The Factors Which Influence Students' Decisions To Pursue Or Disregard Post-secondary Education

Xinyuan Song
4/16/2017
Project 3 – Final draft
The factors which influence students’ decisions to pursue or disregard post-secondary education
The employment status is always an important factor used when evaluating the economic ability of a country. According to the data reported from the table of United States Department of Labor, the employment-population ratio of teenagers who are 16-19 years old has increased from 27.9% to 30.9% between March 2016 and March 2017. This indicates that there are more and more students who choose to find jobs after they graduate from High school or even before graduation instead of pursuing secondary education. However, this number just represents the decision of a small portion of students who are over 16 years old. Most of the teenagers choose to pursue the post-secondary education after they graduate from High school. In my opinion, there are three main factors would influence students' decisions of pursuing or disregarding post- secondary education: the family factor, the self-interest factor and the social factor.
The family factor is the most important and realistic factor which influences students’ decision. Basing on the research of Emmeline Zhao, over the last four decades, the cost of college has increased nearly three-fold, rising 5 to 6 percent above the rate of inflation. In 2015-16, average annual tuition and fees were $32,405 for a nonprofit private school and $9,410 for a public school. The expensive tuition over a nonprofit private school and public school is the major difficulty which parents and students encounter when they make decisions to pursue the post-secondary education. The kids who come from middle and lower-income families normally could not afford the tuition of a four-year college, even with the addition of student debt which they applied for. This means that there is a huge number of students who abandon the opportunity of post-secondary education forcefully because of capital deficiency.
However, the expensive tuition is not a serious issue which influences the decision of students who from high-income families. The students who come from high-income families could easily choose their dream college without worry about the tuition. Moreover, the expensive tuition is not the only expense which students need to worry about when they are making the decision. There are lots of expenses among the four years of college, except the tuition. For example, the expense of annual textbooks, the rent of dormitory or apartment where students live in, the utilities which students need to pay for four years and the transportation fee, etc.
Another part of the family factor which would influences the decision of pursuing post-secondary education is the interest of parents. In most of the families, parents' jobs are normally the jobs which kids are most familiar with. The guidance of parents in kids’ childhood would slowly influence the interest of kids day by day. For example, if parents were doctors, kids would choose to pursue the post-secondary education, because they need to acquire medical knowledge from higher education. On the contrary, if parents were handicraftsman that works at home, kids would possibly disregard secondary education and learn professional skills from their own parents.
The second primary factor which would influence the decision of secondary education is self-factor. This factor includes self-interest and self-ability. In the most of the time, student's self-interest is a significant factor which would influence their final decision. Some kids had already decided the job which they want to do in the future when they were studying in high school. They have a clear self-consciousness of their future blueprint so that they could make their decisions based on different situations. Some of the jobs have strict requirements which require students to have professional knowledge that they could only learn it from college. On the other hand, some jobs do not require professional knowledge but just simple tool handling skills for instance craftsmanship. The students who have made decisions on the later jobs will disregard higher education and focus on obtaining these skills after high school.
The other factor under the personal factor is aspirations and goals of a student. Persistence in education has been influenced by clear occupational aspirations in life. The thoughts of students on the level of education regarding their careers play a vital role when it comes to students applying for higher education. The students whose choices of careers require higher professional knowledge and skills like in the field of medicine or Engineering will opt for higher education. Those whose career choices can only be fulfilled with high school education level are good to go. The other factor is the uncertainties in t...