Opinion: If you’re rethinking going to college, think again

Graduates at Rutgers University. My father had nothing more than a two-year junior college degree when he turned writing skills learned in the Army into a middle-class life that included bachelor’s degrees for both of his sons. What concerns me is that in cheerleading for noncollege routes to jobs and careers, we may push high school too far in a new direction — awarding diplomas for off-campus apprenticeships, for spending too little time on homework and too much on gaining work and resume experience, or for minimal vocational ed — risking students’ foundation in literature, history, writing, math and languages. That said, there are indeed good jobs available that don’t require four years of college. Nonetheless, the massive wage gap — a 60% difference by age 55 — between those who complete at least four years of college and those who don’t is real.