Smart Woman: Cost of College

January 27th is family literacy day, but with the rising cost of college, sky-high student debt and a bad job market, is higher education even worth the time it takes and money you spend? 

New stats out show that what's even worse than not having a job, is not having a job or a college degree. It all starts here. "We're just here to help you accomplish the dream that maybe you don't even imagine you're going to have. The parents may not even imagine you're going to have." 

And that dream could end here at college. But is all the time, effort and money worth it? A new study from Georgetown University's center on education and the workforce finds that a college degree is the best defense against unemployment. 

Even though the unemployment rate for recent college graduates is 6.8%, the unemployment rate for high school graduates is 24 percent. And nearly 200,000 jobs for workers with at least a bachelor's degree were added during the recession, and two million have been added during the recovery. 

At the same time, nearly four out of every five jobs destroyed by the recession were held by workers with a high school diploma or less. I'm according to the U.S. Census Bureau, by the year 2028, there will be 19 million more jobs for educated workers than there will be qualified people to fill them.  

And if you have a bachelor's degree, it's estimated you will earn more than $1.1 million in your lifetime than people with a high school diploma.