By Estefania Torres |Asst. A&E Editor|

College education is one of the most talked about topics among young adults.

High school graduates are usually faced with the hard decision of either getting their degree or going straight to work.

Some people argue that education is needed to make a decent living, while others believe that education is a waste of money and time.

In the economy that we live in today, an education is needed to live a comfortable life.

“By the year 2020, 65 percent of all jobs in the economy will require post-secondary education and training beyond high school,” according to a report published by Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce titled “Recovery: Job Growth and Education.”

Most well respected jobs require a college degree in order to even submit an application for work.

Companies look for people with an education before ever considering looking into someone without one.

“I think that a degree is important for any professional job. In a sense that even if a degree is not required it will set you apart from anyone else,” said Cierra Lavarias, Administrative Support Coordinator of the Academic Technology and Innovations.

If you lack college education, sometimes an interview would not even be granted to you, leaving the individual zero chances of getting the job.

“My degree is one of the main reasons I have the job that I have. With many state jobs today you are weeded out from everyone else if you don’t have a degree simply through the computer before anyone gets to see it,” added Lavarias.

Computer systems are usually the first to review a resume and are able to detect what the employer wants, and if the resume does not have it, then it will automatically be trashed.

To be fair, there are people who have never received an education or any college degree who hold well respected jobs, and live a financially comfortable life.

However, these people often are confronted with special opportunities and or have some special connections to the job that the average man does not.

Some claim to have these dream jobs because they started from the bottom and worked hard to get to a higher position.

The problem is that you have to work twice, maybe even triple times harder than a person with an education.

It is never promised that your supervisor will notice how hard you work to promote you, so it is a risk that individuals without an education have to take.

In the work place, a degree will set you apart; it will make you noticeable and more unique.

It will broaden your horizon, giving you a greater chance of reaching your goals successfully.

An education will always be yours—nobody can take that away from you.

On the contrary, a job that you worked hard for can easily be taken away from anyone, and it would not be an easy task to change jobs and start all over again.

A job is not always promised, but a degree is.