By: Matthew Willarch
OwlFeed Journalist

College—the first step to adulthood and the rest of your life. Now that you’re in high school thinking about college has never been so relevant and scary for a lot of you and understandably so at that. From thinking about what college to go to, how long you intend on going, what you’ll major in, and to how you’re gonna pay for college it can be a very stressful process. Although I believe there is one question that’s often not asked; is college worth it at all?

I’m sure if you’ve made it this far in life then I don’t need to explain what college is. And if you’re interested in the opposite perspective, my fellow OwlFeed writer Miranda Cavada wrote an article on the importance of college that is linked for your viewing pleasure. But for now let’s talk about whether or not college is worth the trouble for someone like you, yes you.

The answer in most cases leans on the idea that no it isn’t worth it. In an article written in the Washington Post, Professor Steven Pearlstine stated, ¨Americans waste hundreds of billions of dollars a year on a higher-education system that teaches too little to too many.¨

College is expensive especially for those of us that come from low income families which unfortunately grows everyday. In many cases people scrape by to afford college just to find out they can’t afford to be in college, with expenses on living arrangements, food, and supplies you may only be buying the most expensive mistake of your entire life.

The usual alternative to a typical university are community colleges. These are facilities that  require no specific GPA standing and proves to be more affordable than other forms of college.

So what might be the downfall of that? Well like regular college in all honesty the dropout rate is extremely high. Insidehighered.com stated, ¨Full-time community college students graduate at a rate of 57 percent within six years.¨ One thing that a lot of people don’t realize is that even if you dropout of college, community or otherwise, you still have to pay your debts. This means any loans that you may have piled up will follow you and I PROMISE you, they WILL get their money, even if you file for bankruptcy your student loan debt will follow you to your actual grave. PAY YOUR DEBTS I only say it because I love all of you.

Any-hoodle one crucial thing that you need to think about before or during college is what field you might want to dive into. The Washington Post went on record saying that on average only twenty seven percent of college graduates get a job in their field of study. So you have loans for a job that requires a college diploma but you have a job that only requires a high school diploma. Which can make it very difficult to pay it off successfully.

So my advice for life advice: Make sure to be sure.