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Which one is better? Bachelor’s degree or Vocational degree.

In the recent year, the “College-for-all” becomes a fixed mindset among most high school students. For those low-achieving students, they might get some basic information about community colleges or other vocational institutions, but they choose go to four-year college because they think getting Bachelor’s degrees are their best options. However, some educators suggest bachelor’s degree is better because there are lots of job opportunities and higher salaries to students with BAs. By increasing rapidly of the four-year college tuitions, some educators argue that a vocational degree is more profitable because AAs require lower costs, less time studying, and help students to find jobs faster after they graduate. Therefore, there are many different perspectives and arguments toward bachelor’s degree and vocational degree. As a whole, high school students need to consider all factors and benefits before they apply colleges, and finally choose the suitable one.

There is a debate between bachelor’s degrees and associate degrees when high school students apply colleges, and they need to consider the pros and cons for both degrees. An article raises a question: between bachelor’s degree and vocational degree, which one is better? “Can a two-year degree be more valuable than a four-year degree?” by Michelle Adam, she raises the doubt about the two-year degree and four-year degree, because lots of high school students always think community college is not good because there are students who don’t have money to afford colleges, or couldn’t get into four-year colleges. It is really important to let all high school students to also know more benefits of community colleges. Then Adam uses several of data to compare the earnings between students who graduated from community college and who graduate from four-year colleges. She is surprised by the first year wage earning of two-year degree is so much higher than the first year wage earning of your-year degree. Students need to think about their future before they consider choose four-year colleges, because four-year college tuition is so much higher, and some students even have to borrow student loans to pay. Therefore, It is not worth borrowing loans to get degrees if students can’t even get a job or make money after they graduate.

On the other hand, today’s society has higher competitiveness between college students, because most students earned a bachelor’s degree when they seek for jobs. In her article, Adam also talks about today’s society has been changed, and employment pressure becomes increases each year. She quotes: Mark Schneider, the president of College Measures – a partnership between the American institutes for Research and Matrix Knowledge Group, he says: “when I was in school, many decades ago, the economy was easy and everyone got a job and it was assumed you got a bachelor’s degree. Today people need jobs and a salary and can’t assume any longer that going to college is going to get them these things. It’s a whole new world” (Adam, P. 2). It is completely new society today, lots of students graduate from four-year college but they still can’t find jobs after they graduate. The situation is students paying so much tuition in colleges but they are not even guarantee to find jobs. Adam raises a thoughtful question, and his article warns students need to get information as much as possible to make sure they have the best choice.

Most people believe more education leads to higher pay in our society, but sometimes it is not true. Lisa Hudson is an education statistician at the National Center for Education Statistics. Based on her article “Connecting jobs to education”, she uses some statistical graphs to support her argument that a bachelor’s degree is not the only springboard to find jobs. Some jobs can still pay more than average salary are not require a bachelor’s degree. In Hudson’s article, she mainly talks about many higher-paying jobs are technical or supervisory, and they do not require a bachelor’s degree. There were only 21% of jobs that required a bachelor’s degree or higher degree, and rest of them only required vocational degree, associate degree or other trainings. So a bachelor’s degree is not a must for jobs anymore. On the other hand, Hudson believes that no degree does not mean low pay in reality, and sometimes some sub-baccalaureate jobs offer pay that is higher than average. For example, Hudson uses the bar chart to show different amount of median annual earnings from most workers (no bachelor’s degree) age 25-44. The median earnings for all jobs are around $28,580, but all workers’ salaries were above the median earning, and the lowest paying job was a welder, which earned around $31,000 per year, and the higher paying job was dental hygienist, which earned around $59,000 per year. Most high-paying jobs do not require bachelor’s degree, and people do not need to blindly believe in “BAs-for-all”. Getting a bachelor’s degree is not the only way to find high-paying jobs in today’s society.

For those students have poorer school performances, or come from low-income families, they consider community college as their first option. Community college costs lower than four-year college, do not require huge amounts of student loans, and students only spend about two years to graduate. Community college not only provides variety of programs and classes to earn associate degrees or specific credentials, but also helps students to find technical jobs immediately after they graduate. In the chapter, “The economics of community college labor market: A Primer” by Hirschel Kasper, Kasper concludes that community college provides professional and vocational programs to help students have more career opportunities, and how community college could improve. Community college is a good choice to students who are facing financial difficulty, because it requires lower tuitions, and especially campus are usually near where they live, so students can save money on housing. After graduate, community college is also a workable way to help students find local jobs. Kasper writes: “it is likely that community college students observe enough to gain a workable idea about the relative earnings jobs in their local areas” (P. 8). In general, community college is a good choice to help students who had financial issues or had poor grades in high school find jobs in their communities.

Sometimes students from community colleges can find jobs that pay higher than jobs require a bachelor’s degree unexpectedly. In the article of “The value of Sub-baccalaureate Credentials” by Mark Schneider, he uses some specific data to show that lower degree in education has lower market value, but now students who earned credentials or associate degrees will earn middle-class wages, and sometimes even earn more than students with bachelor’s degrees. Particularly in Texas, Schneider argues that students with associate degrees earn more than students with baccalaureate degrees in the first year. From the information he provides, students with a associate degree earn $32,000 in the first year and borrow $14,000 in student loans to graduate, but students with baccalaureate degrees only earn $31,000 in the first year, but borrow loans around $27,000. On the other hand, students only spend 4.7 years to get associate degrees, but other students might spend 5.4 years to get a baccalaureate degree. Overall, community college is not a bad choice to students from low-income families, or don’t want to borrow high amount of student loans.

Community college becomes a considerable option to students in the recent years, but it raises a lot of questions regarding how students perform after they graduate from community college. People used to think community college is not good, because it is cheaper than four-year colleges, and provides less high-level classes. For those students currently studying in community college but they want to continue studying in four-year college, they also face so many obstacles to achieve educational attainment, such as poor preparation for college-level studying. Students do have to think about the harms of community college, and how community colleges affects them in the future expectation of jobs. In “The effects of community colleges: Aid or Hindrance to socioeconomic attainment?” by Kevin Dougherty, By comparing several studies and data, Dougherty concludes that students in community colleges tend to be less educationally and economically than students who in four-year college, and he uses models to explain why students in community colleges hinders their educational attainments. Community college mostly focuses on vocational trainings, so students become educated differently than students who in four-year college. Besides that, don’t believe in first year incomes theory (Schneider, P. 3), students have to choose four-year colleges if they still want to find higher paying jobs. Like Dougherty says: “generally, baccalaureate aspirants entering community colleges secure significantly fewer bachelor’s degrees, fewer years of education, less prestigious jobs, and in the long run, poorer paying jobs than comparable students entering four-year colleges” (P. 100). Besides that, some specific data from Mark Schneider’s article, he compared the annual wages between students with associate degrees and students with baccalaureate degrees at year 10, students with AAs earn about $56,000 per year, but students with BAs earn around $69,000 per year (Schneider, P. 2). Therefore, four-year college is a secure way to find high paying jobs in the long run. Community college might be a workable way to find jobs, but more education indeed brings higher paying jobs in today’s society.

Before apply colleges, high school students need to get all information of four-year colleges and community colleges, and make the best decisions based on individual situation. If students have well family incomes and good learning ability, a bachelor’s degree is the best choice because four-year colleges not only improve their personal skills, but also help them to find higher paying jobs in the future. Conversely, students have poor financial supports or have lower learning ability, a vocational degree is a good choice because community colleges and vocational institutions provide variety of occupational programs and job opportunities to them. In summary, don’t blindly believe a bachelor’s degree is the only way to get jobs, so students need to choose wisely depend on their own needs.