Satisfying the financial burden or benefit of a college education is one common objective for many Americans. It is certainly a common aspiration for our clients. So, we thought it would be an interesting idea to ask our summer Intern, Ben, to provide his perspective on his current experience, a rising junior at Emory University. Here is what he has to say.

The college experience holds various lessons, memories and connotations to everyone because each journey is inherently slightly different, just like anything in life. In this, I’ve learned that everyone has a morsel of advice based on their own experience. Because I am only halfway through college, my overall impression will likely change over the next four semesters when I anticipate a degree in Spanish and Business. But at this halfway mark, I’m happy to share my impression so far. With an admitted idyllic viewpoint, I believe that the most that we can get out of college is an open mind, intellectual curiosity, a wide array of friends, and the beginnings to a future we’re currently passionate about. But so far a lot of the focus has been directly a minimizing risk and paying more attention to what needs to be avoided, as opposed to exploring and taking risks that allow for students to find their true potential. A majority of my friends seem to play a safe class registration game in order to perform academically and land a good stable job – without ever exploring other paths. My freshman year, I was one hundred percent a part of this mindset too. I took one class that met just twice a week because a sophomore told me it was basically an easy A. Why take a chance on failing or putting work into a class just to get an ok grade when this was a sure thing? At the time, it made perfect sense to me – less work, easy A, better GPA (and we all know GPA’s are all that matters, right?). Despite this prior conception, just two classes in, I realized that it was the most boring, unbearable class I could have taken much less imagined. In fact, during one of the unbearable lectures, my friend and I divided our tuition costs from that semester to a per class cost, just to see what we were spending on this fine experience. The answer? $700 each class for 1.5 hours of time. We figured it was the equivalent of handing the professor (I know most if it goes to the university, but just for examples sake) a check for that amount at the end of each class. What a scam! Every lecture thereafter I could only think about the $700 check, the value of my education and what I really valued about my college experience. What is an education? A glorified piece of paper or something more?

The statistics definitely show that a college education is valued in our society. An individual who does not graduate from high school earns on average $23,452, an associate’s degree earns about the U.S. average wage of $41,444 per year, a four-year college graduate earns on average $55,000 per year and people with post-graduate degrees, master’s degrees, and PhD’s, earn $65,000 per year and beyond. So clearly college is worth it for monetary and opportunistic reasons, bringing it a large amount of value. However, many of these opportunities can come from an alumni base and career connections, so does that come from the brand of the college or it is implied from the fact I’m learning and changing?

So I had the belief that the value essentially just came from what I was going to be making after college and it took me awhile to separate from this mindset. I was doing great academically and weekends were fun, but I didn’t feel different or evolved like I anticipated stepping on the pristine grass on the quad wearing my new college T-shirt. As a freshman, I believed that going through the motions of college, but not investing myself deeply or just sticking to one point of view, would open the doors for me. So the value, must just really be how much I make after college. Soon, I realized that naïve belief was not true. I realized the unmeasurable assets and qualities we accumulate, the things that cannot necessarily be put on paper, add a huge amount of intrinsic value to college. One of these beautiful and unmeasurable traits that college can give us is the ability to guide us to find new passions or perspectives that lead us to a whole new unintended path. This gives us an open-mind and starts the gears in our head that yearn for more discovery. My passions during college were ignited by going to Spain and being open to complete cultural and lingual immersion and it was one of the best experiences of my life. I was also exposed to an Art History course that I had to take for a requirement, which turned out to be one of my favorite courses. Whether volunteer causes or social gatherings, once I realized how much I was benefiting from each experience at college as a person, I began to see each event more as opportunity for learning, rather than just being something to get through.

Many say the education is the great equalizer and it is indispensable. But ultimately it is up to us to use to its full power and squeeze everything out of it to lead a more enriching life. By this logic this makes the value different for each student. You can buy a Ferrari, but if you only ever drive it slow and cautiously down one road, are you really getting everything out of it? You’ll get where you’re going, but you’ll never know how fast you can go or the new places all around you. That is how I view the value of college.