are the preferential aspirations of those of you in college then you may feel like the cost is not equivocal to the end results.

The auxiliary vindications in my view are just as potent an incentive to attend a college. The long lasting friendships and consequential networking are considerably corny but in the end a real benefit of a college experience, and a potentially helpful link to the next step in life. Yet, I would still argue that despite arguments proposing decreasing education benefits of higher schooling that the learning environment still permeates campuses nationwide and that what we learn here is truly incalculable to measure it’s worth throughout the course of our lives.

Sean Canty is a UMass student. He can be reached at [email protected].