https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2017/08/29/09/26/choice-2692575_960_720.jpg

[This is a great question](https://money.stackexchange.com/questions/90911/how-can-a-high-school-student-value-a-possible-degree)!!!

>In high school they tell us that college is valuable even if we don't get a high income ("it's about signaling"). A few of these replies seem to imply the opposite and I wish I had heard some of these other views before I began college (are current high school students hearing this?). These replies dumbfounded me a bit, as I've always heard that student loans were justifiable debt, yet a few of these replies state otherwise.

We see stories of kids in debt with $80K in loans and saying they can't get jobs (could be false stories).  The OP wonders if there's a way to assess the value before going to college, instead of borrowing and "hoping for the best!*  I wonder two things about this:

-  Why is college recommended in high school?
-  Why do young people take a huge financial commitment when they don't know themselves that much?

One answer seems more practical - emphasizing a shorter degree path:

>Not always. Borrowing $200K to get a degree in Liberal Arts from a private school is probably a bad idea. Borrowing $10K to finish your degree in Accounting is easier to justify financially, since it should be paid off within a year of getting a job.

How do you feel about how high school students can assess whether they should go to college?

*Image h/t Pixabay*