Why Wait Years To Become Something?
The article assesses the difference between trade schools and colleges in terms of the cost. It was first published in 2016 by the University at Buffalo in New York. By Meghan Holland and Stephanie DeLuca, the article encourages financially unstable high school graduates to opt for trade schools rather than wait till they acquire enough money for college. It emphasizes the difference in school fees, mainly because a college education is, on average, triple the price of trade school education.
According to the article, a college education is roughly $110,000 for the 4-year courses while trade schools fees range between $30,000 and $33,000 depending on the institution (Holland & DeLuca, 2016). Further, colleges leave most of their graduates with intense debt that end up crippling their financial lives for the better part of their adulthood.
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Tricks of the Trade?
Susan Shain and Ronald Best compare the type of coursework provided by trade schools and that of colleges. The article was published in January 2020 in Denver and featured in the Journal of Financial Planning. According to the article, while colleges offer general education to produce well-educated students, trade schools narrow their coursework to the material necessary for a particular profession.
Shain and Best do not necessarily criticize the colleges' approach. Nevertheless, they commend the quick and accurate manner in which trade schools operate because it allows their students to start working as soon as they graduate (Shain & Best, 2020). Trade schools' coursework also offers on-the-job experience such that a student is familiar with their workplace requirements even before they start working.
On the Path to College
The article was first published in 2001 but has had several republications over the years, the most recent one in 2018. The authors, Alberto Cabrera and Steven La Nasa, are both professors in The Pennsylvania State University where the article was published. This piece assesses the advantages of trade schools over colleges for the less disadvantaged Americans.
According to the article, college education has been glorified by society as the best means of higher education at the expense of other viable forms (Cabrera & La Nasa, 2018). The counseling and education in high schools push students to attain a college education rather than provide them with all the options. The article is relevant to the topic because it compares the attitudes society has towards colleges and trade schools.
In Hard Times, Lured into Trade School and Debt
Peter Goodman wrote the newspaper article for The New York Times in 2017. Like Holland and DeLuca, Goodman addresses the financial difference between trade schools and colleges. However, Goodman dwells more on college student loans and how they affect the students' general financial stability in question. Goodman notes that most college graduates struggle to get employed for the first three years after graduation.
Further, some of the students land in jobs that do not require the knowledge acquired in college. The struggle to get employed reflects on the students' ability to pay off their loans such that some leave large unpaid amounts after their deaths (Goodman, 2017). In comparison, students in trade schools do not need to take loans because the tuition fee is affordable. Trade schools prepare their students for specific jobs, making it easy for them to get employed.
Avoiding Community Colleges
Written by William Morris, the article was first published in 1993 in Wales but has been republished twice since then, the most recent being on 2018. The article is relevant because it focuses on the time bracket for colleges and compares its effectiveness to the shorter period in trade schools (Morris, 2018). Morris' approach is similar to that of Shain and Best since the two articles assess trade schools and colleges' learning methods.
References
Best, R., & Shain, S. (2020). Tricks of the Trade? Journal of Financial Planning, 33 (1), 34-46. Cabrera, A. F., & La Nasa, S. M. (2018). On the path to college: Three critical tasks facing
America's disadvantaged. Research in Higher Education , 42 (2), 119-149.
Goodman, P. S. (2017). In hard times, lured into trade school and debt. New York Times , 13 .
Holland, M. M., & DeLuca, S. (2016). “Why wait years to become something?” Low-income American youth and the costly career search in for-profit trade schools. Sociology of Education , 89 (4), 261-278.
Morris, W. V. (2018). Avoiding community colleges: Students who attend proprietary vocational schools. Community College Journal of Research and Practice , 17 (1), 21-28.
