Now a day the cost of attending college is absurd, let alone continuing your education with graduate or doctoral programs. I strongly believe that leadership comes with education and knowledge; however, I am not saying that leadership cannot already be instilled in individuals. However, with the cost of education and the acceptance of compiling huge amounts of student loans, is the dime that tags along with the fancy credentials deterring students from obtaining degrees?

According to the collegechoice.net (2016) the cost of a college bachelor’s degree has gone up 500 % since 1982 with some states tuitions rising more than 80% per academic year! What is even more astonishing is that the rate at which tuition is rising is not matching the inflation rate. For example, if college tuition was to rise at the same rate as inflation, and tuition was approximately $10,000 in 1982, the cost of that same tuition today would be around $24,00 (collegechoice, 2016).

The problem is that with college becoming so expensive, it is preventing individuals who have desires to go on to graduate and doctoral programs such as medical and law school from doing so because they do not want to acquire mass amounts of debt. So overall how does this relate to leadership? According to Redmond (2016), “research shows that more intelligent leaders are faster learners, make better deductions, and are better at developing strategies to make their vision a reality” and furthermore, leaders of high intelligence are shown to accomplish group goals more effectively than less intelligent leaders. Education = intelligence (or at least a good portion of it).

With that said, if the price of an education continues to rise, more and more individuals will sway away from the idea of obtaining a college education, specifically post-graduate and doctoral degrees and ultimately we will have less intelligent and successful leaders.

References

The Rising Cost of College. (2016, February 3). Retrieved January 19,    2016, from http://www.collegechoice.net/the-rising-cost-of-       college/

Redmond, B. (2016) Lesson 2: Trait Approach [Lecture Lessons]. Retrieved from             https://courses.worldcampus.psu.edu/sp16/psych485/002/toc.html