More than a degree
The college experience provides opportunities for personal and intellectual growth
Eric Boose / Opinion Editor / The USD Vista
As tuition costs steadily rise at colleges and universities across the country and massive, ever-increasing student debt is increasingly hailed as a crisis, it would be easy to question what makes higher education worth the cost. One of the long-standing narratives surrounding higher education implies that the payoff for a college education is the promise of a relatively secure job with good wages upon graduation. However, such a one-dimensional narrative of the value of higher education also reduces colleges and universities to little more than job factories.
The economic value of a bachelor’s degree is well documented. Georgetown University estimates that 80 percent of students who graduated with a bachelor’s degree in 2017 are employed, and will earn an average of $32,000 more per year than their peers with only a high school education. However, there is more value to a college education than the numbers show. This value is abstract, and it is up to each person to seek out for themselves. Broadly, this value of a college education can be summed up as “opportunity” – opportunity to grow both professionally and personally, developing and defining who you are both intellectually and socially, and the opportunity to be independent without being alone.
The value of these opportunities is hard to quantify partially because it is so variable. Each student will have experiences which they find most valuable, and some students will find more value in their education than others. Some students may immediately recognize the non-economic value of their education, while others may not realize it until years after graduation. The opportunities that students have will also vary between universities. Transfer students will have different experiences to build on than students who spend their entire college career at one institution.
While finding value at the University of San Diego is up to each individual student, there are elements of this campus which would be good places to start looking. USD, especially as a liberal arts university, is an academic institution above all else. As such, professors often encourage students to think critically and independently apply the material they learn. For some, this may seem impractical – the ivory tower of academia impeding students from gaining specific job-related skills. On the other hand, when would the ability to apply one’s knowledge to solve problems not be a practical skill? Furthermore, job-specific skills only benefit students who enter a field closely related to their field. If college was little more than job training, an English degree would be of little use to a student interested in being something other than an English teacher. A degree is not a destiny, but skills like critical thinking, communicating ideas, and absorbing information are universal.
It should not be surprising that a university presents opportunities for its students to develop both academically and intellectually. It should also be noted that students will develop specific skills and knowledge in their field along with more abstract, universal skills. However, the college experience is comprised of much more than lectures, homework, and projects. For many students, college is an intermediate step between living at home and being fully independent. While students live mostly on their own, campus resources provide not only a safety net to fall back on, but also opportunities to expand social networks.
Dorm living is a staple of the undergraduate experience, but USD goes one step further by intertwining social and academic life through Living Learning Communities (LLCs). The goal of LLCs is to jump-start students’ social development by grouping students with common interests in the same residence hall and in LLC-exclusive classes. If living in close proximity was not enough, students will have the opportunity to socialize with their peers through residence hall events, and occasionally events which pertain to the LLC’s specific theme. Such social and academic proximity streamlines the establishment of friend groups and larger community, ideally leading students to feel comfortable in the early stages of their college career.
The encouragement of critical thinking and the establishment of community are both opportunities presented to students essentially on a silver platter. While these resources will be valuable for some students, there will also be students who struggle to find that value. For those struggling to find value in the opportunities they are presented, there is little else to do but look for different ones. For those who find the unquantifiable value of their college experience quickly, the next step is to search for more of that value.
Ultimately, the value that any one student gets out of their college education is determined by the work done in search for that value. There is value to be found on this campus, whether in the resources designed by the university, through independent exploration, or through some combination of the two. The key question is to ask how we view our college experience. Are we viewing it as just a ticket to be punched, something to mark off a checklist? Look for what lies beyond that. See the opportunity to be independent, to grow and learn, and to do it all in a community.