College Matters

PROVISION

FOR YOUR
LIFE’S JOURNEY

“Education is the best provision for life’s journey” — Aristotle

IS COLLEGE A SCAM?

You’ve probably heard a lot lately about college being a scam. Certainly, some colleges have failed students (and taxpayers).

The late Charlie Kirk raised these concerns in his book The College Scam: How America’s Universities Are Bankrupting and Brainwashing Away the Future of America’s Youth. Whatever one’s politics, he surfaced issues worth grappling with.

Kirk wrote, “As I’ll make clear in this book, not all colleges are equally corrupt or involved in this scam. If every college had a mission statement like that of Hillsdale College, for example, my criticism would be quite different.” He added, “Unfortunately, only a handful of colleges are focused on objective truth, beauty, and traditional morality.”

At Hartwell University, we aspire—humbly—to be among that “handful.” We work for the outcome, not the income. Our aim is a whole-person education that creates real value and serves the common good. We care about the culture we hand to the next generation and about your financial future—which is why our undergraduate tuition at HU is about 61% less than the national average for online degrees from other private institutions, and around 52% less than typical online offerings from public schools.*

Because we believe faith- and morality-guided education matters, we’re glad to help you discern the right school—even if it isn’t HU.

We also know many other institutions that are making deep, meaningful investments in students’ lives. Hats off to them. You can learn more on the Colleges & Universities page of our sister institution, Hartwell Quest.

College doesn’t have to be a scam. Done right, it’s a launchpad to your future.

NOTABLE

STATS TO CONSIDER

We have all heard of self-made millionaires and billionaires who never went to college. They are practically unicorns and you might be one of them.

We believe most of these rare prodigies would’ve been better off learning the sound principles that are foundational to everything money can’t buy.

Statistics from the studies cited below underscore the importance and value of an affordable, no-nonsense education that is grounded in faith and morality.

HIREABILITY

A third of employers have recently raised educational requirements.¹

33% of positions are being filled by workers with master’s degrees that had been primarily filled by people with bachelor’s degrees.²

41% of employers are hiring people who have undergraduate degrees for positions that had mainly been held by those with high school degrees.³

ANNUAL EARNINGS

The poverty rate is 3 times higher for those who only have a high school diploma and not a college degree.⁴

Annual median earnings for those with a bachelor’s degree are 84% higher than those who just have a high school diploma.⁵

UNEMPLOYMENT RATE

For people without a college degree, the unemployment rate is twice as high.⁶

LIFETIME EARNINGS

A recent study finds that earnings generally increase with more education:

Those with a bachelor’s degree typically earn $1.2 million more over their lifetimes than people who just have a high school diploma—those with a master’s degree on average earn $400k more throughout their lives than those with bachelor’s degrees.⁷

IMPACT ON FAITH

We believe the most important stat is the impact the right or wrong college can have on a student’s faith. At least 52% of students who say they are “born again” no longer claim to be after attending a non-Christian institution. This statistic is only 2-4% for students who attended Christian colleges.⁸

“An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.” — Benjamin Franklin

Statistical Sources

* https://educationdata.org/average-cost-of-online-college

COLLEGE MATTERS