In today’s world, it seems almost imperative for one to attend a university or some form of higher education after the four years of high school. In most cases, students are pushed to take rigorous academic courses in which they are pressured to succeed. The standard order of a student’s track is, 1) Go to school, 2) Go to college, 3) Get a degree and 4) Find a job. But is higher education necessary for one to be successful in the 21st Century? Does academic triumph in the classroom directly translate to elevated performance in the real world?

The worth of college varies greatly based on what field the person intends on entering. Various fields require years of study and preparation, on top of an average four-year bachelor’s degree. But, even if you obtain a bachelor’s degree, jobs are not guaranteed. As seen in recent years, the percentage of unemployment rates have fluctuated alongside a few categories such as high school dropout, high school degree and bachelor’s degree or higher. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics  in 2017, high school dropouts experienced a 7.5 percent unemployment rate, high school graduates had a 5.3 unemployment rate, and lastly Bachelor recipients had a 2.5 unemployment rate; the number of unemployed fluctuates in wake of the economy’s status (all of the unemployment numbers are down more than 5+ percent from 2010); however, one can infer that the higher education a person achieves the less likely they are to be unemployed.

There are some industries that offer a higher chance for finding work, regardless of a fluctuating economy. Currently, computer science offers the best job rates, at 68.7 percent of bachelor degrees in this field receiving at least one job offer prior to graduation. Moreover, most degrees require numerous years of dedication along with thousands of dollars in student loans. The average student debt after graduating from a bachelors program in 2015 was a staggering $30,100. Let’s hope the graduate was able to find a job and one that paid well enough to start whittling away at the already-accumulated debt.

Classroom performance – in part – translates to performance in a job in the real world. While the data supports employment ‘success’ by means of higher levels of schooling, hard work and determination are better indicators for later success, whether it is working for a great grade on a test or practicing a sport. Success is accomplished when one sets a goal for themselves and either achieves it or finds a new tangent for their personal journey in the world.