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Balancing Out Your Higher Education Passion vs. Pennies Douglas R. Phillips Oklahoma State University

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Balancing out your higher learning Passion vs. Pennies Today, a substantial about of emphasis is put on wealth. A persons life choices are based on wealth and how to obtain it. College has been viewed as a sure thing when it regards guaranteeing wealth and success. This is not true. Career paths, salaries, and return on investment have evolved from a one input one output, to a complicated system of equations. One has to balance the cost of attendance, post-graduate salary, and most importantly, passion for the work. Post-graduate salary is the sole reason most people attend a college. Money drives out economy and way of life. Many people are choosing fields of study based on how much money they are going to make the reality is that people want to see the highest ROI (return on investment) possible (Stainburn, 2013). Anthony P. Carnevale, director of the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce stated, In the last few years, theres been a fairly strong push to have colleges report to students when they pick a major what the labor market performance has been (Stainburn, 2013). Considering college major is very important due to the rapidly rising price of college tuition and everything associated. A single-year college bill now averages $21,657 (Stainburn, 2013). With this gargantuan number, students have to deeply consider what they study and with what university they study. What really matters in your career is much less the college and much more the major. If you go to Harvard and become a schoolteacher, you wont make more than other schoolteachers said Anthony P. Carnevale

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(Stainburn, 2013). Students want to graduate, pay their loans off quickly, and start living their lives. For most this does not happen because the students did not do their research. Passion in the work place makes for a better environment and a better product. If one loves what they do, they will not work a day in their life. This is a truth everyone should live by. If a person is offered 40 thousand dollars a year to do what they love, or offered 70 thousand to do a job that they despise, a person would be much happier with the job they love. Love for a job leads to good work ethic and good product. Therefore the 40 thousand dollar a year job could yield a higher income than the 70 thousand, through promotions and bonuses as a result of passion for the work. The Epoch Times stated: Universities and colleges today are faced with the challenge of preparing students for a rapidly evolving global economy, while at the same time doing so in a cost effective way for our students (Ni, 2012). People are beginning to learn that a traditional 4 year degree witch can be matched or bettered by a 2-year degree, or technical degree. Research on this topic is prevalent. In Texas, a technical or 2-year degree had an average starting pay of 5-11 thousand dollars per year than a 4-year degree in the same field (Steinburn 2013). In Colorado, applied sciences students earned a starting salary of almost 7 thousand more on average than those who had a B.A.s (Stainburn, 2013). So if youre on the fence about getting a bachelors degree, Mr. Schneider said, these technical degrees are something you should explore. Although the ROI of a 2-year degree or technical degree is extremely high and almost immediate, the 4-year degree will make more over the course of a career (Stainburn, 2013). Engineering is field of great passion as well as great compensation. The successful people in this field have a passion for it or they would not have graduated. The discipline

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required for this major is unlike any other. Much of a students time is spent researching and developing engineering skills and principles on their own time. Most keep up to date on the latest technology and are somewhat nerdy. This field also yields some of the highest starting and overall career salaries. There needs to be a balance of passion and pennies. If there is no passion for ones job, no matter how much they make, they will fail to do the job to the best of their abilities. On the other hand, if there is passion for the job and the bills cannot be paid one will likely not succeed. Students have to do their research and be able to incorporate their passion with an economically beneficial career.

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Ni, Kelley Questioning the Viability of Higher Education: Colleges Respond. The Epoch Times. December 13, 2012. www.theepochtimes.com

Stainburn, S. (2013, August 02). Following the money: Calculating the net worth of a college degree. The New York Times, DOI: www.nytimes.com